Here Be Monsters|blog

What business should really be about

Isn't this what business should really be about? I love this guy. I love his values? I love his passion?

Such wise words from a man in a silly shirt

On Sunday night The Southbank Show (don't bother clicking on the link if you want to see the programme, they don't have it up, yet. Or maybe never, I have no way of telling and itv aren't saying). 

Anyway, it was about Pixar and John Lasseter and what a wonderfully smart man he seems to be.

"I'm the thickest person here now, as we always make a point of employing people smarter than us." Okay, something we've not heard all before and certainly not true but you got a real sense that he  believes that you employ people for their thinking and not someone who can regurgitate your own thinking for you.

He also spent some time explaining about how, when he saw the computer generated animation film Tron, he was blown away by it. Not the film, but the fact that he could see the opportunity the technology offered. But the film flopped and the industry said people didn't want to see computer animation, when really they didn't want to see a shit film. So, when Toy Story came along and it went massive, the industry line was that people didn't want to see hand drawn animation and that the future was in computers.

Which is, of course, also bollocks. And he said as much. He couldn't understand why the debate wasn all about technology and not stories and engaging with the audience.

And so when he took over creative control of Disney he commissioned a new hand drawn film and got some of the old school Disney artists back to run it. I think I should rephrase that, He reemployed a bunch of guys who had been put out to pasture, because they had the right skill sets and he appreciates that the craft.

The parallels to our industry are obvious and so I won't insult your intelligence spelling it out.

Oh and he also said, quality is the best business plan. And I'm going to be saying that a lot from now on.

well worth reading

Paul Isakson, updates his presentation. My favourite quote is probably, A revolution doesn't happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviour.

Isn't that exactly the problem with most agencies/clients right now? They all seem to be adopting the latest technology but they don't seem to be changing their behaviour one bit.

What's Next In Marketing And Advertising (2009)

View more documents from Paul Isakson.

Gotta love VCCP

It's one of those campaigns people either love or hate, but everyone's noticed regardless. It's also become part of the wider culture. Why? Well apart from the freshness and attention to detail and downright lunacy of the idea they've also added some smart touches to give the campaign some more depth.

Stuff like showing bloopers and getting Aleksandr, the main character/spokesman, interviewed by the press.

Long may it continue. Big props to Compare the Market too.

You can see the ads here, naturally.

A slightly interesting aside are these ads, alongside the bloopers. Pity they didn't make them smart. Competitive business, insurance comparison.

Top post from the main man, Rory.

Speaks alot of sense does Rory Sutherland of O&M. But don't take my word for it, read this quality post on his Campaign Blog.

A little vindication, perhaps?

I was listening to the Radio 4's Front Row programme the other day, Russel T Davies was on talking about drama. For him the new drama is reality shows. He even went further and said that the piece of drama that had impressed him most recently was the Susan Boyle saga.

He went on to say that he wasn't just talking about her coming on stage and belting out her song but the way in which her story was played out afterwards keeping her in the public's mind for weeks.  He had real admiration for the people behind it.

For me, the most impressive drama has been the Katie/Jordan V Peter split. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of them or their desperate desire to live their lives in the public eye, but I do think that like Paris Hilton, they have shown those of us in the comms industry much in the way of how campaigns can be structure and played out in the future.

And I'm chuffed to bits that Russel T Davies thinks along similar lines.

Where Madison meets Vine

I've been aware for a while now, about this trend appearing. The Americans have a name for it,of sorts, Madison and Vine, it's the combination of advertising and entertainment. And the rightly awarded and previously commented on here back in January, The Queensland Best Job in the World campaign is the latest example.

This Thursday at 9pm the BBC are showing an hour long programme covering the final round of the competition, when an English lad called Ben is selected from the final 16.

Currently, I haven't been able to find out much behind the production company behind it, but if this wasn't conceived and made by, or at the very least pitched to production companies by CumminsNitro then it bloody well should have been.

Either way, a smart conclusion to a smart campaign.

With TV desperate for content this is definitely a trend that is going to go from strength to strength and yet another example of the return to a pre50's ad/comms model.

Are we moving forward?

It does seem so. First I get sent an advanced copy of what is a hugely inspiring book, Life Inc, you can read more about it here



And then there's a launch of this, Riversimple, an equally inspiring company looking to bring to the car industry some much needed innovative thinking.



It can't help make you feel optimistic about the future.

Bastard

Meet Jonathan Harris, he's an artist and computer scientist and the sort of person that makes you feel perhaps you're wasting your life. Not that he's smug about what he's doing, it's just that it's so vital, full of energy and relevance that whatever it is you're filling your days with becomes a little more pointless in comparison

His work celebrates the world's diversity even as it illustrates the universal concerns of its occupants. His computer programs scour the Internet for unfiltered content, which his beautiful interfaces then organize to create coherence from the chaos.

Here he is talking about storytelling

And here he's the We Feel Fine site

Now, Murdoch, if your newspaper sites resembled something like his, you could put me down for a paid subscription
.

Transmedia storytellling - the way forward

It's so blindly obvious that it's taken me three years to see it, but some of the most successful brands today have actually been embracing transmedia storytelling for sometime. What's been lacking has been the cohesive strategic overview that allows for a stronger relationship between all the separate elements oh and of course, that sodding desire agencies have for media hierarchy.

If you're not over familiar with the term, the mightily impressive Henry Jenkins who came up with it, describes it thus,

Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.

I urge you to click on the link. It will be how brands/campaigns will be created and judged in the future.

Oh and the rather nice cityscape is by a fab illustrator called Borja Bonaque.

It's the long cuddle of the law

I like this, it's a little whimsical and odd, but why not. I like the fact that I don't know if it's an 'offical' ad or some quirky personal film. Either way I think it approaches the subject matter in a very fresh way - which is always a good thing. I also love the fact that it gets the message across very clearly without using words.

wii/google mash up

I guess in someways this is a pointless/useless post. (It's amazing what spending a week in the company of a 6 year old will do to your brain. - it being Easter hols here in London and all).

Anyway, the picture is of a wii and google's street view mashup. The deal is, you go jogging on the wii via a road route shown through street view. The best of both worlds.

The pointlessness being that it's only available in Japan - and I have no idea where I found this out. Sorry.

But what I will say, is that I get as excited about stuff like this as I use to get about the latest Cunningham ad.

leave your finger print on everything you touch

Back in the day.  I got my second job at CDP, it was the mid-80s, when CDP was all upper case and still a great place for a creative to ply his trade. (No offense Dentsu, but even you must admit, cdp is not what it was.)

Anyway, an endless line of creatives would pass through on placement, stay two weeks, if they were lucky, a month, and then leave. During this time, nearly every one of them would work terrifically hard in their little office and never venture out to play pool or go upstairs to the bar for a drink, believing that hard work was their key to employment.

And so, I can hardly remember anyone who passed through at this time. Occasionally, very occasionally, someone would be employed and, other than a tiny little bit more money, nothing much would change, as they were fed a stream of briefs and told to crack them.

At the same time, account graduates would join but there introduction to the company was different. They would spend 2 wks in the creative dept, 2wks in production, 2wk planning, 2wks media buying. Only then they would start their job as an account manager.

And CDP wasn't any different to any other agency in that respect.

And today, nothing much has changed. I don't know of one agency that believes a creative would benefit from understanding the other jobs in the agency. Which leads to an arrogance from the creatives about whose work it is and who is working for who. And the idea that creatives aren't serious about business problems/solutions, so keep the real work away from them.

It is this legacy that is now giving the industry such big problems.

On the several occasions when I've run departments, I've always implemented a very simple philosophy. It you touch a piece of work then you must leave your finger print on it.

By that I meant, you had to be able to show how you improved anything you worked on, regardless of what department you worked in. Likewise, creatives would be responsible for improving briefs and working on presentations.  And it made a massive difference in getting an agency to work together.

Brilliant design.

What's not to love.  Got me thinking, what other of life's little problems need solving and who could do it? Surely, a smart client and/or marketeer should look at doing stuff like this from their comms budget.

Like the above - if it was offered to you in a Chinese restaurant thanks to Persil/Ariel, you smile, wouldn't you?

Grown up comms

This is a lovely site from honda. Currently it holds 3 films, my favourite being mobility 2088. There's much I like about them, not least the fact that I feel better of the company than I did previewing. It's intelligent communications and a perfect example of where the net and film can work well together.

Very smart thinking

I'll be honest here, half of what Faris writes, goes flying way over my head but this really connected. It's a really interesting thought piece about the remix culture. Nothing I could write would enhance it, I suggest you just read it here.

Top work fella.

My favourite New Product Launch of 2008 : 2/2

My second nomination for New Product Launch of 2008 is of course, Barack Hussein Obama,

His campaign to the White House could almost be said to be the blue print for today’s communication campaigns and not just in politics.

First, they studied the product, analysed what was authentic about it and then distilled it down into one clear word.

A word that was both a product truth and something that would inspire the consumer.

Change.

He stood for change. That was it, above everything else, the one thing you knew you’d get was change.

They didn’t cloud this with too much detail about policy - that would just defuse the clarity of message. While for those who wanted to know more, it was there to be searched out, but that was your choice.

Instead, they just pushed the truth behind the claim in little nuggets of information.

He was a change from the previous government. He was a change from the usual type of person who became a politician.  He looked different. He sounded different.  He connected different. And he communicated different.

They embraced new media and online social network. They gave up control for advocacy, trusting his supporters to represent him to their peers in the way they wanted to. Entrusting the brand to them. The result was some extraordinary marketing.

And then there were posters, which were created for the campaign not by the campaign

 

You can see more at this flickr group here.

While to audiences who resisted listened directly to him, they enlisted and empowered those people the resisters would trust, to deliver his message for him.

Nor did they try and clip the wings of his supporters, even when it may not have been exactly what they wanted and instead trusted in the intelligence of the audience.



And they did this because they knew the universal online truth, you must give up control, if you’re to gain greater power.

And so, they fed it. Encouraging people to visit and revisit their homepage for content with regular video update, ringtones and widgets

And the virals flourished.

They facilitated connections through online communities that added a new dimension to what was already out there. Mybarackobama.com, was/is a social network of sorts that allowed people to create blogs around issues, and send in policy recommendations to the man himself.

They assisted in fund-raising activities with ideas and tools. And they encouraged people to fund raise however they wanted to.

They were light of foot. If there was a sudden rise in traffic from certain sites or communities they engaged with them and kept engaging with them with regular updates. By engaging with people wherever they gathered they were able to make maximum impact.

And this is just a fraction of the numerous marketing activities that the campaign spawn.

The result?

He was seen as inclusive leader, embracing everyone into his vision for Change, probably best summed up by slogan, Yes We Can.

And now there is a real belief the world over, that there is a President of the United States of America prepared to listen and lead rather than ignore and dictate.

A welcome change for politics, I’m sure you’ll agree.

And once helluva new product launch.

My favourite New Product Launch of 2008 : 1/2

My first favouirte NPL of '08 goes to the Venezuelan Black company - manufacturers of fine cacao - pure cocoa to you and me, pretty much.

A niche product by anyone's imagination, but one that was successfully launched with a multimillion pound TV campaign that succeeded in getting it listed in both a major supermarket chain across Britain, the shop of choice for WAGS - Selfridges and no doubt, all good independent delis.

Not bad for a company less than two years old and with a handful of employees.

Admittedly it was far from perfect with some surprisingly basic mistakes made, such as absolutely no cohesion, for example - packaging never matched their communication in style, tone of voice or, and perhaps potentially most damaging, name.

Because the VB Co. is probably better recognised as Willie and his Wonky Chocolate Factory, the name of the TV series which was shown over 6 weeks on Channel 4 in the beginning of 2008, repeated in late autumn and ending with a seasonal burst with it's very own Christmas Special, .

A series that followed the charismatic/annoying (delete as appropriate) Willie Harcourt-Coozie (above) as he followed his dream to get Britain using a previously little-to-unknown ingredient.

We saw every aspect of his business, from where it was sourced to how to use the product, to expert endorsement, to finding out about the health and slimming benefits of his product - nothing it seemed was over-looked.

The series was a venerable marketing masterclass for how to launch a product. 

I can't believe there wasn't an fmcg marketing director out there wondering, how did pull off  launching his company with 30 minute commercials shot at the production company's cost and with airtime (and a lot of airtime at that) donated free by a TV station?

Unfortunately I can't tell you much more, despite digging around on the web, I've failed to even come up with the name of the production company. Anyone any ideas?

Still, it's not all been one way sunshine basking. Maybe now would be a good time to take another look at that business plan when it comes to employee salaries

Nice PR idea

A really lovely idea especially for right now, what with jobs becoming more scarce and people no doubt questioning the wisdom of running in the rat race etc.

Lacking a little in execution, if I'm honest (although the video applications posted online is a nice touch).  And it does remind me of Diesel's Junior Lucky Bastard job vacancy campaign, which in turn reminds me of something similar for Johnny Walker we did, also called The Best Job in the World where a treasure hunt across the web led to the chance to live the life of a Formula 1 racing driver. You can see some of the virals here (Beware F1 drivers can't act), here and here.

It'll be interesting to see how this develops over the coming months and whether or not they're able to build additional layers of interest, humour and intrigue to sustain this level of interest.

Already getting some good coverage in the press, including the BBC, Daily Mail, Sky and The Daily Telegraph, too.

If you want to apply, you can do so here. And don't forget to send a postcard

Inspired

Found out about this via the excellent Digital Example blog. You can read what he said here, or you can read a brief summary in the next few sentences.

Word Magazine asked their readers to nominate their favourite songs of 08 - so far, so what.

The inspired bit was that they also allowed you to sample and then buy those very same tracks.

A great example of an online magazine taking advantage of the digital environment. Here's the article

Victim of school bulllies: creativity

Over at the fantastic TED site, there's a great video from Sir Ken Robinson  who points out the many ways our schools are failing to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people.

"We are educating people out of their creativity,"

It's pretty long at 20mins, but well worth it.

A little more on ideas

Just wanted to add this from The Before and After blog to the debate on ideas.

Quoting Voltaire, Good is the enemy of great.

Oh so true.

Just had this sent to me by a mate (thank you JB) and thought it amazing. Can't tell you anymore about it, (who, why when etc) but if any of you can do share

Otherwise enjoy

rock n roll

I don't know much about Nine Inch Nails. I know I don't like their music. I know I love their marketing  skills.

To launch their new album, Year Zero, they included URL clues on their tour t-shirts which lead fans to websites that described an apocalyptic vision of the US. Memory sticks were found in toilets with tracks on them. Samples of tracks were played on radio stations unannounced in the wee small hours. Telephone numbers appeared on fan sites. All very clandestine, all very brilliant. All very I love Bees.

I wish I'd done it.

THAT VIDEO

Everybody has been talking about this video, so what's the point me sticking it up here too?  Well, I've also come across an interview with Michael Wesch, the video's maker, which you can read here.

why I love consumer power

I've just been made aware of the exceptional reviews on Amazon for the above album. Thank you Anna. Thank you.

And then there's the video.

IN Praise of Hard work

Okay, so you work long hours, but does that mean you're working hard? Because, "long" and "hard" are now two different things. In the old days, we could measure how much grain someone harvested or how many pieces of steel he made. Hard work meant more work. But the past doesn't lead to the future. The future is not about time at all. The future is about work that's really and truly hard, not time-consuming. It's about the kind of work that requires us to push ourselves, not just punch the clock. Hard work is where our job security, our financial profit, and our future joy lie.

It's hard work to make difficult emotional decisions, such as quitting a job and setting out on your own. It's hard work to invent a new system, service, or process that's remarkable. It's hard work to tell your boss that he's being intellectually and emotionally lazy. It's easier to stand by and watch the company fade into oblivion. It's hard work to tell senior management to abandon something that it has been doing for a long time in favor of a new and apparently risky alternative. It's hard work to make good decisions with less than all of the data.

Today, working hard is about taking apparent risk. Not a crazy risk like betting the entire company on an untested product. No, an apparent risk: something that the competition (and your coworkers) believe is unsafe but that you realize is far more conservative than sticking with the status quo.

Richard Branson doesn't work more hours than you do. Neither does Steve Jobs or Alan Sugar or Julian Richer.

None of the people who are racking up amazing success stories and creating cool stuff are doing it just by working more hours than you are. And I hate to say it, but they're not smarter than you either. They're succeeding by doing hard work.

As the economy plods along, many of us are choosing to take the easy way out. We're going to work for a big company, letting him do the hard work while we work the long hours. We're going back to the future, to a definition of work that embraces the grindstone.

Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you'd rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier. And, after you've done that, to do it again the next day.

The big insight: The riskier your (smart) coworker's hard work appears to be, the safer it really is. It's the people having difficult conversations, inventing remarkable products, and pushing the envelope (and, perhaps, still going home at 5 PM) who are building a recession-proof future for themselves.

Author Seth Godin.

I share it because it sums up perfectly what we're forever banging on about alot at Here Be Monsters, the constant need to be smart in what we do.

The Art of Plagiarism

Advertising creatives have an odd rule when it comes to plagiarism. I think it says a lot about the ingrained arrogance of the  industry that you can copy any film, art or photographic style, comedian's routine, in fact anyone or anything, as long as you don't copy an ad.

I have heard it said countless of times, 'Great ad, pity it's been done', usually followed by the agency name and year of creation, as the all-knowing CD goes over to his D&AD annuals and finds it for you. Proof, as if proof were needed of his greatness when it comes to the history of ads.

The t-shirt industry obviously don't share this obsession.

Howies original

Mr Cloud's T-shirt Emporium rip-off

Seeing this made me angry. I now don't like Mr Cloud. Why? Because they're lazy and stupid and spend all their time surfing other t-shirt sites looking for the easy way to a good idea.

But the thing is I actually don't know who was first, I based my assumption on the fact Howies is an old friend (known for it's integrity), while Mr Cloud is a new acquaintance, regardless of whether I'm right or wrong. In fact I'd probably take this position even if I found this t-shirt design on some kid's MySpace page.

Okay, what I know of Howies and what I can gleam from Mr Cloud's website would suggest I'm probably right, but I don't know for sure, maybe Howies just improved on the design.

In a world where we are all now meant to be creating content and posting and uploading and plagiarising and inspiring one another, this is going to create a whole new level of problems for brands and their agencies.

K. I. S. S. Apparently not

Great article over at psfk which itself has been inspired by an article posted by author and designer, Don Norman who argues that maybe the first thing we look for in a product is something that is accessible rather than totally simplistic, then we look for detail and complexity.

WISE WORDS

“There are three things I think about the most when it comes to making it as a marketer these days.

The first one is there's no amount of money I can pay to get my commercial in front of you, because you can powerfully edit what you spend time with. So my job as a marketer is no longer to interrupt, but to produce content that is so relevant, interesting, entertaining and involving that my best consumers won't want to live without it.

The second thing is understanding that instead of brochures and trade shows, marketing now really begins with the product. Great companies are investing a lot of time and attention into trying to make products that market themselves.

The last piece is that user-generated content has made it possible for consumers to own your brand, and if they don't, you're not doing your job. The brands that are adopted, blogged about and parodied the most are the ones that are going to win because they're involved in the evolution of pop culture. If you're scared to have your brand played with, you're going to be left behind.”

How I wish they were my words, but unfortunately all I can do is claim to whole-heartedly second them. They belong to Jeff Hicks of Crispin Porter + Bogusky

the next big thing

There's a fantastic post over at C Enrique Ortiz Mobility Blog all about one of 2007 hot trends, the intersection of mobility and social software: mobile social software, virtual communities, messaging and user-generated content. Well worth checking out.

quality

I love this as an idea. So what if it works better on YouTube than in real life. It's just a lovely, lovely idea. And one I wish I'd done. Even more so since I've discovered I'm going to be spending a lot of time in '07 working on a major sports brand.

Timberland Buy Howies update

More information on that Timberland Howies deal here and here.

Timberland buy Howies

So Timberland have bought Howies. First thoughts you might think it's a bad idea, but when you look at the deal, it's great for both of them, one benefits through scale the other through credibility.

Nothing changes at Howies, David and Claire retain creative control, the company runs along the same ethical lines and gets to stay in Cardigan, except now they have some proper financial backing.

And Timberland continue their push in becoming a more ethical company, as reported on psfk yesterday.

It couldn't have happened to nicer people, congrats Claire and David, you so deserve it.

I heart work

There's a great post over at Noisy Decent Graphics that talks about the love of being a designer. You don't have to be a designer to appreciate and recognise what he's saying, just someone who is passionate about what you do.

So if you don't recognise yourself in this, shouldn't you be looking for another job?

After all, if you find a job you truly love, you'll never have to work again.

GREAT CRM and the T-shirts aren't bad either

Got my new Howie's brochure this weekend. And when I saw it I felt excitement. I'm not saying I was singing from the roof tops, but I did genuinely smile. It dawned on me that I was looking forward to opening the brochure, not to see the clothes really but to read the other stuff. I wanted to know how things are with them, I wanted to see what random lists they've put together, I wanted to know if they've still keep their book lending going. I realised I actually cared about how they were doing. And that is some achievement.

Also, in an age when everyone is looking digital-based and away from paper-based, it dawned on me that there is real added value in being surprised by something in the post, to the extent that it can feel like a genuine gift.

Brilliance

I wish I could think like this and then be this articulate about it.

What is the current wave of technology enabled social change like? I think it is like a return to folk culture. Folk culture was the status quo for the several million years for the 90%+ of people who lived as peasant farmers and hunters, at least up until the birth of publishing (and its descendent the factory, which was organised like a text).

It's from John Grant's blog and you can read it all here.

In the market for a camera?

Originally this was called, A snapshot on Camera Usage, but I found myself starting with an apology for the pun, as I really should know better. There is no place in modern society for puns - good, bad or  otherwise.

Anyway I found this on flickr. The screen grab doesn't do it justice, as it's just the tip of an iceberg loaded with information on what cameras are being used in their community. I'd be mighty happy if I were Canon.

Personally, I find the whole thing massively impressive for lots of reasons, not least because it's authentic. Consumer-generated (albeit not consumer-authored, but then curating is going to be massively important for brands in the future). And pretty comprehensive - I can visit manufacture's sites and see shots taken with the cameras by flickrites. It also works for Flickr, I love that they've put this together, it makes me feel warmer to them, makes me feel they're passionate about cameras and photography etc.

Next time I'm in the market for a camera, this is going to be part of my purchasing decision. I wonder how long it is before they add a purchase facility?