Russell Davies

now this is what I call advertising

Here's a site with some of the best bits of communications ever - Public Information Films produced by the British Central Office of Information. Coughs and Sneezes is a personal favourite of mine. This sneezey man is perfectly cast.

A great find by ilike.

backing shyly into the limelight

Those of you who've never clicked on any of those 'my other sites' link on the right might be astonished and dismayed to know I don't spend my whole life writing about planning or my family. I also spend an inordinate amount of time writing about, and being in, cafes. So much so, that one of my blogs (egg bacon chips and beans) has recently been transformed into a book and published by Harper Collins. And now you, gentle reader, can buy a copy from Amazon, by clicking here. The picture above is the book being read by Pete Ashton. His review is here. He seems to like it.

Hurrah.

And by scrolling down the page a little you can even get an egg bacon chips and beans t-shirt. Well worth 18 of your earth pounds.

Beanz Meanz Boodlez

OK. Here's the first assignment. If you don't know what I'm talking about read the previous post.

I've just made this up. Any resemblence to existing brands or problems is entirely co-incidental. Apologies if it's a little UK-centric, but that's where I live. And it's a category close to my heart.

If those goes well we'll be somewhere-else-centric next time.

Dorothy Boodle is a 53-year old cookery teacher and mother of three. She's spent the last 20 years working on a recipe for beans to rival Heinz beans - assisted by her children and the kids at the school where she teaches. She's now perfected that recipe. Indepedent taste tests rate her beans the same as Heinz - for some people a little better. Her's have a slightly tangier taste. They have a bit less sugar and are generally slightly healthier. They're also a little browner - not that vibrant orange Heinz colour. They can be manufactured for the same cost.

She raised enough money through friends and family to get the beans off the ground and now they've also got backing from an eccentric millionaire - they want to launch the beans into national distribution. The major supermarkets are ready to stock her beans if they see her come to market in a serious way. (They're quite keen to challenge Heinz's complete dominance of the baked beans market. They're not making many inroads with their own-label products and think Dorothy might destabilize Heinz in a good way.)

The Boodles have come to you for advice on how to launch and support their beans. They're asking questions like - How should they position themselves versus Heinz? How should they spend their 5 million pound marketing budget for the first year? What should the product be called?

What should you tell them?

Write me an answer in a Word or Powerpoint document in less than 1,000 words and 2MB.

Don't Ask Me

Please don't ask a lot of clarifying questions. I've just made this up, I don't have any answers. If you don't know something, make up your own answer and spell out your assumptions in your document. If you must ask a question please do it via the comments on this post so everyone can see - I'll answer in the same place. I'm not going to get into any email debates about this.

Don't Go Mad

This is just an excercise for fun and practise. Don't spend hours conducting interviews with people about beans. Don't phone Heinz and ask them what they think. I'm hoping to stretch your thinking/imagination/writing skills - not your research skills. If this takes you more than a few hours you're taking too long. Don't try so hard. Write less. Relax.

Embrace Failure

There's no right answer. I have no answer in my head that you've got to guess. I'm going to be looking for imagination, common sense and persuasiveness. So think big, or very small. Think wherever you like in relation to 'the box' - but since this isn't the real world and you're not messing with anyone's real money this seems like a good opportunity to have some fun.

Email me your answer before November 15th - russell at russelldavies.com. I'll start posting answers and thoughts after that. If you want to remain anonymous let me know.

Does that all make sense? Sound like fun?

account planning brands advertising

Account Planning School Of The Web

So I was sitting and thinking yesterday. And reading The Big Moo and I had an idea.

I've always really liked doing training and stuff; poisoning the minds of young planners and bringing them over to the dark side, and I don't really get to do that in my current job. And I get loads of emails on this site from people looking to become planners or junior planners asking questions or for stuff to read, and I try to answer, but I don't really have good answers to that kind of thing.

So, instead I thought and try and launch a free planning correspondence course. Because it'll be interesting.

I'm thinking it'll work like this:

I'll set an assignment once a month. Posted on the first of the month. It'll be some strategic/creative/researchy issue or something. Anyone who wants to can submit a response. It has to be by the 15th of the month. (No more than 1,000 words, a Powerpoint or Word document, no more than 1MB.) I'll post all the responses on here (anonymously if you want to) with comments and thoughts and critique. And everyone else can comment too. Then we start again the next month. It'll give people something to think about, plus some feedback, which is the thing that lots of planners are starved for.

If it goes well and people want to play then I'll ask some industry luminaries who pass along my way to pose a problem and do some critiquing too. People are always happy to help out with this kind of stuff.

That's all it'll be. There'll be no certificate, no guarantees (or even possibilities) of employment, but just some practise, some fun and some helping each other out.

What do you think? Anyone fancy it? I'll post the first problem on Monday/Tuesday.

account planning brands advertising

draw a triangle

I'm in Portland, having a quiet weekend and this seemed a perfect opportunity to try a little experiment - doing some video-podcasting. Or whatever you might call it. The two links below lead to a five minute video of me doing a little tip for account planners about drawing triangles to look clever and impressive in meetings. (Inspired by an original idea by Dylan Williams).

Videopod version 28MB. This version's been optimised for a iTunes and an iPod.

Smaller version 12MB. This version's smaller.

account planning brands advertising

blimey

Can you imagine a worse combintion? Seriously. I tried to think of some more dreadful combinations in order to be funny, and I can't think of anything. Blimey.

beautiful complexity

It's long been my contention that simplicity is an over-valued currency in marketing-land. Many of the most captivating and compelling things (including brands) are, in fact, highly, beautifully, complex.

VisualComplexity is a site that gorgeously illustrates the joy of complexity. Visit, and make a donation.

All hail Clive James

I was listening to Radio 3's Night Waves last night and heard a great interview which reminded me what an inspiration Clive James is. Certainly there's an element of the unreconstructed old rogue about him but he's almost completely a good thing.

His TV reviews in The Observer probably set me on the path to doing what I'm doing. He showed that you could take pop culture seriously and that you could write and think about it without being disdainful and academic. Which is a lot of what being a planner's about. I guess.

And I like his restless approach to trying new things. His own website is full of great video and audio interviews, with fantastic people, and all sorts of interesting essays. Highly recommended.

Riflemaker window thing

I just walked past a gallery called Riflemaker. they're currently doing a show about 'The Unseen Art Of William S. Burroughs'.

There are these two magnificent revolving flip-book things in the video which had me hypnotised for minutes. Here's 20 seconds of video to show you what I mean. Not to sound crass - but wouldn't that make a great bit of POS? It's about 1MB.

(That is crass isn't it?)

Toy Of The Month - October

Zombie Kurt from Sigikid, via Playlounge.