You have to buy this book. Best advertising book ever. You had some excuse until just recently, because it was out of print. But now there's a new edition with bonus CD, which you can get from here. Buy it and find out why jeffre's blog's called pink air. (via George)
scrapbooks = genius
All the best creative people I've ever worked with have kept scrapbooks. They're always snappers-up of ideas and the physicality of a scrapbook ads something to the process. Plus the unexpected conjunctions you get through the randomness of scrapbooks can lead to some of the best ideas.
I think planners should keep scrapbooks too. I do. You should always have a ton of stuff ready to add life and flavour and texture to creative briefs. And it's a good way of complying with Richard's Diktat Number 7.
I was reminded of all this by the arrival of this lovely book. Recommended by Alex. Which features Tony and Kim of w+k fame and some pictures of their vast collection of scrapbooks.
But also in there some pictures of some of the stuff we did to make the old building a bit more stimulating.
We attached bungee chords to some of the internal windows so we could stick stuff up. I'm a big believer in sticking stuff up. I think planners should take a lot of responsibility for the internal environment of an agency (or wherever). It's a fantastic way to get ideas and thoughts into the edges of people's attention field. if you beat them over the head with something they'll ignore it. If you stick it on the wall next to their office, or the kettle, they'll put it in their work. (Must tackle that idea in here.)
Anyway. What have you stuck on your walls today?
books are good
People are always asking me (you know, maybe twice a year) what books they should read about planning and stuff. And I always say Eating The Big Fish and Truth Lies and Advertising. Because they are both brilliant, and they basically tell you how to do the job.
But now I'm also, probably more usefully, going to refer them to this great post at the Fallon Planning Blog. Great job Mr Aki Systems 2600.
Get these books, read them, especially How To Plan Advertising and Why We Buy.
Maybe if I'd read some of these books when I started out I wouldn't be so frightened of focus groups.
As you can see I've gone a little crazy with Spell With Flickr.
hey sparky
So, in the current absence of any paid employment I'm going to be doing a session at this. I gather from the misplaced exclamation point that we're supposed to be talking about inspiration etc and I have a couple of things we can do with that, that'll take up about 30 minutes. But I wondered if anyone had any requests how we should fill the rest of the time.
I have this thought that I'd like to do something about the way to bring inspiration to a cross-disciplinary group, rather than just a creative team or someone, but it's no further thought-out than that. Anyone got any ideas, suggestions, requests?
And is anyone else going? Or will I just be talking to myself?
hit the north
The serendipity of links and trackbacks led me to one of the simplest, most useful, most common-sensical and human bits of advice I've read for ages. Northern Planner's Top Ten Tips for Working With Suits. Practical genius. And it wins extra points by being Northern. I like the North, I'm not from there, I'm from the Midlands (something that confuses Southerners) but I admire someone who's proud of their geography.
the wisdom of the ages
Patrick has been true to his word and posted a copy of Stephen King's 1974 JWT Planning Guide at the Staufenberger Repository, along with a 1972 Jeremy Bullmore speech to Kraft. Reading them just reminds me how all us planning bloggers (and planners generally) are simply re-learning the lessons that the greats like Mr King learned all those years ago. if I'd ever had any planning training this is the planning training I'd like to have had.
I hope no-one at JWT objects to these being up there, I'm sure they won't, and it's good for them and everyone that this stuff is available to all, demonstrating their place in the history of planning. And anyway it's too late now. They're out, probably won't be long before you can get them as BitTorrent files.
Right, now who's got a copy of Jim's Planning Toolkit?
Tip o' the hat to Spell With Flickr
being happy with your strategies
I just listened to this great bit of radio on an NPR podcast. It talks about various studies people are doing about the effects of choice etc. Many of the arguements will be familiar if you're read The Paradox Of Choice.
But although this is really interesting stuff when thinking about people buying things, I think it's potentially more interesting when thinking about how planners and organisations behave when they're thinking about strategy and ideas.
One of the studies described involved students looking for jobs, the researchers analysed their decision styles and found they split into two groups who they described as Maximizers and Satisficers.
Maximizers would study tons and tons of options and only pick the optimal one after careful consideration.
Satisficers would study a few and plump for one fairly quickly.
And, it turned out, Maximizers made much better choices, they tended to get better jobs, with higher pay. Which would suggest that strategically, you should be a Maximizer.
Except of course, it's not that simple. Because the Maximizers were much less satisfied with their choice. All that analysis, in a world where there isn't one perfect choice, just showed them all the things they were potentially missing. They were much less content with the option they'd chosen, and, I bet, much more likely to quit prematurely and try and find something better.
I bet you could easily divide up planners and organisations into Maximizers and Satisficers, and it would be just as valuable. Some planners, some organisations, leave no strategic stone unturned, they investigate every possibility, they draw endless SWOT charts and maps to ensure they've considered every option, and they use rigorous analytical tools to make their ultimate decision about where to go. This probably gets them to a great decision.
But it takes forever and six months later they do it all again.
All the analysis and choice creates Corporate Strategic Unhappiness and there are constant tweaks and changes of direction. There's no commitment to the decision and however great the option they chose was, they execute against it badly and just cause more internal FUD.
Other planners and organisations are Satisficers. They consider a few options, they plump for one fairly quickly and they get on with it. The chances are it's not quite as brilliant a strategy as a Maximizer might come up with, but it doesn't matter because they really commit to it and they execute it without doubt. That makes it a more effective strategy.
All this was going through my head this morning, on the way for breakfast, and it seemed like it's a really interesting question to ask yourself as a strategist - are you Maximizing or Satisficing? - and then, when I logged on today I found this really interesting post from Mr Mysterious Noisy Decent Graphics Guy, which essentially says the same thing but from a more practical point of view.
Think about this next time you're involved with a pitch or something. Do you really need to explore every conceivale strategy and deliniate it's pros and cons in 7point type? Aren't you just irritating your colleagues and your client? Try and be satisfied with less thinking and aim for Strategic Happiness, not Strategic Genius.
the war between happy and clever
I knew I wanted to post about this great piece over at Creating Passionate Users but I couldn't work out what I wanted to say. But now I have.
As Kathy makes clear, it makes a lot of sense to be happy. Being happy, optimistic and open is a productive way to be, especially if you want to be around creative people, and you want them to want you around. They like having those kind of people around.
Unfortunately you're a planner and planners always have this need to be seen as clever and intellectual - which often means cynical, sarcastic and detached. There always seems to be this opposition between clever and happy, we always signal that we have brains by making cutting little asides. I know I do. I have to fight it.
But it doesn't work. The people other people want to work with are enthusiasts. They're open. They're happy.
Hurray for happiness.