Russell Davies

Account Planning School Of The Web - library - continued

I rather think Iain's cracked it. At least for now. I've created a Flickr group called Account Planning School of the Web Library, it's here, or you can find it by going to Flickr and searching on "account planning" and library. At the moment there's only one picture in there. But if you roll your mouse over each book you can see a little bit of info about the book and whether it's being borrowed and by who, right now. At the moment there's also links to Amazon, but once we get some reviews in there can be links to those too.

Iain's also stuck some books up there and I'm sure he'll add it any second. If anyone else is willing to lend books then add your pictures to the group.

I think anyone who's lending should state their terms for lending the book in the comments field (where they're willing to ship, how long they're willing to lend etc) but I think there should be a general principle that anyone who borrows a book should write a review. We'll create a place for those to go.

That all make sense? This might just work.

unintended features

This is my phone - a Sony Ericsson K750i - I'm a big fan of it. All the pictures here were taken with it. And it has a splendid feature which I suspect they didn't design (though maybe they did) but which is genius and falls into a general class of very important features I'd call fidgetability.

You know when you're sitting in a cafe or a bar, for some reason, people tend to have their phones out in front of them, and they fidget with them. The great thing about this phone is it's perfectly balanced, and the lens cover creates a pivot so it spins round really well - with only a minimal shove. (Observe movie below.)

I think these ludic features will be increasingly important as actual functionality standardises. (Many thanks to Richard for teaching me what ludic means.)

spinning phone movie (About 5.5MB)

I've just noticed my camera does it too. So following phone filmed by camera, here's camera filmed by phone. Maybe Sony are onto something, ipods don't spin well. Anyone else got any technology they want to spin?

second batch of homework

Here's the final set of stuff. Comments are attached to individual pieces as before. Some general thoughts:

Fairness

I think I'll try and make the next assignment more international - or at least, less focused on Englishness. The Britishness was a bit unfair on most of you.

Summarise

There was a lot of great thinking in every piece but it was often hard to find and a bit woolly. You always need to clearly summarise exactly what you're saying should be done. Ideally in a memorable, pithy way. Not only is that a good idea for communicating what you want to happen, but it forces you to interogate your idea and work out what's really good about it. Otherwise it's too easy to just do a list of quite good ideas.

Learn From Each Other

There's something good in every piece. You might learn more from reading other people's than reading your own.

Again, I really hope this helps. There'll be another assignment on December 1st. This one will be simpler, less British, but hopefully just as challenging.

Please, tell me what you think and what you've learned (if anything) in the comments.

thanks

BeansI.doc BeansJ.doc BeansK.doc BeansL.doc BeansM.doc BeansN.doc BeansO.doc BeansP.doc BeansQ.doc BeansR.ppt

first batch of homework

Here are the first set of responses with some comments from me. This has been a really interesting process, I've really puzzled over how to do this.

What I've done is anonymised everything - if anyone wants to claim any particular piece please do so in the comments. I've then read through each piece typing in comments as soon as anything occurs to me. So none of the comments are deeply considered, they're my first thoughts. I hope you'll take them in that spirit.

I've decided not to pull any punches, I want you all to like me but it seems this is only a worthwhile exercise if I actually say what I think and many of the entries could have been a lot better - though they all had something good about them.

Overall thoughts are these:

Bad

I know I said not to spend too long on it but almost everyone could have spent more time making their piece look half-way decent. I gave you a 2MB limit because I expected you to use it. Put some pictures in there. Think about design and type. Make me want to read the stuff.

Similarly, you could all have been more concise, I got lots of chatty personality (which was nice) but I'm hoping that isn't always how you share stuff with colleagues or clients. Almost everyone could have written at least half as much.

I think, if we're going to do this then the pieces you do should represent your best efforts.

There's a lot of defaulting to doing TV advertising. You should be beyond this by now.

There was a lot of good thinking that wasn't well summed up. You need to be smart but you need to give people hooks to hang your smartness on. Give them memorable distillations of your thinking.

Good

Lots of imaginative solutions. Lots of thinking both inside and outside the box.

Many of you got (what I thought) was the key opportunity in the brief - which wasn't the minimal product advantages, but was the story and personality of the founder.

You did something. You're doing extra work to try and get better that's fantastic.

Some really interesting non-traditional ideas.

Some great demonstration of old-fashioned planning rigour - which is a very good thing.

Next

Don't hate me if I've not said many nice things. I'm trying to help, being cruel to be kind.

I've added Microsoft comments to the Word and the Powerpoint. Hopefully they'll show up properly.

If you feel I've not been sufficiently fair or rigorous let me know and we'll discuss it more. But I think this whole thing will be more useful as a group exercise than just you reading my comments on your bit. Look at everyone's pieces, measure yourself against them, learn what you can, share your thoughts in the comments field below. I think that's what'll make this thing work.

I really hope this is useful for people.

The final 9 documents will follow asap. (Depends on what time Arthur gets to sleep tonight.)

I should also add how amazed I am by everyone who did this in not-their-first-language. I can't even order a drink in another language and you're all doing strategy in English.

BeansA.doc BeansB.ppt BeansC.doc BeansD.ppt BeansE.ppt BeansF.doc BeansG.doc BeansH.doc

blogging marriage

Anne is blogging again. Which I like, mostly because I love the way she writes, but partly because we find out quite a lot about each other's lives via our blogs; the stuff that gets lost in the mess of family life over the dinner table. Like I knew that Arthur won the good behaviour raffle, but I didn't know he'd burst into tears about it.

brilliant idea

Smart and simple. Hard drives that stack like lego bricks. Since people stack their hard drives and since computer people like lego and since lego's stack well. Perfect. From LaCie. And designed by Ito Morabito who famously started his career by designing fake products for real brands.

worth looking at

from ihaveanidea:

Are you in need of a challenge?

Here's one. Take a relatively new brand and make it famous. Very famous.

The cameras are ready to roll and convert your idea into television reality.

TigerGaming.com needs a new advertising campaign, and somewhere within you lies an incredible T.V. idea!

Whether you are an advertising creative, account executive, planner, photographer, producer, director, marketer, or someone who has always wanted to make your own television commercials, this advertising challenge will test and push your creativity to the limit.

More details here.

And maybe, with any luck, you can also get an old git of a creative director to quit at the same time. (That's me, editorialising, not ihaveanidea)

stefan bucher - top man

Thousands of years ago I worked, briefly, with a fantastic designer called Stefan Bucher. He did some completely gorgeous and intricate Microsoft print ads which got horribly swallowed up by the general morass of badness that surrounded w+k and microsoft. (And, I'm starting to remember, we also spent time practising being in a radio play written by another friend Jed. Wow, I haven't thought about that for a long time.) I'd love to see those ads again. I think they're some of the best stuff I've ever been involved with and they've been buried by history.

Anyway, Stefan took off for LA to be free of our morass and design beautiful things and I've not seen him forever. Then I bought a book about Graphic Design which I really liked, and then I spotted that it was written by Stefan and I was really incredibly happy to see his little picture and read his words. I have absolutely no hesitation recommending it to anyone. It's supposed to be about design but it's actually about creativity, integrity and imagination. Things we should all pay attention to.

Buy a copy. Buy several. And, while you're at it, visit his splendid site and watch his fantastic talk at the San Diego Y conference. He's smart and funny.

when insights go bad

This is an ad based on an insight; that mid-life crisis blokes reach out for totems of their youth - drums, motorbikes, fast cars. Not that startling but, nevertheless a legitimate marketing 'insight'. I'm sure everyone at Roland is very pleased with it, and I'll admit it's a step-up from the stuff they normally do.

But they undermine everything by not following through on their own thought processes. Our midlife crisis guy is reaching for symbols of his lost youth with his new-found disposable income - he doesn't want you reminding him of that. These drums, that bike, are a fantasy and you're puncturing the fantasy with your clever-arse ad.

(Made even more cynical by shooting the drums like they're a lifestyle accessory. If you really wanted to touch the crisis you should have shot them in a shoddy rehearsal room.)

I speak from personal experience. I'm 39. I bought some Roland e-drums so I could practise in the flat. I love them. I can pretend I'm in a band again. I'm the perfect target audience for this ad and it just made me feel silly. It made me feel like a shallow fool. I'd say that's a tactical mistake. I'd say that's where a thin insight and a too-clever writer have undermined their own intent.

Anyway. That's just what I think.

going deaf in a small way

My mate Ben invited me out to see the Steve Reid ensemble (with Keiran Hebden) last night. Two gigs in two nights. Unprecedented for me. It's not something I'd ever have selected for myself but I really enjoyed it. The bassist burned more calories in an evening than my whole body gets through in a year. Splendid electronic noodling from Keiran and powerhouse drumming that never lapsed into too much freeness.

Never going to be a rock photographer am I? But this blurriness does capture the experience of a gig, standing at the back.