Life’s A Team Game

Isn’t it funny how we change with time?
When I look back at the callow youth I once was Oh come on I was ...once) , I remember how important it was that I never show any sign of weakness. I was hungry, ambitious, and to be honest, a little naïve.
I saw teamwork as a cop-out, for people who couldn’t handle responsibility on their own. So I’d take whatever role was given to me, and I’d struggle away.
If anyone asked how I was doing my answer was always “Fine, thanks.” But it wasn’t always true. And although I’d usually get the job done, it wasn’t always done well.
Nowadays, it’s all very different.
I love teamwork.
There’s the social interaction for one thing. And there’s the joy in pooling a bunch of diverse resources into the creation of something truly exceptional.
It’s something I see happening a lot at Jack Morton, every day in fact.
Now I’m a lot more confident in what I bring to the team, and I recognise that that’s enough.
So when it comes to team working, make sure that you pick people whose strengths are your weaknesses.
Because between you, you’ll be unbeatable.

Yippie Kay-Ay Mother…

A lot of our favourite movie heroes made spectacular comebacks in the last couple of years.
My personal favourite was NYPD’s finest John McClane, (a middle aged bald guy who could have guessed I’d love him) dragged out of boozy retirement in Die Hard 4.0.
At one point, his young ward, played by Justin Long, looks incredulously at McClane’s battered face and asks, “What makes you that guy?”
Bruce Willis gives a typically laconic response “…because there’s nobody else to do it right now.”
Sometimes, there’s no-one else around who can do what needs doing.
So take responsibility, and get on with it.
Where I might disagree with John McClane is in his belief that he’s the "wrong guy, in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Since he always manages to get the job done, I’d argue that he’s actually the right guy… It’s just a matter of perspective.
Have a great week of being "the guy."

The Rhythm Method

This is going to sound a little weird, so stick with me.
Relationships are a little bit like dancing. (Maybe I have seen Billy Elliott too many times)
They both require strong partnerships, co-ordinated effort, and most importantly, a sense of rhythm. It’s all about understanding each other’s timing.
If it’s someone you haven’t seen in years, it takes a while to tune into the other person’s rhythm, and then it’s like you were never apart. But it’s the same for people that you see every day. As soon as your regular rhythm is interrupted, it takes a little while to get back into one another’s timing.
So far so good, but this blog isn’t about how to make your friendships last.
Think about your relationships at work – with clients and colleagues.
Commit yourself to keeping a steady rhythm. Check in, catch up and stay in touch.
Your colleagues will be quicker to support you, and your clients will feel more connected to what you’re offering.
That way, it’s less time spent catching up, and more time getting on.

What’s Your Centre Of Gravity?

There’s nothing quite so rewarding as being able to stretch your capabilities and diversify.
Our clients come to us for solutions, and it’s all too easy to assume the channel or platform is a given. In actual fact, part of what we should be offering is a willingness to think beyond what we’re known for. If an idea is a good one, it should work irrespective of the channel.
We’re in the communications business, not the events business – so let’s focus on the best way to communicate.
We’re lucky to be in this position – to have the flexibility and agility to think around a problem and take our talents in a new direction.
Many people work in industries where their skills or service offering are rigidly compartmentalised.
Sure, our centre of gravity might be experiential.
But having seen the world through that prism, there’s a lot more we can do beyond the creation of an experience.

Hunting The Big Beasts (Number 2)

In a recent post about 'big beasts' I promised to highlight some of the other key figures within Jack Morton.
Today it's the turn of our Executive Creative Director, Tim Elliott.
Aside from having an abundance of ideas and a questioning nature, Tim's another keen believer in the importance of humour (see Monday’s post).
During his years in the industry (no-one knows how many, although his likeness is embroidered in the Bayeux Tapestry) Tim has developed a lovely, warm and approachable style, based on the belief that management should be a friendly hand on the shoulder rather than a shout in the ear. He's a great presenter, a quick thinker and a keen popper of the balloons of ego. In any briefing or brainstorm, Tim will be the one to ask "Why should anyone care?" before we get carried away with our own brilliance.
Tim believes that everyone responds well to the unusual, and actively seeks out personality, inventiveness and a dose of humour in every project he touches. But he also recognises the same qualities in the people who make up his team.
As a consequence, he allows gut instinct to trump HR technique when recruiting, and told me once that investing in casual relationships can sometimes help to build a happy marriage...... OK that part isn’t true but everything else is.
Tim is one of the driving personalities within our business, and embodies much of what makes Jack Morton such a great company.
He's talented but self-deprecating, strong-willed but respectful.
Most importantly, he's still hungry, even after all these years.

The Only Certainties Death and Taxis

I was in the back of a London taxi yesterday and I was asking the cabbie, Mark, about the credit crunch and if he had seen any drop off in his income

He in a true London accent, for you Americans out there imagine the style of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, said

“No sir I haven’t, not at all, I just start earlier, finish later and work harder, that’s what you got to do”

I took that as a lesson

Funny How Like I’m A Clown I Amuse You?

Not everybody wants to be a clown. Joe Pesci, pretends to take exception to Henry laughing at one of his funny stories in Martin Scorcese’s Goodfellas.

On Friday Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks told a story about St Patrick's Day. Barack Obama and the Irish prime minister Brian Cowen were to speak to the crowd using an autocue. The speeches however were in the wrong order. The Irish prime minister began his speech when he realised he was reading the words President Obama was due to say.
Luckily he had a sense of humour. He told everyone what had happened and then said, 'Why do these things never work for me? Who said they're idiot proof?' Barack Obama entered the spirit of the occasion and began his speech: 'I'd like to thank Mr Obama.'
And that’s what we all need to do, especially when our plans go awry. It’s a tough world out there, and a good sense of humour (GSOH if you’re dating online er ...or so I’ve been told) is key to our survival.

One of my old bosses Iain Arthur firmly believed that a quick wit was a sure sign of intellect. So when things don’t go to plan, it’s an easy way of demonstrating that you’re still in control. And it’s a great indicator of chemistry – if someone’s laughing with you (rather than at you), then the relationship is already up and running.

So go on, make a joke. Have a laugh.
Now, have you heard the one about.....

Now For The Science Bit

If I asked you when you were last paratelic, you’d probably start racking your brain for the last time you had way too much to drink.
Ho, Ho. An easy joke, I know.
The fact is, the last time you were paratelic was when you felt the wind in your hair, or across your scalp in my case. It could have been the last time you gazed out of a bus window, or lost yourself in a great piece of music.
Paratelic is actually the state of mind in which we find ourselves when we’re truly relaxed and away from the things that occupy our minds – work, family, pressure. The opposite being ‘telic’ which is to be totally focused serious-minded, and keen to avoid disruption.
But you’re not here to brush up on cognitive psychology, so what on earth am I talking about?
Well, I first heard about telic and paratelic states years ago when I first started in experiential marketing. And the subject has become more and more relevant as our discipline has expanded and matured.
Traditional advertising has to tread a careful line between telic and paratelic audiences. If it interrupts people in a paratelic state, it can become an irritant.
Likewise, if they’re in a telic state, they may be more focused, but not necessarily on our message.
But experiential – that’s where the rules change.
We can capture an audience, and change their state. If they’re concentrating on one thing, we can take them away and help them to forget the pressures they face. Or if they’re wandering freely, we can build an experience that will focus their mind and change their behaviours.
Powerful stuff.
And a world of opportunities.
We just need to think about our audience, and their state of mind.

Have a very paratelic weekend

Changing Channels

Yesterday, I said (perhaps controversially) that the big idea is the easy bit.
A little glib perhaps.
My point is that it’s important that we stay focused on how we bring the idea to life.
Take one look at our business and you’ll see that execution is as essential as it ever was. When it comes to experiences, the audience are part of the solution, rather than just be talked at, or broadcast to, their emotional engagement and participation is vital.
So if something is poorly executed, the whole thing falls apart.
Flawless, faultless delivery will always be our bread and butter. But that shouldn’t sound like a bad thing.
Quite the opposite in fact.
We don’t just choose the channel, we create it.
Now doesn’t that sound like a pretty unique opportunity?

That was MY Idea

There’s not an agency in the world that isn’t scared that someone, somewhere is looking to steal their ideas.
So we go about our business like Secret Squirrel, convinced that every pitch is a beauty parade, designed to distract us for the corporate subterfuge that will see someone nick all our best ideas and run for the hills.
What a load of codswallop. I’ve been in this business for a good number of years now (answers on a postcard please), and I’ve never once seen it happen.
The paranoia is easy to understand – after all, great ideas are our chief currency. But the fact is, even when we win pitches, the big pitch idea hardly ever runs.
So what does all this mean?
Well, when we win pitches, our idea was in the words of Roy (Catchphrase) Walker, "its good but it’s not right."
It’s part of a whole cocktail of things that an agency needs to serve up to win a pitch.
The idea?
As we keep telling our clients, the best ideas are co-created out of a strong partnership.
And when we don’t win? Chances are, the ideas simply weren’t good enough.
Aha, I hear you cry. What about those instances when another agency wins the pitch, and yet something alarmingly familiar ends up running? Well, if the brief was a good one, it’s likely that more than one agency could come up with a similar execution.
So there you have it. No piracy, no corruption and no grand conspiracy.
Just a small world and a few coincidences.
We should be proud to share our ideas, shout them from the rooftop even.
Because the ideas are, sort of, the easy bit.
We all have them all day long, turning them into something that works – now there’s a challenge!

Eat The Frog

How good are you at managing your time?
Really?
The fact is, we all have a habit of leaving the crappy jobs ‘til last.
Which means that the job we are not looking forward to hangs over us like a storm cloud, we put it off and put it off, extend our deadline, move it down the to do list.
It then starts affecting our attitude, our mood and everything else we do, it casts a shadow over the rest of our day, our week.
If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend Eat That Frog! By Brian Tracy.
In it, he explores the positive benefits of tackling the least appealing task that faces you that day first.
If you get that horrible thing done first then everything else, as today’s kids would have it, is gravy.
Please note that I’ve even embedded the link directly to Amazon in this post, so you procrastinators have even less of an excuse.

Ban Miss World

There’s a lot of fuss at the moment about beauty parades.
Are they demeaning?
Do they have a viable place in modern society?
Actually, I’m not talking about Miss World – that’s for another blog entirely.
I’m referring to the beauty parade approach to pitching.
How many people do you think should be involved in the ideal pitch?
Things change pretty quickly in our world.
Clients are busy focusing on budgets, competitors and rate of sale and any number of other things.
You can’t expect them to be keeping up with all the changes in the agency landscape too.
So it makes sense that they want to get everyone in and find out what’s happening in the world beyond their inbox.
The key is to get ahead of the game.
My personal vision of Utopia is Agency Day
Clients set aside a day each quarter, or even every six months for Agency Day.
No brief.
No pitch.
Just an open invite for a number of agencies to “in whatever way you choose come in and impress us”
The objective would be to find the agency you want to work with or maybe the two top contenders and give them and only them a brief.
If nothing else, it’d be a fun way to spend the day.
For clients and agencies.
No swimsuit or evening wear, but definitely a talent round.

Media

Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch and me.
We’re all media owners with the power to influence and inform. The only thing that differs is the scale on which we do it.
And maybe our bank balances.
Whether it’s a Twitter feed, a blog or a fully functioning website, the digital world offers each and every one of us the opportunity to leverage our own media.
So far, so empowering. But what about clients, what media do you have?
My old boss Colin Lloyd (famously the L in KLP) used to say advertising is the use of media other people own, and below the line is the use of clients’ own media.
These days, the world has moved on and our media world is more complex than ever.
Interestingly, the one channel that continues to be the most difficult to communicate values through, is the forgotten channel - people.
They’re out there waiting to be activated. They just need something to believe in.
That’s where experiential comes in.
As Kid Rock, that well known marketing guru said:
“ If it looks good, you'll see it. If it sounds good, you'll hear it. If it's marketed right, you'll buy it. But if it's real… you'll feel it.”
He didn’t know it but he was talking about experiential marketing.
Audit and understand the various people channels at your disposal, both internal and external.
Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message”.
I’m saying “The medium is people.”

Be Prepared

Baden- Powell had a point but he don’t go far enough
Be prepared.......to change.
If you don’t like change, you’re in the wrong industry.
Whatever industry you’re in.
Change is the one constant in everyday corporate life.
Make it your friend.
Don’t fear it – make it welcome. It’s fine to have an overall plan, but make sure that you’re ready to change if necessary.
Because change will happen, for better or worse.
My old friend Michael Miley of G2 said “It’s not how you fall, its how you get up.”
And “how you get up” will usually be determined by how willing you are to embrace the change and make it work for you.
Be prepared to revise your plans monthly, weekly, maybe even daily
As Meg Whitman said before she left eBay “strategy meeting held once or twice a year to strategy meeting several times a week.”
When it comes to change, have your plans but be flexible.
In the 1980s I remember being part of a team that was presented with a 99 year business plan.
How flexible do you think that was?
The principle may be sound, but it’s the variables that make or break a strategy.
Tom Peters asked “What makes God laugh?”
“People making plans”
So get ready
Dob, dob, dob.

Hunting The Big Beasts (Number 1)

Every agency has a few big beasts. I’m not being unkind here, as these people are neither big or beastly.
I’m talking about the gurus.
The ones who just seem to exude a sense of confidence and originality in everything they do.
The ones who are at the top of our business, but in truth they could be at the top of any business
Some of them started our businesses.
Some of them helped build it.
But no matter how high they rise, they still enjoy nothing more than doing great work for clients.
We have a few of them here at Jack Morton and in this occasional series I’m going to talk about them
The one who I’m going to talk about first is the one who is going to hate it the most, so let’s get it out of the way.
I’m always inspired by David Zolkwer here at Jack Morton.
(Here is a You Tube of the Athens Olympic opening Ceremony which he created)
His passion, enthusiasm and tenacity are something else
The way he can turn chaos into order, complexity into simplicity and in the meantime deliver stunning work is a privilege to behold
This is the kind of seniority that commands, rather than demands, respect.
Like I said, every business has big beasts.
You’ll know them by their unstinting hunger.

Take A Chill Pill

How much is too much?
What’s your saturation point?
In this 24-7/365 world, where the Blackberry means you’re always in touch, there comes a point where you just need to get away.
And I don’t mean two weeks in the south of France, although that’d be nice if anyone’s offering.
It’s really about doing something different.
Get up and wander around.
Talk to someone new.
Or take a different route home for a change.
Sometimes, all it takes is a small shift or a break from the norm to recharge the batteries.
And it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than two weeks in Cannes.

Everyone Loves A Loser

The call’s been made. We came a close second.
No cigar.
So what do we do? Take the phone off the hook and head for the nearest bar?
Of course not. This is no time to be drowning our sorrows.
Or making excuses.
At this point, it’s time for a commercial break.
Please read David Kean’s ‘How not to come second’. Genius!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Not-Come-Second-Business/dp/1904879624
He knows all the excuses in the world, and he explodes every single one of them.
Right, where was I? That’s right – how to deal with rejection.
I honestly believe that some of the best opportunities come out of a failed pitch. There are always deals to be done – especially when the client bothers to call and say “We loved you but...”
Listen to the ‘but’. Learn from it. And figure out what other opportunities to exist.
You’re already talking about how great you are, so turn that into something.
Ask about other projects, develop the relationship and build something durable.

Added Value

This may sound harsh, but it’s a tough world so get used to it.
In the bad old days (I did work through the 80s) I used to have a boss called Mike Owers, who used to joke (I think), “Your salary is not an attendance allowance”.
He had a point though.
We’re not there out of the goodness of your heart, and that pay cheque isn’t to say ‘thank you’ for showing up.
We need to make a difference. We all need to do more.
Turning up doesn’t cut it, neither does covering the bases. Think about what we can do to make the company you work for stand out. What will make you memorable? And additionally what will make you feel good when you go home at the end of the day.
If you seen The Devil Wears Prada, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. And if not, I recommend it. In particular, the harsh pep talk that sharp-tongued Art Director Stanley Tucci gives to Anne Hathaway when she bemoans her lack of progression.
To paraphrase, he points out that she isn’t really trying. Sure, she turns up, she works hard, and she tries hard. But she doesn’t really care. She’s not passionate about what she does:
He says “And what's worse, you don't care. Because this place, where so many people would die to work, you only deign to work.”
Most of us in our industry are fortunate enough to be in jobs that we love.
So why not show how much we love it by doing more? Accomplishing more?
Because I know for a fact we’ll enjoy it more.

Let's Get Naked

Hard as this may be to believe, but I wasn’t always a hit with the ladies.
In fact, when I was 15, I struggled to make an impression with the girls.
On reflection, I think part of the problem was my outspoken views about transparency and honesty. Never one for games and routines, I was keen to get to the point.
Unfortunately, I always expressed that as desire to get naked, to get to a position of essential honesty, that didn’t really work for my audience.
Many years later (no prizes for guessing how many years ), I’m a little more successful, but my opinions haven’t changed. I think 15 year-old me had a point.
It’s all too easy to hide behind artifice and insincerity, when what people really want is something real.
A real connection, a real experience, a real relationship.
That’s what we as agencies should be giving our clients. Let’s not forget that ultimately, people buy people. So the more real we are, the more likely it is that clients will opt to work with us over our competition.
If we’re true to ourselves, they’ll know exactly what they’re getting. And chances are, they’ll like it.
So let’s get naked. Strip away the facade and show ourselves for what we really are.
Who’s with me?

Its All About Me

What are credentials presentations for?

I haven’t forgotten, it’s kind of a rhetorical question.
But it’s one we should be asking ourselves every time we head out the door with a laptop and projector under our arm.
The thing is, ego gets the best of us, and we go on and on about how great we are, this big, this many people, this many awards. So far so blah, blah, blah

As my old mate Gareth Dixon of Rainmaker www.intelligentnewbusiness.com said last year – in his influential new business report “no clients want PowerPoint”.

We need to go back to the word credentials. According to the dictionary it means “a document giving evidence of the bearer's identity or qualifications”. So when someone asks us for credentials, they just want to make sure that we can do what we say we can do.

I sometimes wonder how easy it would be to go into a presentation and make the whole thing up. And chances are, that’s exactly what some people do when the credentials presentation comes around.
Gone are the days when ‘creds’ used to mean bank details, headcount and client referral letters.
I think the key now, is to pull together a relevant credentials story for that client, on that day at that time.

What we’re capable of, who we are, and what makes us a unique bunch of people to work with, that could be one sheet of paper

Best of all for Jack Morton it’s all true.

http://www.jackmorton.com/

Made To Measure?

Great news - Jack Morton, those are the guys I work for, managed to make the Times Top 100 places to work list. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/best_100_companies/article5666884.ece
Not only is this a great achievement in itself, it also means we're in pretty prestigious company.
So what now?
Do we sit back and wait for the great and the good to congratulate us?
I don't think so.
As tremendous as this achievement is, this is really just the first step on a journey. A journey that starts with an objective “Let’s be a great place to work”
We're 59th this year, which means that next year we don’t want to do any worse and maybe we’ll do a little bit better.But at least we'll know what we're measuring.
That's the thing about measurement - it's not a cure-all panacea for all your business ills.
It's simply a guide to what you're doing well, or what you should be doing better.
It's an all too common problem.
We spend so much time talking measurement, metrics and return on investment, that we focus too much on the 'how', overlooking the 'what' and the 'why'.
Take time to consider what success looks like.
Think about your objectives, and ask whether those are really the right goals for your business. Focus on what’s mission critical.

Small Steps and Giant Leaps

Not sure what sort of parent it makes me and I’m sure that my children are getting the rough end of the deal but I feel I learn more from my children than they learn from me.

My son Fox (yes Fox) is 13 and he's currently playing the lead role in Billy Elliot the Musical in at The Victoria Palace Theatre www.billyelliotthemusical.com in London's West End. Seats at all prices

He's been in the role for nine months now, but I can still remember his debut clearly. I sat in the stalls with family and friends and I was more than a little nervous.
He came on stage and he looked great, relaxed assured and wonderful. At the end he got a got a standing ovation.

At the after show party (the rock and roll life style at 13 what can I tell you!) after congratulating him
I asked how he'd managed to stay so calm and confident.
He told me that before the show he had been shaking so hard he could barely stand still, he mimed being attached to pneumatic drill.

But as the curtains went up he reminded himself how long he'd been working for this, and that this was exactly the place he wanted to be, all he had to do to fulfil his ambition was take one small step on to the stage.
So he stepped and changed his life.

I thought that was pretty insightful for a 13 year old. And there's something we can all learn from.
This economic downturn has us all trembling in the wings.
But we have talent, we are focused and driven.
Now's the time to perform. Like the saying goes, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

So make that leap, the ovation is sure to follow.