first batch of homework

Here are the first set of responses with some comments from me. This has been a really interesting process, I've really puzzled over how to do this.

What I've done is anonymised everything - if anyone wants to claim any particular piece please do so in the comments. I've then read through each piece typing in comments as soon as anything occurs to me. So none of the comments are deeply considered, they're my first thoughts. I hope you'll take them in that spirit.

I've decided not to pull any punches, I want you all to like me but it seems this is only a worthwhile exercise if I actually say what I think and many of the entries could have been a lot better - though they all had something good about them.

Overall thoughts are these:

Bad

I know I said not to spend too long on it but almost everyone could have spent more time making their piece look half-way decent. I gave you a 2MB limit because I expected you to use it. Put some pictures in there. Think about design and type. Make me want to read the stuff.

Similarly, you could all have been more concise, I got lots of chatty personality (which was nice) but I'm hoping that isn't always how you share stuff with colleagues or clients. Almost everyone could have written at least half as much.

I think, if we're going to do this then the pieces you do should represent your best efforts.

There's a lot of defaulting to doing TV advertising. You should be beyond this by now.

There was a lot of good thinking that wasn't well summed up. You need to be smart but you need to give people hooks to hang your smartness on. Give them memorable distillations of your thinking.

Good

Lots of imaginative solutions. Lots of thinking both inside and outside the box.

Many of you got (what I thought) was the key opportunity in the brief - which wasn't the minimal product advantages, but was the story and personality of the founder.

You did something. You're doing extra work to try and get better that's fantastic.

Some really interesting non-traditional ideas.

Some great demonstration of old-fashioned planning rigour - which is a very good thing.

Next

Don't hate me if I've not said many nice things. I'm trying to help, being cruel to be kind.

I've added Microsoft comments to the Word and the Powerpoint. Hopefully they'll show up properly.

If you feel I've not been sufficiently fair or rigorous let me know and we'll discuss it more. But I think this whole thing will be more useful as a group exercise than just you reading my comments on your bit. Look at everyone's pieces, measure yourself against them, learn what you can, share your thoughts in the comments field below. I think that's what'll make this thing work.

I really hope this is useful for people.

The final 9 documents will follow asap. (Depends on what time Arthur gets to sleep tonight.)

I should also add how amazed I am by everyone who did this in not-their-first-language. I can't even order a drink in another language and you're all doing strategy in English.

BeansA.doc BeansB.ppt BeansC.doc BeansD.ppt BeansE.ppt BeansF.doc BeansG.doc BeansH.doc

Comments

[diana]

hello! i would like to thank and congratulate you all: on one hand, Russell, for the idea and for the careful comments, and, on the other hand, of course, the ones who submitted their analyses, for their fresh and interesting suggestions.
getting in touch with so many great samples of good thinking is a perfect opportunity for anybody, especially for those -like me :) - who value learning from anything, and mostly from this type of exercises.
especially since i come from Romania, and things are not as open and as evolved here as you guys have there :). and it's simply a thrill to learn from and take part in such projects.
keep up the good work!

[Tim Keil]

Great. I just finished my book. Now I have something to read over the weekend.

[Jinal Shah]

Wonderful work by the participants! The comments and suggestions were just as insightful. This is as good as ad-planning schools will get! Can't wait for the next task.

[Itay Tsamir]

Great work and very important comments by Russell Davies. Thank you.