James Taylor's built himself a mechanical drum machine. From the New York Times. (Some restrictions apply.)
here's a little idea
Arthur's never really taken to fruity drinks. He likes water, Diet Coke and Ribena and stuff like that. But when we went to Fruitstock he absolutely loved the kid's stuff they were sampling in these little plastic cups. When we got home it turned out that he quite liked the drink, but he really like the little plastic cups. He much prefers drinking his smoothies out of them. (Fortunately we'd nicked quite a lot from Fruitstock). I think it makes him feel a little special and I think he likes draining a cup in one go - you don't get to do that with an adult-sized cup when you're six. So dispensing the smoothie is now part of our tea time ritual.
good idea
Someone asked me at a conference the other week how to recognise a good idea. I mentioned the criteria for a patent under US law - is it new, non-obvious and useful? (Though, of course, I couldn't remember them all at the time). I think that's a pretty good set of questions to ask yourself when looking at any sort of creative/strategic project. New. Non-obvious. Useful.
(All hail spell with flickr)
small, good idea
I like this 'traveller's edition' of the new Bill Bryson, available from the Borders at Heathrow. Most of the 'airport exclusives' you get are bigger than your average paperback which always seems annoying to me. This one is hardback but it's nice and compact, which makes sense.
7 things I learned at wieden and kennedy (portland edition)
As I venture further out into the world, away from the 10-year comfort zone (discomfort zone?) of w+k and Nike I realise that so many of my assumptions about the way that brands and communications and people work were formed there. And that many of these assumptions are horrifying and original to many of the people I bump into. So I thought I'd list some here. These are not anything that anyone tried to persuade me of, they're not 'the wieden way', they're conclusions I've drawn, assumptions I've made. So don't blame them if I'm an idiot. (If you want to explore some of what Dan actually thinks you could try this little speech w+k london found on a hard drive.)
1. Hire advertising people, you get advertising
As Dan will admit (claim?), when they started they found it very hard to hire conventional advertising talent. No-one would move to Portland. So they got people who'd failed elsewhere or kids straight out of school. These people didn't know how to make advertising. Or not in the way it was supposed to be made. They worked out for themselves how to communicate, seduce, persuade, engage, how to make a stunning piece of film or a compelling couple of pages but if often didn't look much like advertising. Even now, thousands of years later, when some of the habits have ossified and they really, clearly, do know how to make advertising there's an inclination to push it further, to not make advertising. I think this a lesson for everyone who wants to be the w+k of the future; hire just advertising people, you'll get just advertising.
2. The key to creative genius; work harder
I know it's boring but this became so incredibly clear to me. The most exciting, inspirational, talented thinkers and doers just work harder than everyone else. Often they also work more effectively, so it doesn't necessarily look like hard work, but basically they put in more hours, pay more attention and care more than the regular folk.
3. You can't divorce the medium from the message
W+K never gave up on its own media people. Media thinkers and media doers were always integral. And often the smartest people in the place. This led to innovative and informed thinking about not just what we'd say and how we'd say it, but also where we'd say it. So w+k didn't get stuck in that trap of shoveling creativity into a pre-bought schdule. We didn't fill 30 second boxes with stuff. You've got to have media people in the building, it makes life better.
4. Do good work, the money will follow
When I moved from Portland to London I was one of only two people in the London office who'd also worked in Portland. And I think the rest of London management couldn't quite believe Dan when he'd say this to them. They wanted to believe it, but they'd grown up in big London agencies where the bottom line is all. There's not a lot to say about this, it's just true.
5. Hold everyone to the same standard
I moved to Portland to work on Microsoft. It was clear in about 5 minutes that we were the pariah half of the agency. Everyone was either Nike or Microsoft. It was like high school. Jocks and geeks. They did fantastic work every 5 minutes, won all kinds of awards, got to meet celebrity athletes. We struggled to get any decent work through, won nothing, attended three day product briefings on Exchange Server.
And we all knew it would have been so easy to just roll over, give Microsoft exactly what they wanted (which was obvious and do-able) and rake in gobbets of cash. We could have funded a dozen pro-bono accounts which would have made us feel better and won us some awards and life would have been almost sweet. Except we weren't allowed. Peer and management pressure made it clear that everyone was held to the same standard, however hard our client and our task we were expected to do extraordinary and thrilling work. This seemed divisive and wrong at the time but looking back I realise it was genius. Because if you have multiple standards you have multiple agencies. If you treat some clients as creative opportunities and some as cash cows that's just what you'll get. And sooner or later the cash cows will leave the field. Everyone's seem what it's like to be the Account Director on the regional retail account that'll never do good work. It sucks. And it sucks even more when you have to sit and present your work to all the guys who work on the cool accounts. Kudos to Dan, he always expected us to make the work better. And, sometimes, before we got fired, we did some pretty decent work.
6. You can tell from the work if people enjoyed making it
This seems more true to me every time I walk in another agency. The places that are miserable make lack-lustre work (is it chicken or is it egg?). The places with energy make energetic, fulsome, toothsome work, bursting with ideas. If the process is depressing, the work will be flat, if the process has life, the work will connect.
7. Brands that influence culture sell more
This feeling was always in the air. People were trying to build popular culture not piggy-back on it, trying to create new culture, not just repeat old ones. About the worst thing you could say about an idea was that it had 'borrowed interest'. And it was palpably clear that this instinct led to more effective, more profitable brands. So I remember writing 'brands that influence culture sell more' in a creds deck and getting the highly prized Wieden nod of approval. That was a good moment. (Or at least I think I remember writing that, it seems to have turned up in other places too, so maybe I heard it somewhere first, perhaps through some sort of strange wormhole into the future.)
difficult buggers
I've just been listening to a great podcast - Lisa Haneberg having a 'fireside chat' with Johnnie Moore. There's a lot of good stuff in there but I was especially strucken by the observation that often in a discussion it's the 'difficult people' who have the most to contribute. (I'm probably precising horribly there.)
I think this is as true with the creation of work as it is with discussion and debate. A key thing for planners who want to work with great creative people is to realise that their irritating, unreasonable behaviour is often exactly what you need to make remarkable stuff. At a human level it can be deeply irritating (and the infantilisation of creative people is one of the least attractive of advertising's crimes agaisnt decency) but the difficult buggers, the ones who demand to be heard, are often the ones with something to say. You need to find a way to stay in the room with them and to turn that irritation into work.
Blimey.
I've been getting very deep recently. Must take more pictures of things on the telly.
doing my job for me, part two
Having gone freelance (or as Anne prefers to call it 'unemployed') I realised that I'd occasionally need some company and the use of a large agency-type photocopier. So the kind folks at w+k london have offered to lend me the occasional use of a chair etc in return for certain unspecified services.
Well the first of those tithes has been called in and I'm supposed to do a presentation for them on the evening of July 20th entitled 'what's going on on the internet, you know, and all that stuff you're always banging on about'. So I'm just starting to think about what I should include. I've not been part of the w+k furniture for a while so I'm not quite attuned to what they'll know about and what they won't, but they're pretty damn savvy so I suspect just pointing at a few dumb bits of youtube won't cut it.
I was thinking of things which aren't just cool technology but are also symbolic of new ideas and larger trends in the world. Or are just funny or odd. So far I'm thinking We Feel Fine, Jealous Animals, Zootube, Ze Frank, Cyworld and One Thousand Paintings. Most of which I found via crackunit.
Anyone got any other thoughts? Anyone want to come along? I'm sure they wouldn't mind.
an idea idea
People often tell me that they'd like to do a blog but they can't think of anything to blog about. Psshhaw I say and point them at a blog like Niazipan. He's just set himself the task of coming up with an idea every day and blogging about it. (And these are advertising type ideas, since he's an ad creative, he's not formulating new technologies for nano-tube fabrication.) It's not easy but it's do-able and it's great discipline.
This is the kind of simple little hook you need to get you going. Something small and do-able and regular. Every day, every week, whenever, whatever. Just something that you know you're supposed to do. And before you know it you've been blogging for six months and its easy.
(And it adds to the charm that there hasn't been a new idea since Friday. Come on Martin!)
By the way, doesn't it seem remarkable that there aren't more blogs by UK ad creatives? I only know of this and Scamp, which is also good, but shouldn't there be more? Or am I missing something?
in real life
So, I've been thinking about social media. And I've been trying to make the blogging experience more of a chat and less of a rant. And I've tried a few things. The skype thing just worried me too much. So I backed out of that. The CollectiveX thing was a good idea, and I'm truly grateful to everyone who tried to kick it off, but I don't think I've got the time or energy to manage conversations in two different places. I'm going to think about a better way of using that. Maybe around a specific APSotW project.
And then I was reminded that my Mum used to go to coffee mornings with the Towns Women's Guild, and I realised that that was almost exactly what I wanted to start. A 'coffee morning', doesn't that sound nice? (Sure, half of me'll be trying to pretend it's some sort of salon, or Algonquin Round Table thing, but really it's a coffee morning.)
Anyway, my plan is this. I'll be in The Breakfast Club on D'Arblay Street every Friday at 11am until about 1.30pm. If you're around, drop-in. Just to chat. It'll be nice.
it's even more about politeness
One of the things I like about blogging etc is the generosity of spirit people show. Content and ideas are shared through the lovely serendipity of links, trackbacks and stuff. But this only works if people are careful about crediting where they found something, and I've been very lucky in people giving me appropriate kudos for stuff I've put up. Frankly, in the case of Urban Spam they've given me too much credit.
But I've screwed up by not giving adland any credits or linkage for pointing out, photographing and talking about this egregious Coke poster. This is bad. And it's especially, ironically, bad given that the title of the original post was 'it's about politeness'. If the gift economy of the web is going to work some basic social rules need to be observed and I didn't do that. Many apologies to Dabitch.