Russell Davies

clear positioning

Too many corporate positioning ideas are way too vague. This one isn't. I love this one.

And what I love about it is that this chaotic environment, which could be seen as a negative is made into a postive by the positioning. ie - if they'd promised 'holistic sewing machine solutions' this messy place would have seemed shoddy and lacklustre. But because they've said they're experts it makes them seem like real passionate tinkerers and obsessives. To me anyway.

And on the same theme; here's a joke at the expense of the US Democratic party and their horribly vague positioning. Which could stand for thousands of brands. We've all worked for brands that stand for anything.

tubemap.org

This sounds like a good idea. Maybe I can combine it with a trip to a cafe. It's like art catching up with web 2.0.

shots forum fragments

I went to the Shots Forum conference. There were some useful moments in amongst the usual startling revelations that things must change.

Gerry Moira suggested that there was a substantial future for Creative Director's inside brands, that brands aren't going to want to outsource that for much longer. Which isn't much a surprise for many of us. But I liked his point that even Kylie Minogue has a Creative Director. (Or did. She's split with William Baker, don't know if she has a new one. Maybe it'll be Gerry Moira.)

Al Young of St Luke's used a great phrase when talking about the future of ad agencies. He said he hoped agencies weren't going to turn into communication hospices, respectfully and tenderly managing the inevitable decline of print and television advertising. I hope so too.

I'm not optimistic though.

There were other good bits but I didn't write them down.

It's probably telling that the most interesting presentations came from Glue, The Viral Factory and Tribal DDB.

business emotional intelligence, not just for squares

I posted a bunch of videos to YouTube yesterday. And I was reminded of that idea of 'business emotional intelligence' and how it's quite a useful concept.

And then I was listening to the Weeklydrop interview with Jeff Staple and they asked him why he thought Staple Design was so succesful. And he said that yes it was about creativity but it was also about the fact that they did jobs on time and on budget and were easy to work with.

You see.

It's not just tedious buggars like me who think it.

You should listen, that bit's about 10 minutes in, but it's all worth listening to.

creative spaces

I was reminded today of a post I wrote ages ago when we were planning an office move and I was thinking about the sort of environments that encourage creativity and thinking. The original post is here.

I've disappointed myself because in my head I've written loads about this and actually I've just written the one post. But I've thought about it a lot because I've I think feeding the environment is a key responsilibity for a planner. The best way of getting an idea into a creative's head is to let them think they found it themselves, and the best way to do that is to stick it on the wall next to their desk.

And I think 'creative spaces' demand a lot more thought than they normally get. (Incidentally, I also hate myself for using 'space' this way, like a gallery owner, to mean, really 'place' but 'place' doesn't quite seem right either.)

This room, for example, is the CreativityLab at Starbucks, as detailed in the Idea Sandbox blog and I'll happily concede that it's better than the average miserable conference room. But I think it's easy to confuse 'creative space' with 'brightly-coloured space' and 'stimulating environment' with 'shop at IKEA'. This seems like a good effort with minimal resources and noble intent, but I'm not sure it goes nearly far enough. And it's very existence seems to suggest that you're not supposed to be creative in the rest of the building.

This seems like a really important topic to me.

What are the right kind of spaces for 'business creativity' to happen in?

(And I don't think this is about art, it's about creative spaces that have to incorporate the realities of business life.)

I'd like to explore this some more, maybe it even demands its own blog. But in the meantime I'd like to try and exploit the collective wisdom of all you lovely people. Many of you are in very creative spaces, many of you aren't, but should be, or you've carved out your own creative space in a bigger non-creative one. Or you have favourite places for working. Or places you'd love to work. You know the kind of thing.

I'd love it if you'd share thoughts, links and, above all, images of the creative spaces (or anti-creative spaces) you come across. Maybe starting with the view from your chair. That's always a good start. You can add thoughts and comments on this post. And you could upload images to flickr with the tag 'creativespaces'.

Or, if you can't be bothered, don't. That's fine too.

Here's the view from my chair.

youth style

Here's Arthur excitedly modeling my splendid new Battle of The Ad Blogs t-shirt which just arrived. Many thanks Adland.

brilliant surprises

I love the interweb. Two of my favourite people sent me email over night of things they'd found online. Both are completely fascinating sites and suck up your time. And they could not be more totally different. I'm saying no more. One's here. The other's here. Talk about infinite variety.

brand management with marcel duchamp

4th assignment - the debrief imbroglio

More news on the ongoing saga of getting assignment debriefs to you. Sorry about the delay/confusion. I've posted some ppt files in the orginal post here. I've pasted Grant's comments into the notes fields of the decks. Mostly they were summary thoughts just on the first page. I hope that works.

I suspect some people's have slipped through the gaps, sorry if that's the case. If your contribution hasn't been commented on let me know and I'll send you some thoughts. Thanks for your patience.

Now, onwards and upwards to Assignment 5.

soup and media