What is it that makes wieden + kennedy so different, so appealing?

Notes de l'éditeur

1. So, what is it that makes Wieden + Kennedy so different, so appealing?What makes some clients keen to work with us?And some clients think they could never work with us?And is any of that relevant to any of you in a new business context?Well, hopefully I can explain some of that in the next 380 seconds.0.20
2. These are the two guys who started the place. David Kennedy and Dan Wieden.They started with no guiding principle other than to make great work for inspiring clients.Buttodays we’re one of the world’s leading creative agencies: Adweek’sglobal agency of the year 2012.So I think it helps to be very clear and focused about what you stand for.0.40
3. We tell our people and our clients that we’re here to do the best work of our lives.We’re not interested in settling for ‘good enough’.We make it clear upfront that’s what we’re here for.Because some clients don’t want the difficulty that comes with aiming for extraordinary.We try to be clear from the start about expectations.1.40
4. We have a network of only eight offices. These days. that makes us big enough to act as lead global agency for huge clients like Nike, Coke and P&G.If you want an agency with 150 offices round the world, we’re not for you.But if if you want a network that can deliver real creative brilliance worldwide, we’re one of very few that can offer that.2.00
5. When you walk in the door of our place, you don’t find a fancy reception.You see a bunch of crap we’ve collected and lots of bikes. Our space is a reflection of the personalities of the people who work there.It’s a useful filter mechanism to see if people will be a good fit. Not everyone gets it.Some prospects don’t make it past this point.2.20
6. One of the things you’ll find see is a mannequin carrying a briefcase on which are written thewords, ‘Walkin stupid every morning’.This is a reminder to everyone:If you think you know all the answers, you’re fucked.Thisis a place that exists to create competitive advantage by coming up with fresh ideas and new approaches. 2.40
7. In some agencies, the client/agency relationship tends to be the most important thing. The difficulty is that the work serves the relationship and everything gets political. And when things get political the work suffers, the relationship suffers and we all suffer.We say the work comes first because we believe that things work best when everyone is focused on whether or not the work is great. Politics aside. Egos aside. Is this truly great, or not?3.00
8. Some people think W+K is a lawless, wild place.That’s not true.We have rules.Here they are.David Kennedy found them in a drawer when he and Dan were kicked out of their previous agency.We suspect they may have been written by a child on a ‘bring your kid to work day’.They still seem to work pretty well for us thirty years later.3.20
9. We're pretty comfortable with admitting that we're not perfect. We make mistakes. We lose pitches. We make bad decisions. We have the words 'embrace failure' written on a big illuminated sign in one of our meeting rooms. Experiment. Explore. Screw up sometimes. Learn from it. Do better next time.3.40
10. ‘WRONG!’ is a word you’ll often hear from our CD Tony Davidson.This can be applied to people, to work or to thinking. Or to the hat in this picture.Interestingly WRONG can mean ‘very bad’ or ‘very good’.As in, “I love this idea – it’s totally wrong!”Sometimes, when everybody else is doing the same, obvious thing, it’s right to be wrong.4.00
11. If we only hired traditional people, we’d only get traditional advertising.This goes for clients too – we look for prospects we can learn from and who will push us to do our best.We won’t pitch without a chemistry meeting and we see that meeting as a way to see if we’re excited about the prospect of working together. If we’re not, why would we pitch?4.20
12. We look at every brand we work with as an opportunity to make positive change.There are companies we choose not to work with for ethical reasons.And some we choose not to work with because we don’t like the people.We want to feel proud of what we do.So let’s not work with mediocre clients.Let’s try to do stuff that people will love. For clients we admire.4.40
13. This is our padded cell. Always one of the highlights of the agency guided tour.Because we believe that creativity needs a little craziness.The best ideas are the results of an atmosphere where unpredictability, chaos and creativity are encouraged. That doesn’t mean we don’t have systems, it just means we don’t let them get in the way of good ideas.5.00
14. We don’t do much in the way of conventional agency marketing. What we do is stuff that we believe will help to build our reputation as an innovative creative business.That might be designing and selling festive bin bags.It might be our own record label in Japan.Our own magazine in India.Hopefully these things are all different and intriguing.5.20
15. If you ask a kid what he wants in a cake, he’ll ask for a cake made entirely of icing. But if you give him that, he won’t actually like it: it will probably make him puke.So, we try not to let pre-testing replace judgement and common sense.The gut is mightier than the focus group.We tell clients this when we first meet them.That way everyone’s clear about how we get to great work.5.40
16. Our toolbox is empty.We are not great believers in proprietary tools or methodologies.We don’t have a brand pyramid or a Stratocution™ Model.Because every client and every problem is different.When we talk to prospects, we don’t sell a process, we sell the work.6.00
17. Our founder Dan Wieden has saidThisbusiness is pretty simple.It’s been the same since the days since people gathered round the fire to hear stories.The good storytellers are the ones who make us laugh, make us cry, make us feel something, make us do something.Just move me, dude.That’s a pretty good mantra to have when making work or when meeting people: Move me, dude. 6.20
18. So what is it that makes Wieden + Kennedy different?There’s not much to it, really. Some principles and values about the way we do things around here.And the smart, talented, hard-working, unique people who do the work.We’re lucky to have some of the best in the world. Without our people, and our amazing clients, none of it would be possible.Thanks.6.40