Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
I've blogged before about how marketing agencies are very light on diversity, particularly in senior positions. I've also blogged about why agencies should be embracing #PowerPartTimers. But the two rants are connected. An agency-standard 50 hour week plus nightmare commute simply isn't do-able for many Mums, for the carers of elderly parents or for the … Continue reading Want better diversity? Embrace the Power Part-Timers
In the age of Prince2, Basecamp, Slack, Trello and so on, the client facing role in agencies is increasingly merging with that of Project Manager. Clients are emailed, not called. Work is briefed, reviewed and presented back with minimal (actual) face time. Now this might be very handy if you're in Leeds and your biggest … Continue reading creative marketing communications is not a commodity to be project managed
After six and a half years freelance I’m coming up to six months in at Bloom (I started at the beginning of January but couldn’t announce it until February for various reasons). I’ve been rather lax on the blogging front since I joined Bloom because there’s loads of things I’d like to write about but … Continue reading six months in
I've been thinking quite a bit about diversity in the marketing world recently. Agencies in particular (and particularly outside London) seem to be staffed predominantly by youngish middle class white people, which isn't terribly reflective of the diverse Great British Public that we're supposed to flogging stuff to. There's also lots of research that says that … Continue reading diversity = better ideas
On the 12 days of Christmas, the Planner gave to the Agency: twelve propositions, eleven customer journeys, ten creative briefs, nine internal meetings, eight marcoms workshops, seven big brand pitches, six brand personas, loads of PowerPoint, four brand positionings, three focus groups, two conference calls, and a client away-day by the sea.
In May 2014, Guardian writer Oliver Burkeman wrote an excellent article titled Everyone is totally just winging it, all the time. It was a very reassuring piece for anyone who suffers from a touch of imposter syndrome from time to time: We're all mini-New York Timeses or White Houses, energetically projecting an image of calm proficiency, while … Continue reading *everyone* really is totally just winging it, all the time
I increasingly feel like Planning as a discipline/specialism within agencies is over-complicating things. Never mind thinking about what's changed since Planning's inception in the 1960's, so much has shifted in the UK even just the last 20 years. Back in the 90's (yes, I've been a Planner for that long), clients liked seeing the thinking behind the Big Idea - in pitch … Continue reading Planning needs to go back to the Old School
To fanfare, a Leeds agency officially opened their Sydney office last week. Another Leeds agency has had an office in Sydney for a while and according to my sources a third is thinking about it. Meanwhile, nearly every agency bod I meet seems to know someone who has moved down under in the last 18 … Continue reading why is Northern AgencyLand flying Down Under?
Last Tuesday BBC2 aired their new feature-length drama The Gamechangers, about the 2003 legal feud between Rockstar who make Grand Theft Auto and an evangelical moralising lawyer who believed that violent games were poisoning a generation of teens. Writing in last weekend's Sunday Times, Matt Rudd gave the drama a pretty rubbish review, with what he called a hilariously … Continue reading deja vu watching The Gamechangers
Sometimes agency positioning statements can be a little hard to interpret, for example 'supplying indigenous solutions to brand problems' doesn't really tell you what goes out of the door. So based on my experience, here's a handy checklist for freelancers who suspect they are, in fact, working for some kind of digital agency: - There … Continue reading Am I working for a Digital/Content/Online/Social agency today? A freelancer’s guide