Russell Davies

insight excitement

One of the key planning tasks is supposed to be the having of insights. You can feel the tension in a planning presentation - when's the insight coming? will it count as an insight or merely be an observation? Pitches often become a kind of Theatre Of Insight. And I've never been any good at it myself. Never had one of those pithy insights that people point to as examples of planning excellence.

So I've liked the recent insight discussions over on Pink Air. First of all Jeffre mused on 'what is an insight?', and in the ensuing discussion, JD linked to Simon Law's excellent post about insight (with tons of examples) and Uli pointed out this brilliant piece by Jeremy Bullmore. Further discussed by Jeffre here.

This generosity and sharing from all concerned is one of the great gifts of the plannersphere. Not so long ago Simon's presentation would have been seen only within WCRS, the Bullmore piece would only have lived within a WPP newsletter and Jeffre's stuff would have probably just been in his head. But suddenly all that gets shared and we all get wiser. Does that count as insight? Probably not.

questions for the village

A couple of little questions people are asking:

1. BBDO are after someone to do some freelance fashion analysis. You can see the details over there on the left under distributed village notices. UPDATE: Sorry. I took that notice down again. They seem to have all the people they can handle now.

2. And this question came in: "I’m looking for a good focus group facility in Ireland.  Something that is contemporary, yet full of character that will make people feel comfortable in an informal setting."

If anyone has anywhere to suggest on that, please comment below.

w+k side

w+k london are doing their excellent side project again, and Neil asked me to stick up the recruitment details. So here they are:

"WK Side is a talent scheme that gives four people from outside of the advertising world the chance to be part of Wieden + Kennedy London for 3 months. We believe that good ideas can come from anyone and from anywhere. We want to give bright, curious and enthusiastic people the opportunity to prove us right. (And maybe to learn a few things from us along the way.) Creative Director Tony Davidson says, 'WK Side is our way of opening up advertising. Because we feel that the best advertising agencies aren't just staffed with people who only know advertising. And we think that people on the outside could maybe teach us a thing or two.' We've done two rounds of WK Side previously and we're now inviting submissions from people who'd like to be part of the third round of this ongoing experiment. This time we're specifically looking to find new talent from the world of digital. We want people who create films, photography, animation, web content - anything from blogs to web design.

Over 3 months, the four people chosen will work on a broad range of projects, including live briefs, pitches and in-house briefs and experience all aspects of advertising and communications along the way. From planning to creative to account management. The two previous WK Side seasons have been valuable experience and fun. WK Siders have even won a Silver Pencil at D&AD for work done during their time at Wieden + Kennedy.

If you are interested in becoming part of the third intake, then here's how to apply. All you have to do is create an answer, in any digital format, to the question 'can anything be beautiful?' Send a link to your answer to [email protected] Your submission must be sent no later than 09.03.07 and you must be available for interviews in London w/c 02/04/07. If successful you need to be available to start your 3 month stint w/c 10/04.07. You will be paid for the 3 months and will receive mentoring and training throughout your time with us. If you're not a resident of the UK you'll need to have a valid working visa up till September '07. Good luck! 

getting to london

Here's a question from a correspondent in the US. If you can help with thoughts etc please put your ideas in the comments.

"Greetings from NY, A New Yorker born and bred, I have decided to leave my nest, and spread my wings into wonderful London. The reason for this is that I want to gain a different perspective and also see how advertising/planning happens on the otherside of the Atlantic. The one problem that I have is that my contacts overseas are few and far between and I would much prefer not to send my c.v. into the blackholes that are corporate HR email addresses. My other problem is that I am also generally unfamiliar with the hiring practices over in England (student placements,etc.). So if anyone can help me out and give an American longing for London some advice it would be greatly appreciated."

plannersphere wiki

Remember this post? About the perfect creative brief? There is an absolute ton of useful stuff in the comments and I keep thinking that I should do something about it. Go through them all, pull out the interesting examples and create a sort of uber-brief. But, at the moment I just think about it and feel guilty.

Then the other week I was inspired by Richard's coining of the term 'plannersphere' and went and registered plannersphere.com. (Hope that's OK Richard, if you want it, just let me know.) I was thinking we could build a wiki there and amass a beautiful pile of planning knowledge for all the planning children of the world. But, of course, I'm dead busy right now so I didn't do anything about it. Then, this morning, I read this post from Asi and thought I'd better get on with it. That's how ideas happen isn't it? Inspiration. Drifting. Kick up the arse. Action.

So, it's dead simple. I've put a plannersphere wiki on pbwiki. The password is huntington, in tribute to the master. Anyone can contribute. Let's make it good.

want to work at sledge?

Sledge are looking for a freelance planner. Details are over there on the left, in the distributed village notices.

want to work at deep focus?

Amber emailed this:

"Interactive NY/LA agency with a focus on entertainment and lifestyle brands seeks an experienced, innovative, and very creative Account Planner / Engagement Specialist.  Position is in LA office ( Venice!). Send materials to [email protected] - A full position description can be downloaded here"

(Russell: I added the picture, I don't think you actually get to work on the beach. Not all the time anyway.)

the archaelogy of strategy

I had coffee with Caroline Marshall (Executive Editor of Campaign) this morning. She told me about a project they're doing and I said I thought they'd be people reading this who'd like to help. So this is what they're after:

"Stephen King, who worked for JWT and died in February 2006 was one of the leading thinkers in communications strategy.

We want to reprint his most important article, “What is a brand?”, with an introduction by a known and respected practitioner describing the relevance of the article today. Mike Hall might be the man for the job.

We want to find another nine (or so) famous articles (speeches, chapters of a book etc) that contain principles that are appropriate in today’s more complex media environment.

We want to cover advertising, marketing, media and research (at least).

We’ll create a supplement which we hope will be of interest to everyone in the business, not just in the UK but all over the world."

The questions they'd like us to think about are - what papers should be in there, and why?

(I was banging on to Caroline about how buzzy and interactive blogs are compared to print and how I'm always really excited by the quality of feedback in the planning blogosphere, so please don't let this be one of those posts with no comments and an eerie wind whistling through. thanks)

want to work at tribal ddb sfo?

Mark Lewis is trying the 'fill your vacancy via blog' route too.

"We are looking for someone fairly senior (7 to 10 years) with a mix of online, offline and general business experience. We aren't just looking for someone who is comms focused, but a person who can generate business building ideas too. In return you get a chance to help the Interactive Agency of the Year expand even further into the world of 2.0. Current clients range from Clorox to Nike and everything in between."

All the details and contact info are here.

want to work at tbwa?

Here's a message from Tom Morton of TBWA:

TBWA\London is looking for new talent for its planning department.  Two positions are on offer - one rising star / midweight and one midweight / senior.  Both are opportunities to work in a hybrid advertising / content / digital environment, and the accounts up for grabs include PlayStation.  Please send applications to tom.morton at tbwa-london.com.

And if you want to know what the competition might be like have a look at what Robin said about the responses he got when he stuck a job up here and on his blog.