Russell Davies

creativity

These are the current issues of Fast Company and Strategy + Business. Now, either it's a slow newsmonth in business-wonk land or creativity is an important issue right now. And, well it is, HBR are always writing about the importance of creativity. Getting access to the right sort of creativity at the right time is clearly a huge issue for businesses everywhere.

Yet here in adland we seem determined to prove we're not a creative business at all. The IPA particularly seems determined to turn advertising into a regulated, predictable profession like any other. The IPA effectiveness awards plough on, but to what effect who knows? It seems that if anyone still needs to be convinced of the value of advertising then a few more awards aren't going to do it. And for everyone else, why are we still flogging this horse?

The one bit that it's worth paying agencies for - unpredictable, lateral ideas - seems to be the bit that the industry plays down in its ceaseless quest to be as 'accountable' as other industry supplier.

Oh, I dunno. I had a bit of a head of steam when I started this post, but now I'm not quite sure what point I'm making.

I guess it's this.

Business is crying out for creativity, for business partners who are different and interesting. Not like them. And the last 10 years of advertising industry thinking seems to have been about proving that we are just like them. We're just another big business. This seems counter-productive and short-sighted to me.

Does that make more sense?

different ways of blaming coke

One of the things about working on a brand like Nike is you're always coming across marketing or business books which tell you precisely what made Nike great, or what they're doing wrong or how they achieved success or how they're ensuring failure. And they're books that you really want to like or that are making some sense and then they start to talk about something you know a little about and you realise they're just making stuff up.

People who worked on the launch of New Coke must feel a similar thing. It must be one of the most cited marketing thingy's ever. And not everyone's theory about its failings can be right.

Here, though are two audio presentations which shed light on the New Coke fiasco. The first - a talk at PopTech by Malcolm Gladwell is the most convincing. He talks about the stupidity/limitations of the taste-testing research Coke did to convince themselves they needed to change formulation. (This one is free). The second is a presentation at audible.com about influence by Dr. Robert Cialdini. He only touches on the Coke thing, but it's worth listening to anyway. (This one is $3).

Weakest. Headline. Ever

bucharest presentation

Here, for everyone who was there, is a version of the presentation Bill and I did in Bucharest. We had to take out all the video and a lot of the proprietary stuff but there's a few words and pictures still left. It won't make a lot of sense if you weren't there. It probably doesn't make a lot of sense even if you were.

Enjoy.

life in badges - school

School wasn't a lot of fun. Boring. But music was a salvation. I had a isolated early teenage because of an enthusiasm for prog. But I was lucky because of Tangerine Dream seemed to play at the Assembly Rooms every other week.

Then I discovered pop music. ABC. The Haircuts. All that. Don't know where the badges are. As I got older two tangents appeared - Scots with guitars like del amitri whose first album was eccentricly brilliant. (And all the others were rubbish.) - or hiphop and all that. The thing I really loved was Go-Go - Trouble Funk, Chuck Brown, EU. I thought Go-Go was going to be the future, but it just disappeared.

Then I joined the band - they were Daryl and The Chaperones at the time. Though Daryl had left. There was also Andy and Jyoti. We became Whizz For Atoms. I remember playing gigs in London, driving back overnight and going to school to fall asleep in Music A level classes.

The Hemsworth badge is a strange thing. I can't remember where I got it. But we were playing gigs around Notts/Derbys/Staffs during the miners strike. We used to get stopped a lot because we were five lads in a van and we looked like flying pickets. Strange days indeed.

life in badges - college

Didn't really enjoy university. Infact it was mostly rubbish. The only good bits were discovering a small group of friends who shared an enthusiasm for the newly minted odd journalism of Smash Hits and the baked potatoes at Tatties. One of the worst bits was the bizzare behaviour at Caius Left. We used to go on the CND marches to London so we could go shopping at Chippie and Chevignon. The cartoons of Stephen Appleby remind me of my good friend Peter and Ted Chippington of my good mate Ben.

life in badges - marriage

Anne and I have been together since college. We share some enthusiasms, mostly seemingly reflecting the ordinary places we grew up. Derby and Elmsmere Port. So say hello to BHS, Happy Eater and a day trip to Sellafield.

life in badges - work

My first advertising job was at Yellowhammer, a great place that flamed out in a spectacular bout of financial mismanadement. It was a great 80s environment, well into the 90s, all black ash and wanky Japanese twigs.

While at Yellowhammer I did a videobox feature and got invited to make a special bit for Right To Reply which featured a bit of bully. There was even talk of me being a presenter but I didn't fancy the world of telly. It made advertising seem substantial and worthwhile.

bucharest 2

The Bucharest folks took us to a slightly insane restaurant. Looked very traditional. Like you imagine Bucharest in the 30s. And the food seemed equally traditional. Lots of pickled vegetables and all kinds of delicious meaty things. Many of them flaming.

The insane bit was the entertainment. Violin. Light opera ('I could have danced all night'.) Ballroom dancing. A little jazz. Rounded off with spirited renditions of Tom Jones and Elvis buy a bloke who looked like Detective Andy Sipowicz from NYPD Blue. Many of the locals seemed to condem the entertainers because they were 'gypsies'. They way people talked about gypsies seemed to be bordering on racist to me, but we were only there two days, maybe we were missing something.

This the area around the restaurant. Apparantly it used to be a bad neighbourhood.

The people listening to us drone on and on. I think we did OK, but we probably went on too long. Should have finished earlier. Lesson for next time. They were a great audience. Real pleasure to talk to. Hope they got something out of it. I'm going to post a copy of the presentation next week if anyone should want it.

Part of the offices of headvertising. Our hosts. A very cool Romanian agency. (The only cool Romanian agency? Probably not. See comment below). They were very nice, very friendly, very smart and had some great work.

bucharest

I'm in Bucharest for a conference called Brandworks. With Bill Davenport of our Portland office. Enjoying the Romanians a lot. Loads of energy and drive. They really smoke hard. They have some great signs. And who wouldn't shop at Angst?

I like the idea of Bonus Plus. It's like Double-Plus-Good. It's a Bonus (which is good) but it's also a Plus (which is good too). You can't get better than that.

Like all conferences, Brandworks is in a big, old hotel.

I like this sign in Bucharest airport. And it's a fair indication of how steep the landing was.

All over the world Word is the programme of choice for improvised signage. It seems especially true in Bucharest. (Well, I've noticed it a lot.) Surely Microsoft should be recognising this and designing packages/templates that do it a little better. (Perhaps they do, I've not loooked recently.)

Bill was really thrown by the intensity of smoking in restaurants etc so we had lunch sitting outside one of Bucharest's smartest cafes. In our big coats and hats. Food was very nice. Staff thought we were mad.