Freelance Brand and Creative Strategist / Strategic Planner and Fractional Strategy Director
I’ve still got my mind on creative briefing as I’m now gearing up for my usual winter stint as a Visiting Professional for the Creative Advertising course at Leeds Arts University. Fundamentally, we can’t come up with a strategic, and then creative, response to solving our client’s problem, if we don’t know what the problem … Continue reading Hey client, what’s your problem?
You know those ‘day in the life; and ’24 hours with’ pieces that turn up in trade mags and the business section of the newspaper? They make working in AdLand sound very glamorous, but I’m afraid the life of this Planner is rather more mundane… 8.40 Arrive at work. Go to kitchen. Coffee pot is empty. Decide … Continue reading a day in the (reality checked) life
With the economy making everyone increasingly risk averse, it seems to me that Jon Steel's adage about clients using research not as a navigational tool but to protect themselves and their career from a fiery end is becoming increasingly apt. With limited research budgets and risk averse clients it can be very tempting to use … Continue reading Is research helping us find the right answer – or just one that isn’t wrong?
We are officially in recession, the economy is nose diving and there’s no question that clients have got less money to spend. Unless you happen to work in Digital (where every agency I know is still turning work away because they’re too busy), it’s looking a bit bleak. I’ve already written about how as Planners … Continue reading Are you saving them money?
A friend was asking me today if I’d ever thought about going freelance. I said that unless forced to by redundancy I thought it would be a bit foolish to try and build up a freelance client base in a recession where agencies are increasingly instigating ‘no freelancers’ rules in a bid to keep costs … Continue reading Do Planners have recession proof skills?
image courtsey of spell with flickr I’ve be running into a lot of wannabe Planners recently and without wanting to sound too harsh, here are a few home truths you need to hear before you decide on Planning as a career path. Please take them in the spirit of kindly advice that they were meant! … Continue reading Wanna be a Planner? Straight talking advice for graduates.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Brand Love recently. Not quite in a Lovemarks relationship/performance expectation way, but in a (perhaps more British?) understated, mostly unacknowledged way. Take my relationship with BMW. I drive a little One Series. Do I really need it? No. Was I probably always destined to own it? Yes. Just after … Continue reading Beemer brand love
Watching the videos from JWT’s ‘Planning Begins at 40’ event, I was particularly struck by Jon Steel’s speech – and crucially his delivery – which made it clear that he fears that Planning has lost its place, is suffering from an erosion of rigour and unless we spend all our time ‘wading through Nielsen reports … Continue reading never thought I’d write this, but I think I disagree with Jon Steel
Apart from the (obviously pleasing to me) horsey connections, this viral from Land Rover supporting their sponsorship of British Eventing is just nicely understated and a cheeky companion to 2006's press ads. There's also a rugby version and you can view both on Land Rover's microsite here.
World of Warcraft is roughly the same size as the Death Star There are 28 billion UK coins in circulation, worth £3 ½ billion Boring audiobooks don’t help you get to sleep. They have to be a bit thrilling – although its OK if the writing is terrible ‘dongle’ and ‘waggle’ are funny words Rhopography … Continue reading Interesting things from Interesting2008