Russell Davies

Assignment 7 - dropping anchor

I've just been around and commented on all the Assignment 7 entries (though some of the comments may not have been approved yet). Grant will do the same shortly and then we'll announce the winner.

Two thoughts occur to me:

1. Although there weren't many entries, this stuff was the highest standard ever. Congrats to everyone who did something. Fantastic stuff

2. I was getting a slight suspicion that everyone who entered thought 'the problem with cruises is they're not right for people like me, and the solution is to make them into something I'd like.' Maybe not consciously, but it might have been lurking there. All your solutions were solid, logical and smart but they all basically said cruising needs to be made younger, cooler, more upmarket. This is fair, but I'd like to have seen someone consider some other possibilities. It's important to try and love your existing customers openly and without judgement (how californian?), not always try and convert them into people like you. This is especially worth remembering in a new business pitch because you can guarantee one of your competitors will make this mistake, and if you don't, you're instantly one up. As I've said, I only got hints of this, nothing flagrant, but I just thought I'd mention it.

If you've not visited all the participating blogs you should, they're all well worth your time. More news  asap.

blogging for peas

Martin at TMW emailled me about a blog they helped organise for Bird Eye peas. I'll admit I clicked on the link with trepidation, corporate blogs are not always the best, but this is lovely. I think a lot of the charm is it's not trying to be more than it should, it's a blog about the pea harvest and pea tasting and it's just that, it's not pasted over with agency copywriting or big brand gags, it's just a look behind the scenes, using regular blogger tools, movable type, flickr, youtube, odeo. It'll never reach an audience of billions but it's not supposed to. Really nice work.

And for agency people - doesn't this remind you of the best bits of the job? Factory visits, tasting panels, people who do real work for a living.

planners who do

I'm rather keen to start another side bar linkset - planners who do stuff - and here's another example. Martin Cole has a rather splendid remix of a track by Headland; Monsters In A Shirt. You can get it from 7digital or with iTunes or Napster from here, for a very reasonable 79p.

If you're a planner who does something, and I think that means something I can link to that's not just a blog, ie you make or do something, you know what I mean. Email me and I'll stick you in the link.

pictures at an exhibition

Started the day with a trip to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It was good because there's a ton of stuff and a ton of variety, so you can always find something worth looking at.

This was good, but Arthur's favourite room (and mine) was all the one with all the architectural models. Architects will always be cooler than ad people because models are always cooler than layouts.

Then lunch at the New Piccadilly

We also had fun with our new Knockman

There's 10 seconds of video here for the curious.

Then off to the Sport Relief mile...

...which was great apart from the noisy speakers at the start.

But the best bit was probably chucking water at the end.

more living in public

When I left Nike (almost exactly a month ago) I said all kinds of things, I said I'd spend more time blogging properly and I said I'd really get to grips with my book idea. I've done neither.

I've not been too worried about these things, I thought I was bound to get around to stuff sooner or later but a couple of recent experiences and the opportunity to think while driving to Manchester have gelled some things in my head.

1. When I blog about things I'm more likely to do them.
2. I quite like living a little in public, because it seems like people are often happy to help

So, I've started some blogs, to kick start some projects, and practise new blogging tools.

Here is a vox blog about music, because I want to fall back in love with music.

Here is a wordpress blog designed to encourage me to lose some weight and do some running.

And here's the one that feels like a biggy to me, this is really as far as I've got with my much-talked about 'book' - a proposal and a few notes, but I still like the title - In Defence Of The Ordinary. It's embarrasing to admit really, but I think if I admit this is all there is I can then get on with it. A few publishers have raised encouraging eyebrows over the original (rather skimpy) proposal but they've all made it clear that I actually need to write something before they'll give me any money. Unreasonable sods.

And, don't worry, here, I'll just keep on rambling about life, brands and exciting new business ventures. (You weren't worried were you?)

cars = thinking, trains = talking

As some previous posts established I drove to Manchester and back this week. Stupid really. About 5 hours each way.

To start with it was logistically stupid, the train took forever and  I had to beetle back to London for a conference call on the Friday, getting all stressed out, if I'd been on the train I could have just chatted while sipping a refreshing leaf tea.

And it was obviously environmentally stupid which was made even more obvious to me as I listened to Shared Earth on Radio 4. About carbon offsetting. (So I've been to the Carbon Neutral company and assuaged some of my guilt, though it seems unsatisfactorily un-scientific.)

The problem is I can only really think when I'm driving. I've never found such a conducive environment for ideas, plans and sorting stuff in your head. It's probably some varient of continuous partial attention or a flow state or something, but enough of my brain is occupied with driving, not crashing etc that I dont get bored, but not so much that I can't think through other stuff. I'm not sure that'll happen on a train, I'll start reading or blogging, I won't be able to just think. That's the real benefit of cars; thinking time. And loud music.

love is the new big

Seth Godin's new book is called Small Is The New Big, and I think I spent Thursday and Friday with a great example; Love Creative in Manchester (the website is here, it's pretty but a bit, you know, flash-heavy). They're almost 20 people doing all kinds of interesting stuff. Big, legitimate clients. They're ambitious, smart, creative and they're based in one of the most progressive and creative cities in the world. But I bet they fly under the radar of most of the London creative community. I'm hoping we can do all kinds of interesting things together. Partly because they're smart, partly because they're a laugh but mostly because they're the future of creative industries. Not all departmental. They do design, they do advertising, they do ideas. Small. Nimble. Outside London.

Driving home just made the point feel even more true, I kept getting stuck in those traffic jams that just appear because of 'sheer weight of traffic', no accident, no roadworks, no incident, just someone putting their brakes on extra heavy, the red-lights flow backwards and a mile further back a traffic jam starts. Which slows down the otherside of the road as they peer over to see what the jam's all about. That's how big organisations often feel to me. They're so heavy and dense with people and stuff crammed into an inhibiting system that the smallest incident brings everything to a halt. And the only way they can function is through active traffic management ie slowing everyone down so much that if something happens they can all react in time and avoid complete collapse. Which might work, but it's less than satisfactory.

Wheras a small organisation feels like driving at 3 in morning when the whole road's empty and the JBLs are rocking to the sound of Public Enemy.

Anyway, I really like Love. And small is the new big.

coffee morning north/plans

Coffee morning north was very pleasant. Just me and Graham. At Suburb. Sorry the pictures are a bit rubbish. He tells me he's starting a blog this weekend so watch this space for a link.

However, it just occured to me this morning that I've been blithely promising to do another one in London this coming Friday, but I can't because I'm going to be on my way to Miami for this. Very sorry. We'll do one when I get back. Sorry.

good repositioning

IT conversations on Thursday 9

I find much of what Paul Graham writes and says simultaneously fascinating and annoying. Which is often a mark of an interesting thinker. You can probably spot for yourselves the parallels between hackers and planners in this talk.