assignment 13 - soap feedback

Here's the feedback on Assignment 13. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Good Stuff

This was a much harder task than just throwing out some maple syrup thoughts. This required thought, investigation, some digging, some actual thinking. As such everyone who entered can be proud that they've got the kind of application and effort they'll need to be a good planner. Because I'm convinced that most of what makes people any good is there ability to work hard. So you've all done that. Brilliant.

There were some really interesting entries in here. Some people who'd managed to combine a decent amount of digging for useful data with some imagination and originality in your arguments. That's fantastic. Most of you didn't do both, you either presented me with lots of useful information and no interesting thinking. Or the other way round. That's not great but it's a decent start.

I really liked how global and diverse these entries are. I learned a lot about some different countries and none of you settled for some bland global solution. You all did something that was locally relevant and locally insightful. So, hurrah.

Bad Stuff

There was a load of typos and things in these documents. If English isn't your first language I'm going to forgive you for that and applaud you for communicating in another language. I can't do it. But if English is your first language then you should be ashamed of some of the typos in there. That's bad. And if your English isn't that strong just write less, use bullet points or diagrams, find a simpler way to communicate. It couldn't hurt anyway. But like I say anyone who's doing this in a second language - you have my admiration.

There was a lot of assertion without evidence in here. That's not necessarily a bad thing but if you're going to do that you have to explain what you're doing. If you're offering a personal point of view make that clear, and then make it very personal. Otherwise you should all spend some more time looking for actual facts and information on which to base your argument. This doesn't have to mean some quantitative research (thought that would be good) it just has to mean something out there in the real world; it could be the thoughts of journalists, it could be data from industry websites, it could be quotes from people on the internet, it could be a survey of people in your company. Otherwise you're just making stuff up and you're likely to get shot down in the client meeting. You've got to base your assertions and thinking on something.

On a similar note, though you all seemed to have done quite a lot of work on this it didn't seem that any of you actually went to a store, bought any similar product or tried it out. I didn't get any sense of visceral experience with the category. There's no substitute for trying it yourself. Do that. Take a few pictures, think about your personal experience and you've got a valid basis for a conversation. You should always start there. Not with google.

Caveats etc

Every time I do this I realise what a tricky task it is. I really want to be able to talk to you about what you've done, ask about the thinking behind it, discuss it, because I often get the sense that there's some great thinking hidden behind some awkward presentation. But I can only react to what you send me. And I can only do it with those snippy and perfunctory little comments. And it always seems easier to criticise than praise, and they inevitably get snippier as I get to the final entrants. So once again I apologise if I've been too harsh. But as I've said before, I don't think it's my comments that are the real value, I think you'll learn most by looking at everyone else's entry and seeing what they did that was different, better or worse than you.

Once again, huge thanks to everyone who joined in, you can be proud of yourselves. I've also recorded a discussion about this assignment with two titans of the plannersphere which I will post tomorrow and there'll be another task along shortly. cheers.

Download 13A.ppt Download 13B.ppt Download 13C.ppt Download 13D.ppt Download 13E.ppt Download 13F.ppt Download 13G.ppt Download 13H.ppt Download 13I.ppt Download 13J.ppt Download 13K.ppt Download 13L.ppt Download 13M.ppt

Comments

[Nathan]

any winner?

[pooR]

Thank you Russell. Your feedback is always a boost up for better work.

[John Dodds]

Fascinating stuff and great critiques Russell. I've no idea who the "students" are but have you any idea why Colombia features more than one might expect?

Do you have Colombian readers, is Colombia a leader in eco-friendly products or are aspirant ad planners otherwise obsessed with the product of that country?

[Adam]

Thanks for your comments - the project certainly got me thinking and was good to look into a category that I don't normally think about.

actually it almost got me buying eco-stuff for my house, almost...

[Carol]

Russell, your criticisms are valid, helpful and kindly meant. I'm blown away by your school of the web. I'm a little puzzled by any planner that doesn't naturally go buy competitive product and use it though. I'm training someone right now, first item on the agenda was "observation" and a bit of shopping!

[Sara]

Russell,

As someone who is currently in the nonprofit arts field but is really interested in what you do, having the opportunity to see this work and your comments has been invaluable.

Also a big thank you to the folks who submit for their willingness to share their work so that people like me can learn.

I'm wondering if it might be helpful to summarize lessons learned from each assignment to create best practices to take away for those of us to keep in mind as we go on with our regular lives.

Things I caught were:

1. Presentation
* pay attention to sequence of slides - grab readers’ attention early
* Be sure to have visuals that support/are relevant to text on slide and argument
* watch amount of text on slides -less can be more powerful – make sure your point stands out
* Almost everyone had about 5-8 slides – not sure if that was intentional but seemed to be the given length?

2. Content
* having specific sources to cite is important
* start with first hand observation - these are just as important as research
* be sure to balance background information with new ideas

These were just a few - I'm sure there are more and some seem obvious but hopefully helpful?

Best,
Sara

[Daniel Mejia]

Russell, I can't express how grateful I'm for your comments on my assignment. This task was very fulfilling and I learned a lot about green marketing, I'm sure convinced now to be more eco-friendly and I even started to evangelize about it with my friends and co-workers.

I was really happy to find out that there was someone else from Colombia doing the task (if you're reading please tell me who you are? I would like to meet some other planners from around here) It was very interesting to see how different, but yet slightly familiar they are. I guess that's what happens in a pitch.

Finally, John about your question... Why are you so surprised to see that there was 2 colombians applying to the assignment?
1. I've never been in your blog, but I'm sure that you have realized by now that this is a global phenomenon, not only from the UK or the US. In my blog I have visitors from places like Togo or Vietnam, so I'm sure Russell has readers from all over the planet, even strangest places than those two or Colombia.
2. Unfortunately, we don't have yet many eco-friendly products as you may have, but we're working on it
3. FYI Colombia is the fifth biggest market in Latin America and we have a very healthy advertising industry with an increasing amount of interest in planning, so it is not that weird that colombian (aspirant) planners are submiting our ideas to Russell's APSTOW.

[Brett Macfarlane]

Dear Russell,

Firstly, your feedback is invaluable. It is such a great benefit and honour that a seminal leader in the field of planning provides feedback to a community "school" you created. Thank you.

Every APSOTW makes me a better planner. APSOTW is the planner version of a Web 2.0 MBA. Which I think is fantastic. Thank you!

That said, I must defend my "typo" issue. Yes, I am 13A - the leader of the typo posse. I could make an excuse about how it was hour number 22 on my flight to a shoot in South Africa and that at this point I had been awake for 37 hours, when I was finally was able to put my presation into Power Point. Or that the “typos” were just “British” language issues, and not relevant in Canada. What really matters is the core thinking and feedback. For which I really value the feedback of Russell and friends. Please, if you or the pannershere have more thoughts, fire them my way.