Russell Davies

Planning Neutral Planning

Not really sure what Planning Neutral Planning means and Julie Liss and Steve Zaroff admit that they don't either. But they're gamely trying to talk about it.

They've just made a really good case that Karl Rove should be considered 'planner of the year' (if there was such a thing) because of his management of the Republican brand and re-election of Bush. A very good point. He used unexpected media channels, he won the contextual high ground - the election was fought on his agenda, he made great use of research etc etc.

Good point, well made. You can despise his politics but you've got to admit he seems to be a master of the communication arts.

And, a chink of light, they're suggesting that we don't get always have to rely on a big 'insight'. And, they almost said that we don't always have to say, one big, simple thing. Sometimes you can do lots of little ideas rather than one big one. Hurrah. Maybe I'm not going to be such a disaster on Wednesday.

The Changing Landscape

Rick Boyko is leading a panel of people saying fairly obvious things in a really badly miked-up way.

I feel kinda sorry for them because they're dealing with a lot of mic popping.

Though it's hiding the fact that they're not saying anything much. Maybe the mic thing is distracting them.

Apparently TV is in decline and the world is changing. (I seem to be getting over my fear of saying bad things.)

Someone from Yahoo is telling us that RSS is important. Who'd have thought it?

Someone else refered to daypop, which seems kind of interesting. Though I'm not sure why it's different/better from/than Technorati.

Apparently we have to embrace the digital age.

And now someone's quoted that stupid Ogilvy thing - 'the consumer's not an idiot, she's your wife'.

(Which is true because apparently no women work in marketing.)

A little bit bored now - found this fantastic yamaha website where you can download paper models of bikes and rare animals and stuff. But the best one is this paper version of a tool kit.

Scott Goodson is saying something reasonably interesting - talking about how creative agencies are shrinking, because they want to. Clients are building their own networks out of small companies and freelancers and stuff. This seems true, that there's going to be more collaboration, more temporary networks, more affiliation. Which creative people will probably find more rewarding. And clients will find more effective and cheaper. And as a corollarly of that, clients will take more and more of the 'brand guardianship' in house.

John Hunt from TBWA

John Hunt is talking now. Seems like a nice guy. Did quite a nice mock sermon thing, but entirely based in a very old world view of advertising - the creatives have big ideas, the account guys make them small because the client is unimaginative and the planners do lots of research.

Is it not possible that some clients are imaginative, some creatives are unoriginal and some planners don't want to do research?

Is it really true that creatives just need to be set free from the tyranny of dull clients?

Maybe once, but not anymore. Maybe a bunch of demanding clients are trying to get exciting work out of dull creatives.

That doesn't seem to be conventional wisdom among creatives but maybe they should concede it's possible and that would make them stretch themselves a bit.

large and airless

The conference is just starting. Why do conferences always happen in large, darkened, airless rooms?

I guess it's a logistics thing, but it's not conducive to listening well. Or staying awake.

Just around the corner there's Millenium Park with a fantastic open air auditorium. It'd be very cool to do this there.

Oh well.

coffee me too

Jet lag woke me early so I went for a run. Then I needed a reviving coffee so I went to Caribou Coffee. It was nice. Friendly. Welcoming. And somehow completely pointless. Their entire brand vision seems to be 'we're like Starbucks but from one state up'. (Alaska). Everything feels the same, but slightly, slightly different. There's nothing wrong with it but it's depressingly unimaginative. There must be some other way to do a coffee shop than a complete replication of Starbucks.

Or maybe I'm missing something.

planning by night

night-time view from the hotel

account planning is go

I'm in Chicago, the AAAA Account Planning Conference starts tomorrow.

I thought I'd try and do some serious planning blogging for a change and post some reports on all the sessions I get to. Though I probably won't be the only person doing it. Gareth is here too, and I bet there'll be others.

Though I hope everyone's good because I'm not sure I'll bring myself to say anything bad, which I know isn't really the idea, you're generally supposed to be all critical and malicious. Or at least that's the impression you get from all those technology conferences.

But I'm too chicken to do that, especially as I've got to get up there and say stuff myself at some point.

My presentation's about half done right now. But I've got until Wednesday.

Above is the view from the hotel. Kinda like a Thunderbirds set.

account planning

coca corporateness

What are Coke up to? This looks like something from a corporate report. But it's found its way onto the back of mags like OK. How odd.

starbucks van

Not the most original idea ever, but still a good one - Starbucks sampling Frappuccino Light out of an old ice-cream van.

(Shot with my new phone. Quality is OK actually, maybe I can stop carrying the camera around everywhere.)

The Rules Of Management

Just finished reading The Rules Of Management by Richard Templar. Very good round-up of common sense management thinking. And readable.

He had a good selection of quotes which seemed to relate to brands and planning so I thought I'd talk about them here.

“It is amazing how much you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” - Harry Truman.

This is the best and hardest thing to learn about being a planner. If you want to work effectively with creative teams (and with clients), if you want to get your ideas into the mix you have to surrender the credit. You have to let your ideas become their ideas (without them knowing your doing it). It's just human nature. The best way to be influential is to be generous.

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson

This is the other great truth about planning. It's not actually that hard. Not intellectually hard anyway. Anyone who likes reading a bit, understands something of human nature, likes thinking about brands and is prepared to ritually abase themselves infront of everyone they meet can do it. My single observation about the most succesful planners is that they just work harder than everyone else. They might hide it well, but they do the work.

“Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.” - Henry Clay

This is a truth that brands often forget. It's not the big things that count, the big initiatives and the huge programmes, it's the little moments of thought, concern and imagination.

“It is happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.” - Samuel Johnson

Another thing that brands would do well to remember. If you spend your whole time making life difficult for the customers who might try to 'cheat' you, you'll give completely the wrong signals to everyone else. Trust the people sending you returns, or using the minibar or something. Trrust builds relationships and has to be two-way. Look at the debate here in the comments for more.