RISK REVERSE

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Near the end of the world war, in 1944, my father enlisted into the German Air Force. He had no taste at all for politics or war, yet it was that distaste that guided his reasoning. At the time, the SS (Schutzstafel or Shield Squadron, Hitler’s personal guards) were conscripting tall, robust, imposing boys. Aryan types, like my 6’4” father. To avoid any possible association with this abysmal group my then teenaged dad took control of his future as best he could, sidestepping fate and chancing on a lesser evil.

Fast forward to Berlin, 1945: Germany’s last stand. Scarcity of aviation gas had demoted my father from the Luftwaffe to the paratroops then ultimately to the infantry. He, his comrades, and the city itself were surrounded by the advancing Russian forces. There was nothing left to win. The fight continued only to hold Stalin’s troops in the hope that the more merciful Americans would arrive. Surrender to the Russians was considered suicidal.

It became clear that a Russian assault was imminent. Typical from an offensive force prior to an attack, shelling ceased. To avoid revealing their positions the Russians suspended all fire. From a veteran soldier, my dad had been enlightened: should he want to live, this time would be his best chance. Volunteering for perilous perimeter duty now would likely result in discreet capture rather than a reception of sniper fire.

When the call for volunteers came, my father — in what he describes as the hardest thing he has ever done — raised his hand. Predictably, he was taken prisoner. And after Germany’s wholesale surrender, he was shipped to Siberia, to return home only when he became too sick and weak not just to work but to even feed himself. But he lived. To date, he is unaware of any other member of his squad who survived the slaughter that was the fall of Berlin.

Remembering this story always makes me question what is real versus perceived risk.

When forces are in opposition to your interests, beware the conventional. When friends, colleagues, or clients take about the ‘safe’ way, they are speaking of the familiar. Yet safe and familiar, anywhere where it really matters, are opposites. To truly guard your interests, much less be successful, it is necessary to comprehend the real terrain and vigilantly remain open to original, and especially unconventional, courses of action. Blindly following has been known to be lethal.

GET IT TOGETHER ON COLLABORATION

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Letter to Advertising Age in response to:

Conor Brady’s article 12.23.09 (following)

http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=141216

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Ideas have always come from anywhere. And it has always been the creative director's responsibility to discover, develop and promote those with merit. What has changed is that sources for ideas have evolved from off-hand remarks at the reception desk to more sophisticated channels. Yes, that is good news.

However, to that point, only a member of the Creative Department is responsible for an idea. When has a receptionist ever lost sleep over the obstacles to next big one?

Ultimately, going out on a limb for an idea is a much more grown-up endeavor, AHRL, than throwing stones from inside a suit; there are always scores more reasons not to proceed in a direction than there are reasons to do so.

Original ideas are steps into the unknown. They require collaborative courage to put forth. That said, with all the voices now chiming in with research, analytics and sometimes mere opinion, a creative director with sound judgement — one who has not lost his link to the human aspects of marketing — will become ever more necessary and sought out.

'Bout time.

By sjrkoch | Calgary, AB December 28, 2009 12:09:25 pm

original article:

Creatives: Are You OK With Collaboration, Measurement and Failure?

Welcome to the New Creative Sensibility

Posted by Conor Brady on 12.23.09 @ 04:00 PM

This just in: Creative is no longer larger than life. This is a bold statement coming from a life-long designer and creative director and the chief creative officer of a major digital agency.

The truth is that the battered economy, the ascent of technology, the need for marketing intelligence and, overall, the ability to better connect with customers on their terms have conspired to end "big creative's" chokehold on the advertising agency. Don't get me wrong, the Big Idea is still critical but in this new era ideas come from a myriad of sources, not least technology, and the days of creative for creative's sake -- the "trust me, I know what I am doing" attitude -- is done.

What we are seeing now is a new era of creative, one that I like to call the age of creative sensibility. Adhering to a creative sensibility means the creative director isn't the only creative voice within the agency. Creative directors may hold the status as the leader of ideas but their outlook on the process has evolved as they begin to embrace collaboration.

Collaboration
The willingness to collaborate not only with their colleagues outside their discipline but also with other agency partners and clients is not a quality that most would associate with the creative director of yesteryear. What we are seeing today is the emergence of a new breed who acknowledge that great ideas come from everywhere -- a member of the agency's technology team, the person manning the phones at the front desk or your partner agency. And it increasingly takes a whole team of often unrelated folks to get it done.

Take a Bank of America campaign called "Morris on Campus" that we worked on at Organic. The financial-awareness campaign was designed to educate and empower students to take control of their finances and bank with confidence in the new academic year. A critical component to the success was the team's ability to successfully collaborate with our Omnicom partners, each of which brought with them a very specific specialty to the table that was essential to the campaign's success.

Analytics
Perhaps just a surprising as the creative director's embrace of collaboration is the admission of measurement's role in driving campaign success. For years, the creative team and measurement gurus drew on opposite sides of the white board. Now the smart creative director, one who doesn't hide from marketing intelligence behind their big ideas, is embracing strategy and craving analytics and research capable of providing a deeper understanding of the consumer.

What many are finding out is that knowing how consumers prefer to be marketed to before forming a campaign is far more effective than simply cramming what you think is cool down their throats. They are also discovering that the customers themselves can serve as the catalyst of inspiration which in turn results in a winning campaign capable of propelling the brand towards its goals.

AKQA provides a tremendous example of this with its Eco:Drive campaign designed to link drivers with in-car diagnostics in order to improve fuel efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. The effort represents a tremendous example of analytics (i.e. driving data) serving as the genesis of a campaign (rather than in a more reactionary role where it is measuring its performance, post launch) and can then "fuel" a winning creative effort that "drives" meaningful results.

OK to be wrong
Creative directors that embrace collaboration and intelligence will find that the end result to this mindset shift are campaigns that are in-line with the wants and needs of the customers. However, in the event of a misfire, a key third component of the creative sensibility becomes essential: It's OK to be wrong.

There is a sense of knowing when to admit you're wrong, and when to embrace the mistakes of the past in driving the creative of the future. The reality is that most campaigns are in a constant beta mode and it's safe to expect some bumps in the road. The key is to admit defeat, quickly make the needed adjustments and steer the campaign towards success.

The age of creative sensibility marks a dramatic shift from the "big agency" practices of the past and the ideas presented above are really just the tip of the iceberg. In future columns I look forward to expanding these themes and laying out the full creative sensibility doctrine. What you will come to find is that we are in the midst of a massive philosophy change in the advertising industry and success is only possible if the creative director is ready to embrace it.

Conor Brady is chief creative officer at Organic, an Omnicom agency.

SERENDIPITY: SEARCH UNDER 'BUSINESS' OR 'ROMANTIC FICTION'?

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

It sounds like another word for luck. Even the dictionary definition is unflinching in its use of words like good fortune and chance.

David Armano, commenting on Chris Brogan's position (Why Serendipity is Underrated) this week remarks, "Serendipity is underrated because it's fuzzy, intangible." Agreed. So, what gives?

Please endure this personal anecdote to begin to understand the point I'll soon make.

After hearing I was single, yet nevertheless open to marriage, a woman friend surprised me by asking straight out, "What are you looking for?" I surprised myself by not only having an answer but one that was comprehensive and concise. Though never having considered the matter so directly, I responded without hesitation: "Beauty."

(Lest you think this response was simplistic and superficial I knew instinctively that my version of beauty included and transcended the anatomically attractive. Suffice to say, it had much to do with the nature of "her" relationship with the world.)

Less than three weeks later, I met the woman who in six months would become my wife.

Contrast this with a friend whose life could be said to revolve around frequent, atypical sexual activity. He is seldom shy nor short of a saga about a remarkable, frequently unimaginable, tryst. And after each tale

I ask myself, "How does he find these women?"

Well? Is finding a partner or mate, customer or client just co-incidence? Or is there more to it?

Let’s look at is this way: It seems that when we construct specific models of what we genuinely want (who we really are) we open the door to achieving our desires. Whether this ultimately happens at a conscious or unconscious level is immaterial. As long as we consciously articulate our goal(s), we allow events to begin to work in our favor.

The less ambiguous we are about who and what we are, the more attractive we become to those with some use for us. In broad daylight, which light attracts moths?

Few disagree that a business ought to be specific about what it stands for, what it wants, and what it offers to whom. These things, in other words, are positioning, goal-setting, targeting. All business.

Whether for an impulse purchase or for a long-term romance, who today can afford to leave serendipity to mere chance?

ONE SMALL STRAIGHT RIGHT FOR A MAN

Monday, July 27, 2009

It is often recommended that we judge men not by what they say, but by what they do.

Once America’s most trusted man, Walter Cronkite, died this week at age 92. As a newsman, he was largely judged by what he said.

And what did he say? Cronkite was huge booster of the space program. He died just days before the 40^th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon. He said that it was true and that it was good.

One day some guy named Bart Sibrel said it wasn’t true. And he once said it to the face of a guy named Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin — who was the second man to walk the moon that summer of 1969. Buzz didn’t like how he said it, and did something about it. With his fist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUI36tPKDg4

Now, whatever side you fall on, you gotta think both of these guys deserve credit for calling it the way they see it: manning up, if you will.

On that same day that Apollo 11 descended to the surface of the moon, a ‘76 Delta 88 jettisoned off a Chappaquiddick bridge, taking a woman named Mary Jo Kopechne to her death at the bottom of the water.

The network news themselves never got to the bottom of the story — but the circumstances suggest her escort, Senator Ted Kennedy, in patently unmanly fashion, turned his back on her. He didn’t even report the incident to the authorities, until pressed later the next day. Maybe he was lucky that Cronkite was otherwise occupied in Cape Kennedy (named for the Senator’s assassinated brother, the former POTUS, John F.). The story too was submerged later when the Kennedy family “intervened” and the Kopechne family publicly abandoned any further interest.

That year, the world was introduced to a new pop band: the Jackson Five blasted (as they would say at the time) onto the charts with a hit, “I Want You Back”. Lead singer, Michael Jackson was just 10 years old in that summer when Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” stepped foot in the Sea of Tranquility. As is already well known — and you’ve seen it coming — in 1983, Jackson debuted his signature dance “Moonwalk”.

Jacskon’s recent death remains this month’s biggest news story — despite a floundering worldwide economy and an American war on two fronts. There is much media angst about his loss to the world. Certainly he was great, but it’s hard to suggest he was a man. His arrested development manifested in even suggestions of pedophilia — which were conveniently drowned out when lawsuits were “settled” out of the public eye.

I was close to Michael Jackson’s age in the summer of 1969. Of course I remember him. I remember the moon landing. And I remember Chappaquiddick. Because I delivered the morning newspapers that day and I still have a copy. When I was that young boy, I would naturally wonder what it must mean to be a man. Even back then, I knew integrity was always going to be a part of it. And today, if I could still have my choice, would I want to be a rock star or a leader of people?

I think I’d still rather be an astronaut.

OPPOSITES DON’T DETRACT

In response to: WANT TO TRANSFORM YOUR AGENCY? by HEIDI EHLERS

http://www.blackbagonline.com/blog.php?id=62

Friday, May 15, 2009

Years back, I was exposed to an “atomic theory” of marriage I’d call Big Chunker/Little Chunker.

The idea was that one electron (partner) can only be attracted to its opposite electron (partner); one thinks in Big Chunks, the other in Small Chunks.

How does it manifest? If you’d have asked me what I did the night before, I might reply, “Had dinner.” Had you asked my (then) mate, the response would have plunged into (endless and excruciating to me) detail about courses, cutlery and cooking times.

Guess which of us was the free-associating copywriter and which was the diligent broadcast producer?

I believe awareness of this state-of-affairs is crucial when hiring or otherwise selecting a professional partner. (Probably why the writer/art-director paradigm has endured.)

Why do dog owners look like their pets? I believe they unconsciously choose themselves. I suspect a lot of interviewers do the same: they look for themselves in candidates.

Now, shared values are laudable. They contribute to a harmonious workplace. But if the objective of a business is innovation or creation, isn’t it essential to shatter conventional thinking? Thus, wouldn’t it make sense to hire someone with a point-of-view that is, if not opposing, at least divergent?

Again, it’s about intent. We have to be cruelly honest with ourselves. Do we genuinely want to break new ground? Or do we far prefer to stroll hand-in-hand along a well-worn path?

SIMON SETHS

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Millions hang on to his assessment of vocal talent that we can easily surmise for ourselves. Still, judge, indeed we do: the results of responses mean millions into the pockets of the American Idol crew. Yet judge Simon Cowell dresses like we’ve caught him in a hardware store on a Saturday morning. And his pronouncements are delivered with stale similes and meagre metaphors inferior in originality and wit to those of his nemesis, the scorned Ryan Seacrest.

Why do we listen?

Meanwhile, Seth Rogen has recently created an audience for characters that aspire to the most fundamental of human longings, like holding down a job and/or maintaining a first-and-only romantic relationship. What is delivered from the mouths of his characters could reasonably be considered base (or even obscene) in average company. What goes in? Typically, fumes from contraband substances.

What gives?

Seth Godin, in All Marketers Are Liars, writes that people respond to authenticity. Yes. But it’s more than that. I believe people are hungry for truth.

Say what you will about him, most would agree Cowell speaks the truth. At least, as he sees it. That alone, isn’t enough, of course. Everyone has an opinion. But what Simon says has merit, because he has a history of success in the discovery and promotion of musical talent. That’s legitimacy. And because, for most of our lives, we suppress saying what we really feel, we secretly adore the brand of Simon — because he says what we wouldn’t dare, should we ever find ourselves in his chair. (And in that T-shirt.) That he’s clearly a self-admitted, self-satisfied prat, well, that’s authenticity.

Rogen, of course, speaks simultaneously for our inner fearful child and our inner hedonist. There is (previously unspoken) truth in his words. Legitimacy in his acting. And authenticity in his brand projection of hangdog expression combined with (until recently) a doughy physicality.

Marketing now is effectively becoming a dialogue — a live performance over a broadcast special, if you will. The truth will arise somewhere. If not from the marketer, certainly from the audience, if one even shows up.

The objective for marketers who genuinely wish their brand to be embraced, is to establish their legitimacy and, in an undeniably authentic voice, trumpet a fresh, relevant truth an audience can unashamedly clamor for.

TIME’S UP: addendum to an article on ad age.com by MARK WNEK

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=134398

There’s no disputing time to think is in short supply. So be it.

Certainly, a halfway decent individual or team can fashion a solution in any given amount of time. (I once conjured a piece — that earned a place in my book — in under forty-five seconds, as a layout was on its way to the printer.)

The trouble is, while a solution may be workable, is it original? When rushed, we tend to grasp for familiar tools. When rushed, can we create work that isn’t derivative? Work that moves (sells) because it is relevant, memorable and speaks for our client alone? Maybe.

If there’s little time to conceive an idea there’s probably no time for a brief. More often than not, I’ve found myself rewriting any particular brief that chances to come my way because, let’s be real, precious few deliver any genuine, workable insights.

The answer for time-starved creative departments is found in continuous familiarity with the client and his business. When there is human contact we (creative types) are exposed to the truths and nuances that are the seeds from which we can germinate real ideas (as opposed to familiar, hackneyed executions).

If any agency genuinely believes it’s “all about the work”, don’t insulate your creative teams from excellence by layering the business with levels of account contact.

Account people can seldom know what information is necessary for great, original work. That’s not an insult — for neither do your writers and art directors. Until, that is, our frontal lobes begin sweating blood with a deadline looming just thirty minutes before the start of Flight of the Conchords. (HBO/HBOCanada. Check local listings.)