big thinking

Boy I need your help now. I've signed up to be a speaker for the APG Battle Of Big Thinking which sounds like it might be great - some of the stuff we've been asking for from the AAAA conference.  But I think I've got to debate Jim Carroll of BBH and then the audience is going to vote who's best. Jeez. Have you seen Jim speak? He's fantastic.  So, my only topic seems to be Big Planning Thinking, any ideas what I should talk about?

Comments

[Ben]

That looks brilliant. The D&AD should get some of that. Is there a way to just come to your bit? (And pay accordingly?)

It sounds like a Presidential debate, and you normally win that by being really nice, not sweating too much and waiting for the other guy to mess up.

Failing that, you could bring everyone who contributes to this post up on to the stage (a bit like when they use kids as backing singers on the X Factor).

Or you could wait for some more useful suggestions.

[henry lambert]

Is this an opportunity to wheel out complexity vs simplicity? Or, seeing as it's BBH, could it be the tyranny of the 'big idea'?

[ed]

I agree is Henry. Go up there and share you thoughts on ideas bucket and randomness. Waffle on purpose. It's important that you ad lib in your delivery - for authenticity.

I dunno, get your tablet out and do real time slide writing or something. You'll be cool.

[Richard Buchanan]

Story dialogue. Once upon a time and all that.

[marcus]

I like ben's idea of not doing it alone and I think ed is spot on about keeping it authentic and have waffle. This other fella is going to all sharp with dummy cards and stuff. Relax, you'll knock him out of the water.

[gemma]

Planning seems to me to be as much about the small-but-significant insight as it does about the Big Idea/Big Thinking. Maybe thats something worth exploring?

[jack]

I will hypothesize and assume that some people will say that big planning thinking is essentially small (especially if you’re a fan of Ries): Volvo = safe, BMW = fun to drive, etc. Small in terms of reduced and simple.
I suppose this should make it easier to write the ads.
I’m a copywriter. So let me play devil’s advocate. I like a bit more complexity when it comes to a brand. If a brand is supposed to be a personality, then why the forced simplicity? How many people do you know who you could honestly describe with one word? I don’t know any.
But I’d like to think I actually know them and I have an idea of what they stand for. They represent something to me, they occupy a space in my mind. I can try to tell a story from their perspective. And I can try to recreate their tone of voice. But I can’t summarise them that succinctly.
Or maybe I’m just not a very good copywriter.

[Richard Buchanan]

Always good to have a couple of logic cards up your sleeve.

This site is great for honing orating skills in the greek tradition. http://changingminds.org/disciplines/argument/argument.htm

Either that or you could laxative his coffee....its not unheard of.....just kidding.

[Oakie]

Mmm... what if Jim Carroll is reading this post?

[Andrew]

Try and get that 'blur' slide from brands and blogs somehow - that'll get people going;-)

Have people got their heads around being interesting enough to have people come to you, as opposed to other way around? Could be a thought provoking topic.

[Carol]

I belong to the ancient Society of Cogers, the oldest free speech society in the world. We meet 2 or 3 times a month and get evaluated at the end of the evening. The best "speech" gets an apple.

These are a few of the aspects that seem to help speakers win the apple:

Passion
Telling an interesting story
Speaking up, loud, clear, enunciating
Speaker's political beliefs should be ambiguous
Sex, seriously, mentioning it a bit but no gross detail
Lots of humour, lots of laughs, self deprecating humour is a big winner.

[henry lambert]

In terms of 'big thinking' could you talk about the wisdom of crowds and how the internet is giving anybody the ability to harness the incredible power of collective thought? This very post is an example of big thinking. On psfk we've had a couple of posts on companies utilising the wisdom of crowds:

http://www.psfk.com/wedia/index.html

[Mark Earls]

Go, Russ, go. Complexity, co-creativity and the nonsense of apriori planning seem to me to be enough for your 15 minutes. Oh yes, and your hair will be cleaner and smarter than J's. Best of luck

[Mark Earls]

Go, Russ, go. Complexity, co-creativity and the nonsense of apriori planning seem to me to be enough for your 15 minutes. Oh yes, and your hair will be cleaner and smarter than J's. Best of luck

[speed]

You found a conceptual enemy Russell -:)
one big idea v lots of ideas ditto insights
telling the creatives what to do v helping them do better bigger
messaging v engagement v 0.3 etc
as for a fun take on spin and debate try this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427944/

[Scamp]

Don't talk about complexity... it's so wrong... brands are not like people... much more monodimensional, e.g. might only offer you help with washing your hair.

[Jonathan Pangu]

I think the first thing to do is define 'big thinking planning'. It's a rather fat term that could mean all kinds of things.

How about 'big thinking planning' = the things planning can do that no one else can; not the creative people, not the client, no one.

Promising that would grab the attention and is a suitably big theme to fit a very big title.

You could go all kinds of ways with that. I'd include something about the media and the message being vitally important to consider together, especially at a time when digital...etc..and that planners are uniquely placed to understand both, and how doing this right, and better than your competition, is going to be an increasingly valuable source of advantage.

[henry lambert]

Scamp, I take your point on some brands not having a personality and not needing one, hair care is a case in point. However, there are a good proportion of brands that do need the human touch and this is especially true in more emotional purchases. It's the way that Innocent distinguishes itself from PJ smoothies; it's the way that Honda differentiates itself from Nissan or American Apparel sets itself apart from GAP.

It's not about a single product benefit. In an era of blogs, youtube, myspace etc you have to engage consumers beyond a simple product or brand benefit or you don't distinguish yourself at all.

[John Grant]

You need to be slightly careful about assuming you know what position Jim will take. A month ago I saw him present Axe Click toys and Red Bull events as his two favourite campaigns and wax on about '360 degree, internet 2.0 thingy type stuff'

I also personally slightly doubt he will be looking forward to it :J

ps I told a journalist today that you are the Chris Moyles of marketing. Very sorry if that tag sticks!

[russell]

Well, to start with I'm not happy with the Chris Moyles comparison. Fat, Northern and beligerent. I object to that. I'm not beligerent.

Anyway.

I'm assuming that, since there are going to be other people doing things like 'big brand thinking' then my job isn't to do brands and brand theory. I'm assuming that my job is to talk about the role and practise of planning - and its future. So I thought I'd do that.

Which also might answer the question Gemma asked here:

http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2006/07/giving_back.html