Get Noisy

So.

Let’s start off with the shameless self promotion bit.

I just launched CommunicatorLondon.com new site and proposition.

I’ve done that as I’ve taken over as the Creative Director and to build the future of the agency.

Why?

As I believe the future of advertising isn’t in huge networks but with small and nimble ones that can deliver just what the clients are looking for.

How?

By working in a new way. Being more open and honest with our process and including our clients and partners along the way to produce better work.

So let’s get noisy.

You Forgot Your Hood Mate

It’s Friday evening. My train pulls up at the station, the side gate where everyone normally funnels through to get to the exit is locked. Everyone is being directed towards the only open gate. On this night it is packed with ticket inspectors doing their rounds to make sure everyone has paid for their travels.

As I queue up to show my valid travel card someone pushes past. They’re walking briskly until one of the inspectors shouts out ‘Stop’. He doesn’t stop. In fact he does the opposite. He runs.

As he does the ticket inspector reaches out to grab him. He’s running with speed and the inspector only manages to snag the man’s hood. Luckily for him it was a click on style one and he got away.

He’s now running down the road.

The inspector calls out.

“You forgot your hood mate”

The man for some reason runs back. He tries to grab his hood back and turn around. Only he’s now surrounded. No running this time. He’s escorted to pay his fine.

Now this isn’t a story about paying your way on trains. You should know that.

Instead let’s talk logic.

The man had got away. He came back. I can only assume he really loves his jacket. That potentially it is his favourite thing in the whole world. Even then, replacing a hood must be a lot cheaper than paying the fine.

Humans as much as we like to think are logical and wonderfully smart creatures are prone to irrational choices. Moments of oddness.

Times when someone advertising that you’ve left your hood compels you to action.

Advertising likes to think of audiences in models. Predictable behaviour, audiences making logical leaps. If someone searches for blinds, let’s keep hitting them with adverts for blinds. Oh, they’ve already got them. That’s clear indication they're blind fans, let’s keep showing them more blinds. They’ll love it.

If someone has indicated they're a parent, let’s target them with adverts about their child’s future. It’s logical that they’ll be worried about their children’s future.

Sure, it’ll work sometimes.

I mean I know am the proud owner of over 150 types of blinds*

But let’s not forget those fuzzy leaps of logic.

We don’t buy, follow or like in completely predictable ways.

There is so much pressure on our industry to justify itself. Prove it works. Show us the results. Tell me that your advert or campaign will result in more sales, sign ups and brand love.

Yes we should factor that into every campaign.

It shouldn’t define every aspect of it through.

Keep space open for just connecting with our audience in other fuzzy ways. We keep talking about creating a ‘relationship’ with our audiences. Well relationships are fuzzy things within themselves. Sometimes you will give your friend a call just because. You’ll go for a coffee not because you want anything but a shared time can be all you need.

So let’s help our brands connect with our audiences with value. Let’s remember some of that value is wonderful and fuzzy.

*Not really. That’d be crazy. I only have 149.

Social II - This time it's not personal.

Poof

Or maybe it was more of a 'Clink'.

The internet was born. Then came the web. Then came the user-groups, the forums and message boards. The wild west days of online. Slowly through the early chat groups people formed bonds, created communities and celebrated that they had a place to be themselves.

You could be anyone online. For a lot of people that meant for the first time a chance to be yourself. Who you really are. The nerdy collector of train sets, free to spend nights sharing news on rare carriages.

It was sort of social, it was definitely sharing. It wasn't personal. It was through filters of usernames and avatars. Random address for emails. An army of 'TrainFan1955' brushing up next to thousands of 'SparkleFairy666's. A filter that stood in the way of you and everyone else.

Then businesses began to forge out of the thousands of networks and linked up machines. E-Commerce. Companies wanted to get to know this new market. They wanted to get closer to help sell more.

Platforms began to rise that allowed people to be more formally grouped. The business of the internet got serious. Places that allowed people to connect not as avatars but form real bonds with people who they knew online and offline.

These new places where we could blog, share our passions, connect with old university friends and share our CVs gave us the chance to bring together our real experiences with our digital ones.

This was the first wave of social media.

We shared our moments, our lunches, our marriages, our holidays. We liked our favourite albums, books and movements. We became so very open about our feelings.

The platforms made it easier for businesses to talk to us, contact us and market to us.

And everyone was happy.

Until they weren't.

This is how Context Collapse began.

There is a growing wave of new users of social platforms who are sharing less personal moments, creating fake personas, curating reality.

People might use their real names but they're not sharing their real lives. There is a filter now, only it is the user filtering themselves. All while presenting a new self. A new 'real' the one they want to show the world.

How can you get closer to an audience if our audiences digital self isn't their true self? What good is big data when it can only show the front that people want to show? Sure some will say more data, more algorithms and more tracking is needed.

The more digital is allowed to snoop, the more the audiences will find a way of avoiding you all together. You only need to look at digital display to see this in action. As banners got better at tracking, following and serving up more - the more invasive it became and the more our audiences rejected them. Ad blockers became a thing. Even mobile networks are helping their users block adverts.

So how can we tap into a less personal social audience?

As Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram become more curated versions of reality we need to stop thinking of our audience as a waiting mass. I've often heard the phrase "fish where the first are" when explaining the use and rise of social platforms over digital experiences. That's forgetting one key part of fishing. The lure.

We need to stop jumping into places and expecting our audience to just welcome us. We can build experiences and campaigns across the digital and physical landscape that have room for our audiences to come to us.

The old school viral moment happened not because of thrusting a message into enough people's faces but delighting a few through working with blogs and platforms to seed out content. Just enough to help it spread. Then the audience took over and made it go viral or not. They decided to share it in messages, emails and their own spaces on their terms. Not ours. They held the power over our messages.

That's how we use social and digital - to give our audiences a say. After all that's what social should be about. Two way conversation and a that requires us listening and not just paying for attention.

Create a space to work with our audiences and listen to them. The platforms are tools to get closer but we shouldn't let that define the relationships that we build with audiences.

Being social means being part of our audiences lives, not just platforms.

What's in a name?

The line. There it is. Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash

It might be due to the creative nature of advertising and marketing but we really like the idea of naming things. Above the line. Below the line and of course going through that line. Where did the line start and where is it going? No one knows. We just like to know our relative position to it.

Then of course we have 360, integrated, big ideas, content marketing, influencer activations all coming together for a marcom's plan.

We have big data, experiential and viral stunts. Some of these terms sticks others get replaced with updated versions to keep up with trends. Organic reach and social video does sound more pleasant than 'going viral'.

As useful as all these terms are they do have a downside. Names frame thinking. Words shape ideas before they've even begun. This is something that politics and propaganda have known for years. Newspeak, unspeak and loaded words framing the argument or thinking in simple terms. If you don't believe that then you're clearly FAKE NEWS.

We should take a look at one single term that we use everyday and what we might do to make it a little more powerful. Positive propaganda if you will.

Let's talk about the idea.

I like the idea of idea. Big ideas. Little smart ones. Ideas that can grow. Ideas that can be shared. It is a powerful word, it does make us all feel like maverick creators or masters of fusing science and art. We're the home of the idea.

What's wrong with calling things an idea?

Well I believe an idea is only an element of what we should be presenting and framing our thinking about.

I believe we should start thinking about presenting something else.

And here I come to my solution to the problem.

Let's replace talking about ideas with thinking about solutions. Rather than briefing our creatives on thinking of the big idea, let's think of the solution. The smart solution, the simple one, the complex solution.

Ideas on their own can be empowered when they're part of a solution. We do this already and we call it a 'case study' we look at how we solved a problem with our ideas. A good idea naturally creates a perfect solution.

Let's start bringing in solutions into our earliest thinking. Hopefully that way we won't just be creating a great idea that fits a gap in the marketing plan but something that creates value for our clients by solving a key problem to their business.

It also helps us think of data, platforms and even TV scripts as all equal in playing a role in finding a solution. A solution requires all teams coming together to find the right way of tackling something. It should hopefully remove those departmental silos that most agencies still cling to.

Think in solutions

An idea will still play a central role but it must work with all the other elements. We don't loose anything but we do gain a chance to broaden our thinking. As Creatives I would hope everyone would welcome that chance.

It might work. Who knows but it is my solution to opening up more thinking. So next time we are tempted to present ideas, let's show our clients how our solutions can transform their businesses.

In praise of a white room

Photo by Philipp Berndt on Unsplash

I love the potential of emptiness. It isn't the nothingness itself that inspires me. It is what people can do with it that delights and surprises me.

What would you do with a white room?

Whenever I interview people, or if I get chance in conversation, I'll often ask them what they'll do with a white room. Imagine you were given a empty space, a white room, you have the chance and resources to shape it anyway you're capable of. As long as it is something that you can do, you can do it in that room.

The size and location of the room isn't important, what's outside in this situation isn't the driver of creation. It is white just to illuminate the emptiness of it.

In this scenario it is about you and the blank canvas that is the room in front of you. You can bring things, people, pens, paint, reshape and make that room however you please. You are the catalyst for creativity here. So what is it you create with your white room?

This is what you do when creativity is in your hands.

Now this might seem weird but I'm not interested in the answer as much as there is an answer. There is no right or wrong answer. The answer is not what I'm looking for. It is about creativity. Your process, your thinking. I'm not interested in the exact things that people would do but more that they have shaped a void into something creative. I make no judgement of the worth of that creation, only the drive to create.

Asking a question when you aren't worried about the answer might seem odd to some. For me though, I'm interested in what is the motivation to being creative. Where does that impulse to make come from? Where does it drive you? What are you like when you call the creative shots? What does the core of your creativity shape within you?

The best and most exciting creative people I've ever met are creative without the permission of any agency, job role or title. They create. They make. If our industry didn't exist, they'd still be creatives somewhere else. Asking the question for them is just a chance to create. To think and make something, the question excites them as it feels full of potential. They don't view it as a trick, or worry about a 'right' answer. They just race with ideas and thoughts.

Those are the people who I know are the problem solvers and nimble makers who will adapt and create no matter what faces them. They don't see absence as a blocker but a stepping stone to creation. Our jobs as Creative Directors and as agencies is to tap into that creativity and help it shape and flow in ways that solve the problems we and our clients face. Knowing that our creatives are motivated by potential is powerful.

Potential is powerful. The White room a canvas.

They just represent a chance to imprint your creativity. A chance to define what is around you. For people like me it is a chance to understand the way you approach creation and creativity.

Over the years, those who've jumped at the challenge of the white room question, who've been excited by the question itself, have gone on time and time to amaze me. Some have set up companies in fields that have only just emerged, others have shaped departments and companies with pitch wins and training. They've all shown me that their creativity is something that defines their job. Not their jobs ever defining their creativity.

So when you're faced with nothing use it as a jumping point for creation then no white room, blank canvas or brief will ever bore or intimidate you. Instead you'll be excited to shape things using the core of your creativity.

iPhones used to be bold

It's late. The Apple conference is about to begin. I have it ready to watch on my Macbook. Not that I care. I mean I'm only watching ironically. Not like those other people who are tuning in who really care and get worked up by phones. Oh no. Not me. I'm totally only doing this because I thought it would be funny.

I tune out and hop over to YouTube whilst also checking the blogs. Waiting for the first wave of influencers to tell me what they're contractually allowed to. Good to get authentic view points on these things.

And as the 'one more thing' rolls over and finishes I reflect on the moment and ponder my feelings.

Have a load of this Apple

The iPhone X. Brilliant. That display. It has a ton of benefits and features that I'll probably forget all about not longer after it is launched. Just like Force Touch, or 3D touch or whatever that thing was called when I press a little too hard and a menu pops up. Still it is beautiful and bigger.

So that's a big tick in my book. It looks good.

Well apart from that top bit. That's clunky and message. [Insert some generic and uninformed comment on what Steve Jobs would have done here]

Okay, so next up with have Face ID. Which is brilliant. I have a Face. Unlike fingers which I regularly forget to take with me or take off at night, I keep my face on me at all times. No more will I have that awkward moment on the tube where I press my finger to unlock Apple Pay while looking at where I'm going. I can now stare at my phone and the Oyster card reader at the same time.

Finally we have our killer feature. Animoji. Emoji based on Anime characters from Manga Video UK's back catalogue. Niche but powerful.

Oh. Animated Emoji. Well at first I was like :) then I was more :( but finally I was totally :D

I have to admit though that the best thing that really stood out for me was the design. That edge to almost edge display. It's so unlike the last phone. Which will show everyone that I've got the latest phone. Not like one of those uncool nerds that carry last year's model or even worse a Samsung model.

What happened to innovation and being bold

Nothing. It is right there, in all those things we commentators poke holes in and ridicule. Apple, Samsung and many other companies are pushing the very limits of technology and innovation. Those things that we decry are the bold innovation we're crying out for.

Yet every year we degrade into pointing out why something isn't amazing. Why something is just pointless. The truth of it is though that all the industry people, the tech commentators and even influencers don't actually command what is amazing.

The real world does. People using these features, everyday in their own ways. That will be where amazing is made. Does Apple always get it right? No but neither does any company (remember the Samsung S4's overloaded gimmicks) but at the end of it all when the features meet the world, wonder can be decided. The boldness is there, we just shouldn't mistake a bold move for an amazing move. Only time tells that.

The iPhone itself was amazing in the hands of real people. The Phablet became a thing. iPad jokes were quickly brushed aside. It was never the camera on the iPhone that was amazing but how simple it was for everyday people to share their creations.

At the end of it all, let those of us who feel the need to comment on things, be excited to see what everyday people do next. Yes, see the potential and pitfalls but let's follow the story of technology beyond the Keynote. Let's explore the impact it'll bring to the everyday and stick with the story. Too much rushing from one clickbait moment to the next means we never take time to asset value.

The iPhone is bold. We just don't know what bits of boldness are amazing. Yet.

It might be a case of ten years down the line people are getting fatigue. Maybe the phone industry is growing up but let us hold on to our childhood glee.

Then we can really see what amazing is, not just to us but to everyone.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

We’ve been dumped. It’s time to move on.

Nadya Powell has broken up with advertising. Some in the industry haven’t taken the new so well. Others are jumping to defend our industry in a “Well, good riddance, we don’t need you” scorned lover way. I know its been a few weeks since the original article but I thought it deserved some thought and time to respond.

Let's get the end, started.

For me though, I think we need to start accepting the break up. Deal with our emotions and see what we can learn from our relationship with such a great creative.

So I thought I’d look at her ‘Dear John’ and try and work out what went wrong, what I / we can do to help our industry get over it.  I won't break down every point but only mention what stood out to me.

“You don't have any dreams anymore .You stopped talking about what we could do. You started cutting corners. Doing things on the cheap. In less time. And what’s worst is that you don’t seem to care.”

Like most relationships, we got comfortable. There was the time when we were the pioneers. Our teenage years when we wowed the world with the use of the new platforms. I’ll admit it, maybe we tried too hard to be grown up. We didn’t embrace the weird and wonderful of our youth. We’ve tried to tidy up and be more presentable as an industry. We wanted to be seen as more than entertainment and distraction. In our strive to be grown up we wanted to show the world that what we do matters.

That meant we lost our confidence about our role in society. We began to think that we were important. Gate keepers to game-changing moments. Our rewards began to reflect our new found worthy egos.

That meant, without the confidence in ourselves, we tried to be too many things to too many people. We spread ourselves too thin. We forgot that we were about the big idea. Got carried away with big executions and novelty. We wrote scripts instead of tapping into insights as we wanted to be up there with TV shows. We built experiences without ideas as we were jealous of technology.

You’re right for a while, we lost the dream.

But in a way we had to. We’ve been on our travels. We’ve been ‘finding ourselves’. We made mistakes.

And let's not forget we're a new bunch. We're a fuzzy bunch of Gen X, Millennials and all sorts of buzzwords that the folks before left us. There was a lot of baggage in the industry we had to get past to really start settling in ourselves. We had to bridge the gap between a time of TV and print into a new world of digital and social. We literally saw the rise of a new world in our time. No wonder we tried to be a little bit of everything and anything.

We have new dreams now. We’re finding our confidence again as an industry. We’re trying to bring out the rebel youth but with the ability to handle problems like a grown up. We’re more open now, happier to work with specialists. Embracing collaborations like never before.

Our dreams are back but they’re fragile and I understand why, when you’ve been with us when it got hard why it might be hard to see them. They are there. I know that you’ve moved on, left us but know that your words will help us move on ourselves. So thank you.

“You have a new love. And she's called data”

I know. We were trouble when we got together. I would like to say that we fell in with a bad crowd but we can’t blame data. Trouble that advertising isn’t alone in. Innovation, Tech and even Supermarkets have been learning how best to use data, and ‘big data’ in particular left lots of industries confused. Though, we’ve managed to learn a lot in a short time - we're moving quicker as an industry then we ever have before. Smaller shops and nimble agencies are popping up to adapt quickly.

"So fuck you."

I guess, on the whole the industry might deserve that. It is a break up and I know it can get a bit intense getting everything out. No response back from me other than that I understand it isn't personal. Not now. It has been a long time coming.

I could go on, in more detail on every point in the original post but I feel like in the interest of everyone’s time I should sum up thus:

Advertising is constantly reborn.

Advertising isn’t and hasn’t been one long line of continuous industry. Each generation helps shape what advertising has become. It has adapted, changed and evolved. Sluggish at some points, pioneering at other times.

The industry is a reflection of what we’re trying to do. Its mistakes are our mistakes. It is easy to blame this entity called ‘the industry’ and to distance ourselves from its faults.

Advertising is in the hands of the people who create it.

Like you say, this is a relationship. So maybe me, you and everyone else who’s helped shape this industry, even just a little bit, should accept our role in the problems this industry faces.

As any good relationship councillor will tell us - make sure we’re not projecting our problems. So let’s start with reflection and then we can, even if we split up, go onto stronger healthier relationships. Nadya's break up letter was a lot of 'you's and little looking back at the two way part of the relationship. So I'll make sure, post break up I'll focus on what mistakes I'm making while trying to make positive changes.

For my part. I know our industry has faults, I know it can be better but I’m not ready to walk away from it. I can play my part in that change I want to see. I know I can be better, and by being a better me, a better relationship will be set for the next generation of advertisers. I guess my take out for us in 'the industry' is not to get our backs up at the break up but to learn from it. Learning starts with us.

Nadya and everyone who also wishes to break up/replace/reject the industry, I wish you luck and success. Use the tools of advertising to promote your new world, create work you're proud of and make a difference. I hope our industry, when you were part of it helped you in someway grow. Honestly, I only wish for our industry to have more of a positive impact on people's lives, so I hope it starts with those leaving us. My only request is don't put us down to big yourself up. No one likes to start a new relationship with someone bitching about their ex. So wherever you want to be, start strong and focus on that. It is as much for you to move on as it is us.

Ultimately, the door is open to all those out there to come and help us make a better industry for our clients, our audience and for those who come to build on what we start.

We’re normally too polite to talk about the brief.

Icon by Jamison Wieser @ Noun Project

I should start off by saying that I’ve worked with some amazing planners and account handlers who’ve written amazing, wonderful Creative Briefs. They’re some of the smartest people in the industry and great thinkers should be celebrated, whatever their role. Great planners and brief writers are to be cherished.

I’d also like to point out I’m not going to be setting in stone what I outline here. This is just a snapshot in time right now with my observations and feelings. I’m not claiming to know all the answers or suggest a Creative Brief should be locked down in one style or another. In fact, it is an almost impossible task to create something that works for all the different styles of creators out there.

So now we’ve got that bit out the way I’d like to talk about the Creative Brief. The agency one to be precise. The client brief is a whole different story.

These observations come from the many agencies I’ve worked at, speaking to people at workshops, conferences and in various departments. This isn't about any particular agency or process. Just a mash up of things I've seen and heard.

So here it goes. Let's start.

Lots of creatives don’t find briefs useful.

In fact, some even re-write the brief, others will ignore it. They'll take out the basics and skim over the rest. Not out of malice, it is just a lot of the times they're not finding anything new or inspiring in the brief. This is specially true when it feels copied and pasted together with generic audience insights. We want bespoke fresh creative but we're given tired observations and recycled briefs.

So, I thought I’d have a look from my point of view what I feel briefs need to be and what they should bring to the agency process. 5 points in no real order and presented here as topics to discuss.

1)   Excite and inform

The clearest thing you can do here is to inform me of what the problem really is. What am I being asked to solve. This has to be delivered in an exciting way. Putting “Client wants to run a new campaign for their product” is informative but it doesn’t excite me as a creative.

“We’re going to help change the conversation about XXXX as our clients product will help everybody do XXXXX” is getting there. It is adding in some potential, some excitement. I feel like there is a challenge there for me to be part of.

Be clear with the challenge, the problem that we the agency can solve and what value we can deliver to the client.

2)   Observations Vs Insights

I’ve seen lots of briefs that have these style ‘insights’ – “Our audience loves experiences” or “90% of our audience are on social media”. Those for me are just observations. No creative magic in there from the brief. That is just outlining what we know.

Why do they value experiences? Have a deeper look and pull out something that could be an insight. Do they love experiences as they’re looking for things to share socially? Are they limiting the amount of experiences to bigger ones that can then be shared with friends? Perhaps they want experiences with friends due to the fact they are limited with their time and want to make the most of friendships and quality time together? Let’s explore the observation. Keep asking those questions until we get to a human truth.

Then in this case, our work doesn’t need to be just about the experience but what the experience delivers for our audience.

Let’s look at what drives the observations. Not just presenting them in a brief without pulling out the threads that could open up new routes.

For me this is looking at the issue behind the issue. Keep asking until we find the true problem and audience insight that can help us solve it

3)   Be honest with me

Give me a budget. It can just be an indication. Nothing is worse than a brief that is left without a budget or indication of spend. I’d rather be smart with a small budget than work large and try and scale back.

A big idea doesn’t need millions but let’s start with letting us know what we are working with. What are our restrictions, it should be part of the creative brief to solve a problem within a certain restriction. I’ve made campaigns that have reached millions on tiny budgets. That’s okay. We’re problem solvers we’ll know how to find a way but don’t let us work for weeks and then tell us there is no budget.

4)   I know how to Google

I want to know interesting things about our audience. I want to get to know them. I know how to Google like everyone else. I have access to similar tools for research. What I don’t have is time to discover everything on my own. We’re a team. So please help me get to know the audience.

Again, observations are useful but they’re not going to help us discover something new together. I don’t need to know that “millennials use Facebook and WhatsApp” or “Our audience likes games on their iPhones”. Think of the value of what you’re putting into the brief. Tell me about the games they play, the reasons, when, why, how. Give me something that gets me closer to them. Guide me to the interesting and build bridges to my audience.

5)   The process isn’t a handover

We’re on the same side. We’re a team. The process of the brief isn’t a one shot. We need to work together to refine the insights. To explore. I can explore creative and you can explore the audience. When I push back on a brief I’m not being awkward, I’m trying to make a better brief. I’m asking the dumb questions, I’m asking for clarity as I want us to make sure we’re all on the same path. I want us to enjoy this process together. To really get to the heart of the issue. That can be messy, that can mean us going back before we go forward but it should never mean dropping the brief and walking away.

I could go on but I want to put these down as thought starters for the conversation. To get Creatives and Planners alike thinking about briefs as triggers for possibility. A brief should be one of the most exciting moments in the advertising industry. Second only to seeing your work making a difference for your audience and clients. A highlight that leaves everyone hungry to deliver amazing work.

For the Creatives out there, engage with the brief. If it isn’t working for you, speak up. Challenge and explore with the Planning team. Make the brief better together. Don’t be polite, smile and then leave it on your desk. Planners want to give us great briefs but we have to engage too and tell them what we need. We need to think on what works for us and help them with the brief.

I was once told that the answer is always in the brief. That might not always be true but the excitement should always be there. Then together we’ll find the answer.

Empathy is transformative.

The queue to get into the underground is backed up. More people are pushing ahead. Mumbles are turning into frustrated tuts and darting eyes.

At the front of the queue is a woman fumbling with the gate. She clearly is struggling. You know what this annoyed and crushed swell of people did? 

They gave her space. A boy, clearly late for school, asked if she needed help. It turned out she was partially sighted and was confused where she was. She's visiting from America and didn't know she could ask for assistance from the tube staff. 

The tense crowd became a wave of helpers. Some helping her, others offering to show her the way. 

Empathy. 

All it takes is just one person to have that spark. To see the world from someone else's point of view. To take the time to review the situation. That's powerful.

This is the power that all humans have. We forget we have this power and even fewer of us ever think to use it at work. Most ignore it when thinking of audiences and personas. 

They're a target market to hit. To impact. To sell to. To persuade.

It doesn't need to be like that and it shouldn’t. Our audiences are amazing. They're living full and wonderful lives without us. We can take time to feel what they feel. Let's not talk at them but listen more. We must stop paying lip service to audiences. They're important. We can understand them on paper, sure, but let’s really understand them by sharing that feeling. The industry has been talking about it for years. So we should start doing it.

It has to start with one little action. One spark that can turn a room around and change the focus from selling to an audience to making the audience’s lives better. Isn’t that what we and the brands we represent should be doing? Making things better? 

All I ask is next time you’re in a brief or writing even writing one, is to speak for the audience.

Feel for them. Put yourself in their position. Understand what keeps them up at night, appreciate their needs. Not in a spreadsheet or powerpoint but deep down. Feel it with a human touch.

Then you will see the transformative power of empathy.

Awards aren't the problem. The award industry is.

Image via the HandyAwards. 

There has been a lot written about awards recently, sparked by this year's recent Cannes Festival and Publicis Groupe's decision to pull out of all awards for 365 days. This has created a flurry of commentators falling into two camps generating articles for those precious clicks (sort of like me now too I guess).

For what is worth, here is my two pennies/cents/0000.000012 Bitcoins on the subject.

Firstly let's look at those who've come out and said "awards don't matter". They tend to be by Senior members of staff, who ironically are highly awarded. It could be argued that they're jaded by the award scene and have seen it for what it really is. For me though it is easy for those who've benefited from the award scene, from the pay rises and opportunities it brings, to turn their backs on it all. Call it Awarded Privilege if you want. I think those us who've been lucky to win awards and had it impact our careers remember what they can do for some, not all, in the industry.

The second camp are those who are poking fun at the agencies that are stepping away from the award scene. Trying to lure the Creative talent to their agencies instead. To be fair this is part of the light hearted ribbing that goes on in any industry and to be expected. W+K have made a statement about how they felt pulling out of the awards would impact their most junior talent and how they felt to deny them that chance would be going against what W+K stand for.

For me pulling out of the awards is dealing with the symptom not the cause of the problem when it comes to rewarding talent.

Awards should be a chance for Creatives and Clients to step outside their agency bubbles and see their work in new context. For the work to be reviewed by industry peers. To validate or to highlight where the work could have been made better. A chance for everyone to see the bigger picture. Only this doesn't happen. Agencies would step out of their little bubble and right into another one. The award industry. Which over the time has become even more closed off than the agency bubble. The scene became obscene.

Awards help the industry look outside itself, that should be a good thing. Rather than pulling out we need to look at which awards are of merit to our industry. Reducing the amount of energy the industry spends trying to get noticed.

We need to make sure we don't forget the power of an award for a young creative. It can transform their career, it can give them the confidence to keep going. It just doesn't need to be a Cannes award anymore. We need to look more widely on how we validate the work we're creating. From how we reward staff and how we include clients more.

There is a need to separate the messy world of the 'Award Industry' from awarding good work.

For me, I feel like a change is needed. Perhaps all agencies should submit a percentage of their award funds to create something new. Something no one can enter but only nominated by external selectors. Something no one can enter but anyone can win. Removing that drive to craft the perfect award entry and butter up the judging panel.

Until then, my focus will be to make sure I recognise and reward the long hours, dedication and passion that my team give. My aim is to help all my team get where they want to be, rewards or not.

Your Audience are Cyborgs.

Totally legit robotising. 

I’m sitting in a bar. There is a conversation about 80s movies, the question comes up about TRON. Was it the first film to use CGI to create its digital world? Without thinking I slip out my phone and load up the answer in seconds. I’m sitting around and everyone else is doing similar. We’re augmenting our brains and connected constantly. We’re cyborgs.

From the early days of strapping on watches and correcting our vision we’ve been adding inorganic bits of wonder to make our lives better.

We enhanced our brains, took the lead in the relationship but now machine learning and AI is taking the next step. With the rise of Fake News, Spoofing websites, Phishing and social media pranking we’re our organic parts are overloaded and we’re turning to our AI allies to help us to sort it all out. We’re about to be going steady with AI.

For us, as creators and makers it paints for an interesting future. Our audiences are cyborgs. We’re not just talking to them alone. We’re talking to machines too. Safe guards that want to filter out, curate and protect our audiences from messages they deem unworthy. This means we’re going to have to start thinking of not only the idea itself but an idea of how we reach people. While people increasingly trust AI, we are innovators and creators we can’t let machines talk to machines. More than ever brands need to connect emotionally, have purpose in people’s lives. That for now is something that humans are rather good at.

Soon, an effective and emotional advert won’t just pass the test of an audience but the filters that will deem it worth to reach them.

The good news is, you’re already plugged in. Your office is full of cyborgs, and you’re on the frontline of it all. You don’t need to think like a machine, you’re already doing that. The trick will be to reconnect to human truths and the illogical of life which no algorithm understand.

Then you’ll be thinking like a cyborg.

The Break up, it’s not them it’s us.

This is evidence of my coolest moment. Global Hypercolor T-shirt, oversized for extra kudos. 

We need to talk. No, don’t worry it isn’t about your overuse of the word ‘game-changing’ or your tendency to equate innovation to what you just read in Wired magazine. We need to talk about us. Not a me and you thing, don’t worry about that – we’re solid.

It’s about the kids.

More to the point it is about the future of our industry, our agencies and the role we play in the creative industry. Look there is no easy way of saying this but I think I need to remind you of something. It’s been said before* and by much better people than me but we’ve forgotten.

Okay, I’ll just say it. We’re not cool. There I said it. Don’t worry I’m one of you too. I work in the industry, an industry I’m proud to call home but I’m just as uncool as you are. You might be sitting there drinking your Soy Chai latte and thinking “whatevs, I’m totes cool #Amazeballs” but it’s an important message, one that I think needs an explanation.

The advertising industry produces amazing, witty, clever and frankly sometimes breath taking communications and ideas. We make things that can be cool but that doesn’t make the industry that puts it out inherently cool itself. In our long relationship with the outside world we’ve gone from Madmen, cheeky heroes through to gurus of Marcoms. We’ve felt powerful, we’ve seen the impact and good our industry can do. We’ve let it wash over us, soak us in our own importance and for a while, that was all that was needed.

The brightest and best, the smart and crafty came flocking to us. Follow us, and be shaped to become the stars and darlings of our industry.

Cool by its very nature is ever changing. Cool ages quickly and is replaced by its younger brother ‘cooler’. Only we didn’t change, we still waited for all the best and brightest to come to us, to bash down our doors and join our great industry.

Only now the diverse, weird and wonderful creators of tomorrow chase a different type of cool. They chase down tech companies, start ups and go it alone. Cool is changing at a pace that even I, a fabled millennial, actually have no idea what’s cool.

So that means we need to change to bring in the type of people that can continue to push this industry forward. Let’s be honest, we’ve been lucky. Damn lucky that all the juniors and young creatives that are with us now are here at all. They’re here not because of what our industry is, they’re here despite it. They’ve pushed past our flaws and seen the good in what we can do together. For that I’m truly and utterly grateful for ever junior that steps through the doors. To every young creative, I can’t thank you enough. You make this industry we share amazing.

As a whole though, this industry needs to stop expected to be chased. We need to do some chasing of our own. No, recruiters chasing for us doesn’t count. The odd chat at a university or creative club doesn’t either. We will have to go out there and start finding the creators where they create. Follow their blogs, read their writing, see their short films, listen to their ideas. Then we need to remind them the power of creative advertising, the good it can do not just for brands but for people too. Finding them will be hard but selling to them what we do, that should be the easy bit. We’re ad folk after all.

Then we can fill our offices with creators, makers and collaborators. The real game-changers and the people not just reading Wired but the people who could very well feature in the pages themselves.

It won’t make us cool, we’ve learnt that lesson but together we’ll make some of the smartest, funniest, clever and beautiful advertising that we’ve ever seen this industry make. It’ll be exciting and some of the best work of your career. I promise.

So start together, go high-five and fist bump** your junior members of staff, rejoice that they’ve accepted our kirks and dad-at-the-disco moves and celebrate what’s coming next.

*“Don’t tell my mother I’m in advertising – she thinks I play the piano in a brothel” - Jacques Seguela

**See told you I’m not cool.

OH NO, ANOTHER CHAT ABOUT CONTENT.

I know, its passed peak buzzword territory and now lapping the old hat shores of blog fodder. There has been a ton of articles written about what exactly is content marketing, what it isn’t and how to do it well. You’ve probably seen them all on sites that claim to specialise in ‘content’, the ones with the weird URLS like ‘SE0-Masters-Social-Gurus.agency*’. This I hope will be a tad more interesting, as at the end of it I’m not planning to sell you my snazzy new content marketing e-book.

You might have noticed how I slyly moved from the title of content into content marketing all in the space of a paragraph. So I guess I owe you to first talk about content itself. Content is, as boring as it sounds, the bits and bobs that fill up the internet. No magical insight there. The interesting bit about all this content is that most of it doesn’t come from agencies, brands or companies. In fact a big chunk of the most successful content out there comes from small bands of creators or individuals. Unlike the old media where you needed media agencies, printing houses and a host of other third parties to get messages out there, now you don’t.

Every tool you need to create content is available to the consumer. From cameras to editing software through to free hosting platforms and open source tools. The creators don’t need us anymore. For a lot of agencies, they’re waking up to the fact that some of the brightest and most creative people are now going it alone. Advertising isn’t the shiny bright start of the creative industry, the lure of having access to audiences has diminished. The smart agencies are working harder than ever to reach out to these new creators, going beyond the classic avenues of university graduates and expecting people to come running to them. But for now that can wait and I’ll pick it up with another post in the future.

So, let’s get back on track. Content. Marketing. So what is different from good ol’ marketing? As simple as I can put it – Content Marketing is playing in the same playground as our audience. We create, communicate, make in the same spaces and in the same ways the very audience does.

We can upload a video, like they do. Host a photo, like they do. Create a page, make a blog, tweet out, email, make sites, bots, conversations, like our audience is capable of.

This means two things for me. One we don’t influence culture as much as we have to be part of the culture we want to play with. We let it influence us, shape us a little and give up a bit of our ego when thinking of ourselves as master communicators. We’re smart but so is our audience. Let them influence us and help redefine what we think a great advert can be.

Secondly it means our life is harder. If we want to go play in that content playground we have to remember we have no right to expect that we’re wanted there. We have to add value to this. The value exchange. What value are we offering to the audience and not only that what are we doing for our brands? If we’re turning up with the weight of a brand and agency behind us, the audience we’re in will have expectations. This is where the power of advertising still lies, still has that sheen. We’re the curators of value between brands and audiences. Brands can speak for themselves and audiences can respond directly but we are the ones that can speak for both sides and craft the value between the two so everyone can benefit.

So next time you think of creating content for brands, stop thinking of how to reach the audience but start thinking of how can you be part of the culture, not starting conversations but curating what’s out there. Not starting with a presentation but beginning by listening.

Then hopefully you’ll not just have good marketing but great content too.

Originally featured on http://tinderflint.tv/words-wise-dan-evans/

YouTube - Made for You.

Today is the big day. After months of team work, collaborating with the client and pushing the idea as far as we could We Are Social and YouTube launch our #MadeforYou campaign. Today is just a teaser of what's to come. Over the next few weeks you'll be seeing it all over the capital and online.

Our task was to help celebrate YouTube to make sure it stays front of mind for both consumers and media buyers.

How do you celebrate something so big and so diverse that it can be difficult to know where to start? You celebrate the small, personal moments that the platform can deliver.

It all came from the insight that YouTube, despite feeling big always feels personal. The YouTube creators have a relationship with their fans like no other connection out there. It is a celebration of how even the biggest YouTube stars still feel approachable.

So we created Made For ____ , working with creators, YouTube and the fans to show that YouTube is for whatever you're into, whatever your passion. It is made for you. The idea is that this line will remain dynamic and ever changing - just like the platform itself. 

We wanted with this campaign to celebrate the power of YouTube. It is so much more than a collection of videos, it is a platform for both the gamers and the game-changers. Where you shape what you see and your view is counted.

It is something we're very proud of and hope you'll enjoy. It was a huge team effort from everyone at WAS. What's made me proud how this agency approached the task as an united team, with nearly everyone feeding into the core team to deliver this campaign. 

A new campaign, a new approach and a new new wave of YouTube.

It'll be on Targeted Cinema, Underground, Digital out of home, Metro cover wrap, Buses, Oxford Circus digital and of course - YouTube. In fact there are hundreds of placements across the city. 

On top of all this, the YouTube creators will be making their own elements to the campaign and celebrating what makes YouTube great for them and their communities. Truly making it a wide reaching campaign with a social heart.

You can read some of the coverage here : 

• Campaign Magazine
• Little Black Book
• The Drum
• Daily Mail

I'll be putting up the full campaign once everything is out and about but for now, I hope you spot it on your travels across London.

The passing of Vine.

As of this week Twitter announced that it'll be ending the six second video platform Vine. 

While it is sad to see the closure of any platform, I have to admit I think the impact and creativity of the platform has passed. When it first launched it created a wave of excitement and a race for brands to be the first to showcase themselves on this new shiny format. 

Overtime though the brands and creators evolved, they found that the content style could work on a very old format that somehow came back into trend. The GIF. 

The GIF gave all the advantages of the limited format but with none of the limits of been locked into an app or platform. The ability to be seen around the web natively meant that the humble GIF took a lot of the shine from the looping format. 

Ultimately the end for Vine came from stagnation. Not from the user base but from itself. It didn't look at what the world was sharing, instead it wanted the world to share its vision. 

On another note I always found Vines very hard to share and embed - which meant that in the end vine creations either ended up in an echo chamber or just got re-uploaded to YouTube, thus creating a new set of creators for their platform. 

The big question remains will Snapchat and Instagram evolve enough to keep pace with changing tastes? Early signs look good, but as Facebook has shown at some point you stop chasing the 'cool' crowd and cement yourself as a function of digital life, not a highlight. 
 

We're all special.

Just a quick update. Been busy with AllTogetherNow, setting up our new approach and working hard to bring 'Smarter Content' to life.

Part of that has been with the work we've been creating.

This is part of that approach building. Creating conversations. The challenge, how do you celebrate a million visits when everyone is treated with VIP care? We created this response. Which shows our hero face that reality.

We worked hard not only on the content but the way we got the message out there. With some smart targetting we managed to get half a million views on facebook with minimal paid promotion.

How to look good when running.

From time to time you not only get a good brief but a really good brief. That doesn't just mean a creative brief but a brief that can actually do some good in the world.

This Virgin Money Giving brief is just that. We were tasked with creating a video that spoke to runners and included the message that unlike JustGiving, Virgin Money Giving doesn't make a profit on your donations.

That means more money goes to the charity of your choice.

Which isn't just good but really good.

As Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit, it meant that budgets were tight. In the end it took a nimble crew and a rickshaw but we created something that we're all pretty proud of.

Put a bit of anarchy in your pocket.

A busy few months. Moving agencies, setting up shop and writing campaigns. I thought while I get a few minutes to myself I'd update what I'm up to.

Next month I'll be firing TVs live over the internet and you can be part of it. Check out the video below for more information.

Interesting point on this video - it has been made for Facebook as the main video portal with Youtube only as a back up. Facebook now serves up more videos natively than Youtube and has become the primary destination for viral video content.

Get reading.

In between freelancing, writing scripts and changing the world with kitten pictures, I've got a brand new selection of must read books. Some adland, some not. All worth your time.

First up this book by Rick Webb is a must for any creative looking at setting up their own shop. In fact it a must for any creative. It is everything you've felt needs to be said about agency culture, pitching and making money without loosing your soul.

Fan of the Mad Men TV series? Well read the book that inspired it. Simple as.

In this provocative novel Mark Blacklock portrays the true and complex history of John Humble, aka Wearside Jack, the Ripper Hoaxer, a timewaster and criminal, sympathetic and revolting, the man hidden by a wall of words, a fiction-spinner worthy of textual analysis.

You'll always remember cancelling but not what for.

I want to share with you something I heard when I started out in the industry. For some reason the phrase above stuck with me and guided me over the years. 

"You'll always remember cancelling but not what for" , many times in life you'll be asked to work late, to work weekends and to work above and beyond. That is a fantastic feeling, to know you're all pushing together to make something happen. However for me that phrase is a reminder of how many times you'll cancel on a family event to get that presentation ready, only to forget in six months all about the project but still be living with the shame of letting down loved ones. 

We need balance in our lives, we need trust and flexibility with our teams. We need to all push in the right direction so that we can make sure we attend important events, that we can be there for loved ones as well as work. 

That's why today, on the start of the Easter bank holiday, I ask you to switch off, no checking up on work. Just enjoy time well spent doing something else. Let your creative fuel replenish through adventure and relaxing.