Russell Davies

account planning is go

I'm in Chicago, the AAAA Account Planning Conference starts tomorrow.

I thought I'd try and do some serious planning blogging for a change and post some reports on all the sessions I get to. Though I probably won't be the only person doing it. Gareth is here too, and I bet there'll be others.

Though I hope everyone's good because I'm not sure I'll bring myself to say anything bad, which I know isn't really the idea, you're generally supposed to be all critical and malicious. Or at least that's the impression you get from all those technology conferences.

But I'm too chicken to do that, especially as I've got to get up there and say stuff myself at some point.

My presentation's about half done right now. But I've got until Wednesday.

Above is the view from the hotel. Kinda like a Thunderbirds set.

account planning

coca corporateness

What are Coke up to? This looks like something from a corporate report. But it's found its way onto the back of mags like OK. How odd.

starbucks van

Not the most original idea ever, but still a good one - Starbucks sampling Frappuccino Light out of an old ice-cream van.

(Shot with my new phone. Quality is OK actually, maybe I can stop carrying the camera around everywhere.)

The Rules Of Management

Just finished reading The Rules Of Management by Richard Templar. Very good round-up of common sense management thinking. And readable.

He had a good selection of quotes which seemed to relate to brands and planning so I thought I'd talk about them here.

“It is amazing how much you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” - Harry Truman.

This is the best and hardest thing to learn about being a planner. If you want to work effectively with creative teams (and with clients), if you want to get your ideas into the mix you have to surrender the credit. You have to let your ideas become their ideas (without them knowing your doing it). It's just human nature. The best way to be influential is to be generous.

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” - Thomas Jefferson

This is the other great truth about planning. It's not actually that hard. Not intellectually hard anyway. Anyone who likes reading a bit, understands something of human nature, likes thinking about brands and is prepared to ritually abase themselves infront of everyone they meet can do it. My single observation about the most succesful planners is that they just work harder than everyone else. They might hide it well, but they do the work.

“Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.” - Henry Clay

This is a truth that brands often forget. It's not the big things that count, the big initiatives and the huge programmes, it's the little moments of thought, concern and imagination.

“It is happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.” - Samuel Johnson

Another thing that brands would do well to remember. If you spend your whole time making life difficult for the customers who might try to 'cheat' you, you'll give completely the wrong signals to everyone else. Trust the people sending you returns, or using the minibar or something. Trrust builds relationships and has to be two-way. Look at the debate here in the comments for more.

what to think?

I just noticed that the splendid people at psfk have linked to one of my posts on their IF thingy. So I clicked on the trackback doodah to go and see what they'd written about it and found that I couldn't do it without a subscription.

Which made me feel kinda hmmm.

I'm not sure why exactly. I guess it's that I can't see what they've written about something I wrote without paying them some money. Is that very petty? Of course, I based my thing on a Guardian article (though I did a bit of extra research and thinking) and I used a picture from there so maybe I'm doing exactly the same thing, but then I'm not making any money out of this, and they can see what I've done for free.

I was thinking of subscribing to IF, but now I'm slightly less inclined.

Am I just being an arse?

for all you arthur fans

Clearing out my Homestead site, which is soon to be abandoned in favour of Flickr. I found this picture of Arthur from about three years ago. Sorry, but it made me go aah. It's probably all the being away from home. I'm getting soppy.

There'll be some actual planning thoughts tomorrow. Promise.

not entirely new phone

Bought a new phone recently. Very nice too. But when I looked in the memory of this supposedly new phone there were all these pictures. Many of them in the Orange Shop, including this bloke. I've no idea who he is, and he looks very charming, but I can't believe he comes preloaded by Sony Ericsson as a 'theme'.

stranded

I saw this sign in the corner at a railway museum. I found it really quite affecting. Is there any more comforting and fundamentally human offer than 'a welcome and a bed'. If hotels remembered that and didn't get obsessed by how cool their lobbies were I think they'd do much better.

down the allotment

I'm back in the country for a week so it's time to catch up with blogging. And here's some pictures from a few weekends ago when we went down my Mum's allotment with Arthur. He had a whale of a time digging up vegetables. Not something most kids at his school get to do much probably. Only a 5-year old can bend over quite like that.

heathrow ramble

It's Sunday evening. I'm sitting in the Giraffe cafe in Heathrow. It's not bad, but not really where I want to be. At the end of this week I'll have spent four out of five weeks away from home. That's not good. It also explains why my blogging has been a little sparse recently. Sorry about that.

On the upside I've just heard I'm being moved to the big room at the AAAA Account Planning Conference. Which in Glastonbury terms is like moving from the Comedy Tent to the Main Stage. It's more than a little nerve-wracking to be honest. I think I've decided what to talk about though.

(I'm also sneakily delighted that when you google "AAAA account planning conference" I'm higher up the list than they are. It's not right, but it's pleasing.)