brand new

Humility

Regular readers (if there are any) will know my love of Howard Luck Gossage's maxim, "people read what interests them.  And sometimes it's an ad."  It's a far too often forgotten reminder of the truth that people aren't anywhere as near interested in brands, ads and communication as we are.  We need a little humility when we think about what makes a truly good idea.

Was reminded this again by what looks to be an excellent new blog from Steve Henry, one of the founders of the iconoclastic agency HHCL.  He makes a fantastic argument for some humility, perhaps best summed up by this quote:

"Ads interrupt whatever it is people are engaged with, and try to engage them in a conversation the consumer has shown no interest in starting in the first place."

Something we could all do with remembering a little more often.  Success doesn't just come from blindly 'selling'.  It comes from making a positive cultural contribution.

Less stuff

There's been a fair bit of much needed conversation recently about the need for unproducts - maximum idea, minimum stuff.  Ben Terrett wrote a great introductory overview for Design Week, and Russell has some really good stuff about this on his blog.

Clearly, most of us are consuming far more than we need or should.  We live in a culture characterized by planned obsolescence and throwaway fashion. And some progressive brands like howies with their hand me down range are beginning to address the issue.

There's been a couple of recent contributions to this thinking that I want to share.  The first is from Platform 21 in the Netherlands who have launched a repair manifesto.  Their aim is to oppose throwaway culture make repair the new recycling.

The second great piece of thinking came from the smart folks at Zeus Jones and Sierra Bravo who won this year's Phizzpop competition.  Their solution to the problem of helping the citizens of Austin to live more sustainably was based on the real insight of the amount of unused stuff we all have lying around. The idea was to create a platform for sharing and trading the unused stuff we have with people wanting it. You can read more here and it's well worth the seven minutes it takes to watch their presentation.

Zeus Jones Phizzpop SXSW Finale from Zeus Jones on Vimeo.

The underlying genius in this idea is that it's about creating a platform that enables people to do stuff together, not sending people a message telling them how they should modify their behavior.  Perhaps the more infinite world of bits and bytes can help us break our addiction to the finite physical resources we are consuming.

The right questions

This should be the union T shirt for planners (thanks to the wonderful Boxie)

Your old briefs, please

This is an urgent request to planning & strategy folk (responses needed by monday night) from Mark and the folk at Planning For Good

Can you help us help the Ideas Foundation? 

It's a UK charity that is committed to championing creativity in young people

"We  broker projects between industry and education.
We  spot & develop young people’s creativity. 
We  pilot creative education projects and champion transferable skills within the  creative industries and beyond. 
We provide effective work experience, internship and apprenticeship opportunities. We signpost further & higher education routes to creative employment and enterprise. 
And  having done all that, we encourage our creativity scholars to stay in touch and  get involved"

So here's the shout out to Planning for Good types - do you have a social policy brief that you've written that these kids can do work from? 

Maybe the client didn't buy it? Maybe the suits or the CD didn't like it? Or your boss? Or you?

So what are we after? 

A brief to target a youth audience on a social policy area 

It could be in areas such as smoking cessation, sexual health, knife or gun crime, drug or alchohol abuse, bullying, internet safety etc. 

We'd just like your old briefs. Or, if you really want to write a new one, please feel free to do so but just make sure you include the usual information (the problem defined, the audience, etc) and try to ground it in reality and evidence...

Thanks very much in advance on behalf of the Ideas Foundation - we promise to keep you in touch with what folk send in and what they do with them

Pls send your briefs to Mark at markearls [at] hotmail [dot] com by Monday night

Can you help us help the Ideas Foundation? 

It's a UK charity that is committed to championing creativity in young people

"We  broker projects between industry and education.
We  spot & develop young people’s creativity. 
We  pilot creative education projects and champion transferable skills within the  creative industries and beyond. 
We provide effective work experience, internship and apprenticeship opportunities. We signpost further & higher education routes to creative employment and enterprise. 
And  having done all that, we encourage our creativity scholars to stay in touch and  get involved"

So here's the shout out to Planning for Good types - do you have a social policy brief that you've written that these kids can do work from? 

Maybe the client didn't buy it? Maybe the suits or the CD didn't like it? Or your boss? Or you?

So what are we after? 

A brief to target a youth audience on a social policy area 

It could be in areas such as smoking cessation, sexual health, knife or gun crime, drug or alchohol abuse, bullying, internet safety etc. 

We'd just like your old briefs. Or, if you really want to write a new one, please feel free to do so but just make sure you include the usual information (the problem defined, the audience, etc) and try to ground it in reality and evidence...

Thanks very much in advance on behalf of the Ideas Foundation - we promise to keep you in touch with what folk send in and what they do with them

Pls send your briefs to Mark at markearls [at] hotmail [dot] com by Monday night

APSotW

Rob has got up a new assignment for the Account Planning School of the Web.  It's a belter abut honing your skills in making a persuasive strategic argument to support an idea.  You can take part here.

April 2nd, NYC

PSFK are organizing another one of their mighty fine conferences on April 2nd.  You can get tickets here. Full details to come but expect another great day of inspiration and provocation in easily digestible, snack sized chunks.  

It's Comcastic

I love the new, very Moldy Peaches (even Honda Grrr) influenced, Comcast ad from Goodby.

And the accompanying site is well worth spending some time with.

The future is bright, and it's in Richmond

The gist of what I talked about - the changing nature of a 'good' idea

(Full disclosure - I am a member of the board of the VCU Brandcenter.  But I would have written the following regardless).

Last Friday I spent the day at the VCU Brandcenter in Richmond, VA.  I was invited to come and give a talk as part of their Friday speak series and also spent some time with students on the strategy and creative brand management tracks.  It became very clear during the day that the industry has got some fantastic talent coming in to it over the next couple of years.  A bunch of people with real passion, a real belief in the power of brands and advertising and a desire to shake things up.  I'm hoping the industry doesn't make the same mistake it has made in the last recession and cut recruitment at the entry level - these are the people who can perhaps most quickly help drive the industry where it needs to go and inject some much needed passion and possibility, rather than cynicism and doubt, into the industry.   If you're looking to hire, I strongly suggest you take a look at the graduating class.  My experience (and bias) suggests they're the best young talent out there; scrappy and smart, passionate and pragmatic.

The slides from the presentation are below.  After reflecting on the day, I think it's time to retire this shtick unless I start living and delivering it every day.  That's my challenge for the rest of the year as I'm tired of talk.  And this thinking is getting old - time to come up with some new things to talk about.

Vcufeb09

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