Take Your Pick

King for a day.
Or pauper for a lifetime.
Which would you choose?
It’s not a trick question.
And you already know the answer.
So here’s another question for you.
What are you going to change?

Why Do You Do That?

Why do you do the things you do?
Because you need to eat?
Because you have bills to pay?
Because you have no choice?
Not exactly motivational.
It’s time to put those reasons aside.
No matter what else is going on in your life, the thing you do is the thing you would choose to do.
If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be doing it.
So stop hiding behind excuses that prevent you from putting your heart into it.
Because it’s not “just a job”.
It’s your passion.
Your reason.
Forget about the money, forget about the bills.
Focus on what drives you.
Do the thing you’re most passionate about.
And think about how much happier you’ll be

Unlocking The Creative

If ever you're in need of an effective quote to illustrate a point,
Aristotle is your go-to guy.
He gave the world countless thoughtful perspectives on human nature, and probably cleaned up on the after-dinner circuit.
One of my favourite quotes by the Greek philosopher and scientist neatly distills all human experience into a single sentence:
" All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire."
My advice?
Steer clear of causes one through four.
Five, six and seven - there's your motivation.

I’ll Be Wearing A White Carnation

Pitching for new clients is a lot like a first date.
I’ve done plenty of both, so I speak from experience.
You start out feeling a little nervous.
So you try hard.
Maybe a little too hard.
They’re polite.
Maybe a little too polite.
You stay on safe ground.
Maybe a little too safe.
And you come away from it feeling a little meh!
Probably in need of a cold shower too.
Think how much more you’d both enjoy it if you relaxed.
If you went into it as the real you.
Warts and all.
Open up.
Show your true colours.
And whatever you do, don’t play it safe.
It’s not attractive.
It’s not memorable.
And it won’t get you the second date which, let’s face it, is the real reason you turned up.

Why Put Yourself Out There?

Winning new business, to paraphrase Jerry Maguire is an up-before-dawn, back-breaking rollercoaster ride of hard work.
So much so that I’ll never tell you about.
So why do I do it?
Because I understand just how good every other agency is.
And I know how hard they work to get new clients.
If you want to be the best, which Jack Morton is, you have to be better.
You have to work harder.
So I turn up to every networking opportunity.
I take every meeting.
I make calls late at night and throughout the weekend.
There’s no ‘off’.
Could I get by with saying no a few times?
Yes I could.
And that’s the point.
I always say yes.
Saying ‘no’ quickly becomes a habit.
Do you want to work late?
No.
Do you want to get involved in this pitch?
No
Can we meet at 8?
No
No means less work.
No means the comfort zone.
No is not a challenge.
But Yes.
There’s a word.
That means extra effort.
That’s full of hard work.
That’s rife with possibilities
And if you use it right... full of new business.

Pitchology

Brace yourselves.
I got it wrong.
I made a mistake.
And I’m happy to own up to the fact.
I spend so much of my time thinking about the psychology of pitching that I lost sight of the one immutable truth.
No matter how much you think you know about an outcome, you know nothing until you are told.
Shocking, isn’t it.
We were invited to participate in a multi-agency pitch for a major brand.
Time was precious, so all the IPG agencies were busy doing their own bit.
It was all very rushed.
Geographically we were all over the place.
When it came to the video-conference, our presentation was finished with just seconds to spare.
The client dialled in, late Friday evening, not the best time.
It wasn’t looking hopeful.
We did our thing but, I wasn’t sure we’d captured the room.
So it was a pleasant surprise on Saturday to hear that we were through to the next round.
Go team!
Even with my knowledge and experience, I’d come away thinking we’d lost it.
But that’s the thing – you never know what’s in the head of the guys across the table until they tell you.
You can rake over the coals and worry about what you could have done differently.
Until the client makes a decision, you have to stay positive and imagine it’s in the bag.
Otherwise you’re just wasting energy on an unknown outcome.
You might be surprised...

One At A Time

When times change, you have two choices.
Change with them, or get out of the way.
In simpler times, it was easy to see life as a track to follow.
Linear.
Straight-forward.
Create task,
Complete task.
Create task
Complete task.
Repeat
Nowadays, it's more like a massive interchange,
(I thinking the areal shot of the LA freeway)
With constantly shifting connections.
Focus is all well and good.
But it now needs to be directed in multiple directions and all at once.
There's no point waiting for the task to be completed before you move to the next
As the opportunity will be gone .
And all the other elements that demand your attention won't go away.
Don’t close yourself off, open yourself up.
It's tricky at first, but far more rewarding in the end.
Thank me when you get to number 23 on your to-do list.

Standing On The Shoulders Of Genius

I know I've talked about the concept of genius before.
That's because I think genuine genius is a lot more common than we realise.
OK, maybe not the absent-minded, I-can't-remember-how-to-get-home Einstein variety.
But take a look around, you're probably surrounded by genius.
Except that maybe you don't notice it ,
because you're too busy trying to control it.
The most important thing we can do is help other people achieve their own personal greatness.
And sometimes, that's as easy as getting out of the way.
If you try to control the process, you'll only succeed in limiting the people around you.
As a result, they'll only progress as far as you can reach.
Have the confidence to let people do their thing, and you'll be amazed at what you can achieve.
So if it ever looks like I'm not doing anything,
remember,
it's because I'm encouraging you to do yours.
Be brilliant.

The Future Of Brands

After a presentation I made last week,
(it was great you should have been there)
one of the guys asked a very interesting question.
If the future of brands is in the experiences they create (that was the central thesis of my yarn), is advertising dead?
The answer, of course, is no.
Well, the short answer anyway.
Brands will need to define themselves in the experiences they create.
Whether that’s in a marketing context or through any other touchpoint with their audiences: service, call centre, sales people, store staff and so on.
When it comes to marketing, the central thrust has to leverage a single piece of IP across all media.
And that includes live experiences.
That’s how you achieve a brand experience, even if you’re not in the ‘live events’ arena.
That were you achieve a brand experience even when one is not in the live arena.
Take a look at ComparetheMarket.com
Is it an ad campaign or a brand experience?
It’s both.
In fact, Charles Carruthers of VCCP (the agency) used to talk about the VCCP as creating brand experiences.
The central piece of IP has now been leveraged across a variety of media.
Whether you like him or not, Alexander is on Twitter and has already written his autobiography.
Read it – it’s just another brand experience.
Simples.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Let’s Put On A Show

There’s an old truism about sales people.
The bad ones tend to rely on expensive sales aids to support them.
They are nervous, they know it’s going to be hard.
And they’re unsure or unwilling to put the work in.
But that means they miss the point about what really works in sales.
A simple exchange.
One person talking to another.
Making a connection.
Here’s a solution for you, now let’s discuss it.
It’s the essence of doing business.
And it’s the same whether you’re talking to one person or ten thousand.
They’re here to hear your message.
OK, you may need to create a little theatre.
Make it a show.
But don’t confuse the delivery with the method.
It’s there to support it, not recreate it.
These days our toolkit is overflowing.
Augmented reality.
3D.
Projection mapping.
Looks great, but none of it will disguise a badly constructed piece of thinking.
However, it will enhance good thinking and help you to make a lasting impact.
Just remember which one comes first.

Thank Crunchie It's Friday

Up and out by 6 am.
Speaking engagement at 8 am.
Rush to the office.
Pitch review meeting with team.
Pitch review with another team for another client.
Pitch review with yet another team for yet another client.
Energy levels sky high.
Conference call with client about a new pitch opportunity
Then shoot across town to pitch a multi-agency global campaign.
At the stage door of the National to pick up sons after a major audition.
Home.
Drink (tea).
Bed.
A day in the life, or was it my life in a day?
Either way it was a great day.
Thanks for being part of it.

What Do We Tell The Children?

I always know when I walk in the front door that the kids will ask me about my day.
What have I been up to?
Where did I go?
Who did I see?
I try to sketch out the physical bits - the travel, the meetings, the conversations,
What I don't tell them about is all the emotional stuff.
That great conversation with a client or colleague.
When we're talking about work, but having a great time doing it.
The time that we unlocked a tricky brief and pulled together a great solution as a team.
Or how about when we came to a global brief a week behind the other agencies, and had to shift half the agency around to get the job done?
Not forgetting those great moments when hard working and talented junior members of the team get rewarded with a promotion (well done Zoe and Ellie).
They're the things I don't tell the kids about.
Maybe because there's so much to explain.,
I don't tell them, and I should.
Because that's what it's about.
That's what it's always been about.
The relationships.
Invest in them and you'll never be poor.
And the kids?
Don't worry about them - they read the blog, so now they know.

You Like Me, You Really Like Me

I’ve been banging on about brand experience and experience brands for a while now.
That’s because the concept is always front-of-mind for me.
I’m always looking for a simple, engaging way to explain the appeal of the idea.
It’s actually very easy.
Experience brands have very human characteristics.
So they need to be like the nicest person you know.
“How so?” you ask...
I’ll tell you.
Experience brands are:
Friendly - we want one-to-one relationships with our brands and we expect them to feel the same
Inviting - we like new opportunities to become involved in their worlds, and of course visa versa
Passionate - we love brands that are clearly passionate about the things they do and the reasons behind their actions
Memorable – life is about experiences that create memories, memories that we can share. And any brand that helps us do that is a friend for life.
Creative - we are all cynical, we’ve been hearing for years that we don’t believe marketing but any brand that cuts through, with a piece of cleverness, is worthy of a relationship
Celebrities - we want our brands to be famous, and it says something about us if they take a reciprocal interest
Real, Right and Relevant – Do the right thing, do it because it’s true, and do it because it matters to me
Easy going – all expressions of the brand from the look and feel to the experiences they create need to be simple from every perspective
You’re probably looking back at that list to see if I’ve used those words to make a clever acrostic.
But I haven’t, because I’m not that nice a person.
An experience brand would have made the effort...

A Refusal Often Offends

Call me old-fashioned....
(and if you do I’ll kick you with my winkle pickers)
...but I’m not sure it’s ever a good thing to turn down opportunities with clients.
Any opportunity.
Yes I know there are clients out there that are hard to get on with.
”We’ve pitched seven times and never won. Let’s just cut our losses”
I get that, it’s almost a chemical thing, you just don’t mix.
I’m not talking about those.
I’m talking about the “we’re too busy to do this justice, we’re sorry but we can’t pitch” opportunities.
In my view, if you turn that job down you’ll sully your reputation with that client for about three years.
Or at least until the client team has all been replaced.
The truth is, the position changes with every passing day.
We’ve had several pitches in this week and we’re straining every sinew to get them done.
Suddenly, out of the blue, one has been pushed back by 3 weeks.
Another has been postponed.
It started looking like the week from hell.
Now it’s a lot more manageable.
But just imagine the damage we could have done if we’d been first to turn down one of those opportunities.
We need to project an attitude that “anything’s possible”.
Not “now’s not a good time for us”.
We knew the next few months were going to be tough.
Let’s just get through it with a smile on our face.
Harvest is the hardest time of year for farmers.
But they soldier on because they know that the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.
Now, it’s my turn to drag the plough.

Hang In There

When the pressure’s on, it’s easy to look for a way out.
But where’s the sense of accomplishment if you give up the moment things get tough?
OK, that’s easy for me to say.
But then, I’m one of those people who relishes a challenge.
And I’m stubborn enough to disprove anyone who dares to say ‘it can’t be done’.
As Josh Billings once said: “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.”
The toughest thing you have to do today, should be the first thing that you do.
Once that’s out of the way, you can focus on all the other things that need your attention.
If you try and multitask, you’ll simply prove that you can fail at many things at once.