This was presented in June 2012 at the APG's 'Noisy Thinking' evening in London. It was part of a debate on 'Global or Local Planning - Which Would You Rather Do?' with Guy Murphy and Jackie Hughes. The accompanying short teaser is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL_PSY2bKZM&feature=plcp

1. Research among global/
wandering planners
John Shaw, Rapier
From the APG s Noisy Thinking event on the topic of
Global or Local Planning ‒ Which Would You Rather Do?

2. 49 planners (mostly heads/CSO) with
experience of global planning or
working abroad (mostly both)
(speaker notes in italics throughout)

3. Most valuable things about global/
multi-country planning
(cultural variation is important: but so are big challenges like scale & complexity)

4. Dirt
authentic and gritty
to Western youth
old-fashioned and undeveloped
in Chile
coal dust in the lungs
to Australian miners

5. http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=G1latJ7K8zc
(This is also a story about dirt…)

6. (The Sprite campaign was originally developed for a small
number of Asian countries including China. It was very
successful and eventually ran in over 50 markets.
However, the original commercial did not run in China. Its
gritty, urban, slightly dirty feel was not considered
culturally appropriate and a cleaner version
incorporating bright colours, celebrities, and a helicopter
was successfully used instead. To many in China at the
time, dirt symbolised lack of development. Although
some younger urban Chinese understood the reverse
aspiration that might come from grit, Sprite is historically
strong throughout China, partly because it tastes better
than Coke unrefrigerated. Not stuff we knew at first.)

7. the US team viewed us with fear and
suspicion to start with but by the end
they were producing brilliant work and
drinking as much as the Brits of an
evening
(when the British travel, we feel it is our mission to persuade
citizens of other nations to drink as much as we do)

8. Discos in Mexico City, Latam parties
in NY, F1 in Rio, coffee on the hill
looking over the Forbidden City,
Grand Hyatt 86th floor restaurant
with Tokyo as backdrop, lying by the
pool in Rio...what more could a poor
boy from Manchester wish for?
(an honest view, possibly
shared by more than admitted it)

9. No one is quite sure where
I am or ought to be
(I know this feeling. You may not be in control of your
schedule but there is a strange freedom in being
nowhere to be found.)

10. Microsoft launch of windows 95. 5
countries asked about what they think
about the future of computing.
Women all worried about the impact
on creating a deeper divide between
the have and the have nots. Men,
excited for possibilities of a more
competitive tool that will help them
and their children get ahead.
(doing global work can make it easier to see what the
really big human themes are)

11. and to think that it all happened with
the planner in SG, the creatives in Lon
and the client in Chicago!
(to some people this would be a nightmare, not a positive.
But it s satisfying when it works.)

12. Interviewing a young lad in his
Mumbai apartment where a mattress
was his only real possession other
than a Sony digital camera. His
pictures were amazing…
(global can give access to new experiences like this. But
you have to fight hard to get into the real world, not just
the hamster wheel of airport/office/bar/hotel). My own
version of this follows on the next two slides…)

15. (when I got out for a day in Mumbai, the helpful people at
Ogilvy Outreach took me to a chaul , a not strictly legal
dwelling that can nevertheless be bought and sold. This
one contained three generations in two rooms and from
the outside it looked a bit doubtful. But inside I found a
kitchen a lot more orderly than my own, and a family
working very hard to pay for private education. It was a
good reminder that appearances can be deceptive, and
of the value of first-hand experience.)

16. My first day on the global xxxx
business, the singapore client asked
me to apologize to the entire room
because she said I made them feel
stupid they did not understand my
strategy. That was a pretty unusual
start. From there, I realized a strategy
was only as good as the culture that
can absorb it.
(again more nightmare than joy, but valuable)

17. Worst things about
global/multi-country planning
(you d expect the travel, but you d better also be prepared for bureaucracy and
politics, and for many challenges in getting great work. The work featured more
in worst things than among the positives. LCD = lowest common denominator.)

18. out to watch groups on the Concorde,
back that night on the Redeye

19. Just those huge meetings, in
windowless rooms with cookies the
size of your face to break up the
boredom.

20. Way too big meetings. Way too many
layers of people. This absurd business
of 'comments'; that just encourages
people to 'comment' usually negatively.
No decisions. A sense that you're not
actually developing ads to run out there
in the real world but just developing ads
for a good meeting.
(this was one of the bleaker views, and there s satisfaction
when those things are overcome. But sometimes it feels like
you have at least one hand tied behind your back)

21. At its worst, working on a multi-
country business is like having to host
a successful dinner with the Borgias,
the Simpsons and the Adams Family
as guests. Keeping a coherent
conversation and reaching a
consensus on anything are only part
of the challenge and sources of stress..

22. Most valuable things about
working in a different country
(there was quite a variety of response here and some of the
themes are big ones; learning, personal growth, a new life)

23. being much more connected to
creative work internationally
an appreciation from first hand of
iconic and world class things

24. The weather, food, feeling liberated
and free from the rules in this country.
A feeling that anything is possible. In
the UK people talk you out of doing
things unless you are amazing. We are
a very critical nation. In the US people
respect you for having a go, even if
you're crap at first.

25. Probably not what you mean, but:
apparently I'm a lot nicer in French. A
creative director I only ever spoke to
in French, was taking a new job that
meant he had to learn English. He
asked me to speak to him in English,
but quickly asked me to go back to
French. Apparently I'm a softer, more
gentle person in French…
(so if you re ever getting mad at your French colleagues,
remember that they probably sound nicer in French too)

26. you become part of a tribe of people
who get it - they are an open, curious
tribe of people. to be an immigrant is
a universal mindset, whether you're in
advertising or you drive a cab. for
most it's hard to go back to living in
the same way when you go
(even if this sounds a bit elitist, for me there s truth in it.
You always feel a bit different for having adapted to
somewhere else)

27. Worst things about working
in a different country
(actually, not that much, from our movers, except some
loneliness at times and the need to stick with it for a while.)

28. living an E.T. kind of life - land in a
strange place, get distracted by new
things, get marooned, get adopted by
kids who dress you up in strange
clothes, manage to learn enough
language to get by, and eventually
escape being cut open by the dissectors
(I suppose if I d wanted to I could have inserted an image
here of someone being dissected. But I decided against it)

29. Being effectively deaf, dumb and
illiterate (in China)

30. I had a very cool pair of retro slacks that I
thought made me look hip. I later learned
people thought they were incredibly daggy.
(Like a good globalist I thought I should look up
what daggy means, exactly )

31. (it s probably the first time the phrase neglected sheep s anal region
has been used in an APG talk. See, global means you learn stuff)

32. It was just a lot more difficult for your
personality to come through. It took a long
time to be able to use charm, humour,
irony or nuance of any description.
(I think it s a myth that Americans, for example, don t
understand irony. But we Brits may not get to use it as much as
we love to)

33. god this is like therapy. forcing everyone
to speak YOUR language when you are the
only English speaker present. I know
English is the 'business language', but it
puts a strain on building a strong
relationship. We work in comms, yet they
couldn't always express themselves as
fluently as they deserved to.
(my plan was for it to feel like therapy, so it worked. But it is
indeed embarrassing to see really smart people forced to use
English when it rarely works the other way round)

34. Global is not just about the cultures,
it s about the scale.
It s big time.
But the costs are not just personal
(there are compensations) but in how
you work, and often in the work itself

35. Actually going to live and work abroad
is a bigger step
It might change your life

36. But you re curious aren t you?
(because you re a planner)

37. (for my own views, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=RL_PSY2bKZM&feature=plcp)