32. PEBBLES OF WISDOM
By Steve Price
(yes, I’m aware that’s a pearl necklace Sandoz)
33. Floating, but aligned, quirky, crowd
pleasing image tenuously link optional AMBIGUOUS TITLE
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HOW PEBBLES OF WISDOM LOOKS
37. SHARE IDEAS
(he says, ironically ‘borrowing’ this image from the 99percent.com site)
38. NETWORK
(see slide 7)
N.B. no out of work Male Toilet symbols were harmed during the rendering of this image (‘borrowed’ from google)
39. IGNORE WHAT THEY SAY
“The only effective way to understand what people truly mean is to ignore what they say...”
This is why polls and surveys are often misleading (like briefs) because they simply reflect
what people say, rather than what they mean.”
Clothaire Rapaille
45. REMOVE THE EGO
“Give up all bad qualities in you, banish the ego and develop
the spirit of surrender. You will then experience Bliss.”
Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Spiritual leader, b.1926)
Captain Ray Lewis, retired police officer arrested at occupy Wall St,\nMona Eltahawy – journalist egypt\n
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I started thinking about the subject of frustration and disappointment, and what the thing that upsets me the most is.\nFor me, and I guess for a lot of people here, the worst thing is when our ideas don’t see the light of day.\n\n
Over the last 20 years in this industry, I certainly have plenty of ideas that resulted in a big fat...\n
Ok, so some of them were not that good but some of them really were.\nI guess it’s all part of what we do but, even after all this time, it still stings.\n
But great stuff does get sold in.\nAnd not just great stuff - quirky, daring, ‘likely to be banned’ and technologically ambitious stuff.\n
So, I’ve been thinking about the difference between a client saying no and yes, and if we can do anything to influence it.\nThe first time I remember thinking ‘how did they sell that in?’ was 15 years ago and it was for a campaign that everyone here will still be very familiar with.\n
It’s a much-talked about campaign, and I’m sure I don’t need to give you a complete history of it, but we all know that its success lies in the fact that it encourages people to say that they hate the product - thereby encouraging those who love it to shout about it.\nA lot of people here will not have been working in the industry when it came out, so here’s how it started.\n
And, of course, it’s also led to a host of product innovations, and brilliant stuff in other channels - like the wonderful Marmarati campaign.\n
(sorry!)\nIn the case of Marmite, the idea was conceived and presented long before it was bought.\nWe know that finding the idea was the difficult bit and because of that, we often don’t spend enough time thinking about how to present it. We tend to assume that if the idea is good, it doesn’t matter what we say.\nI know it sounds obvious, take some time to think about how you’re going to tell the story, and simplify it as much as you can. If you’re not presenting it yourself, then think about how you would like the story to be told on your behalf.\nMatt said that one of the most frustrating things is when an idea gets lost among multiple mechanics. I know how easy it is for that to happen - particularly in digital so, once again, keep it simple. A ten minute well structured presentation is very often better than one that takes an hour to get through.\n\n\n
So don’t take the easy route and blame them for not ‘getting it’. \n
Ok, ok, you’ll occasionally come across one but generally your client will be someone who is as passionate about their work as you are.\nAnd, they will probably know a lot more about their brand, audience and business issues than you do - they live and breathe them every day.\nYes, sometimes it helps to be the outsider (we’ll come to that in a second) but if you try listening to them, you might learn something.\n
Clients are very often thinking about their brands in terms of where they want them to be, not where they are now.\nFor example, when this partnership was made there was initial reluctance from Guinness. That reluctance came from a fear of publicly saying that their brand was a ‘love it or hate it’ brand!\nRemember that they might be seeing or hearing something completely new, something that doesn’t fit with their preconceptions. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t challenge those preconceptions - but if you do, remember that you might be frightening the hell out of them.\n\n\n
This was the strongest point made by my interviewee at Unilever. He said that he wants, whenever possible, to have a direct relationship with the creative team.\n He actually said that he hates the firewall that is sometimes created between clients and creative team by account directors.\n There are a couple of reasons for that.\n Firstly, on some projects, a collaborative environment makes for much better work.\n Secondly, if he is given an idea that is controversial and will be difficult to sell to the business, he wants to trust the people who are delivering it.\n \n
Which brings me to my final example of ‘how did they get away with that?’ - another old favourite.\n Funnily enough, this is the same client but a different agency. The agency worked on this, they basically told the client that this wasn’t viewed as food, it was ‘fuel’ - for grabbing before you head to the pub. A kind of necessary evil. If that relationship with the client hadn’t existed then we very likely wouldn’t have got to enjoy this ad.\n \n \n
Thanks, and I hope there were a few ideas that will help you get a big positive yes next time.\n
