That was the fantastic description of Howell Henry, the iconoclastic British ad agency of the 1990s (I also used to love their decription as dangerous minds in sensible suits). They're now called United London after becoming part of WPP. Without a doubt, they were the agency who I was most envious of and the one that made me proud to work in advertising in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Recently, there's been a lot of looking back on Richard's blog and Jon Leach's blog at the history of the agency after some recent reunions. They were an agency that were genuinely ahead of the game in their thinking and work practices. So I was excited when emptying some boxes at home to stumble across a booklet they wrote called Marketing At A Point of Change.
It's about how brands today need to show some respect to consumers, think about building communities rather than customer bases and build 3D integrated communications and brand experiences not simply rely on interrupting people through broadcast advertising.
It was written in 1994. That's a debate they began 12 years ago and is still in its infant form today.
In the spirit of sharing great thinking as the Staufenberger Repository have done with some old JWT documents, I've scanned the booklet and you can download it here . Usual caveat to this - anyone with an issue about this being available here please leave a comment/drop me a line and I'll get it down. But hopefully people will find it a good read, a reminder that a lot of today's debates are not really that new and, most of all, a fitting memorial to HHCL.
The thing that gets me is that Adam Lury wrote it in 1994...and did something about it by bringing into the agency sales promotion and direct people from IMP (some of which have gone on to found the very successful if rather unimpressive VCCP)and PR people. there weren't any digital people because no one had heard of the internet.
Makes me think that the advertising world has regressed not progressed over the last decade.
Sad then that in the UK the radical agencies have died or are left shadows of their former selves and the dullards have triumphed - both the old skool and the re-tread 'collaboration' fetishists.
No Crispin Porter, No Anomaly and no Modernista. We survive on Weidens alone. and I don't think they are even on the same page that HHCL were a decade ago.
Posted by: Richard | November 13, 2006 at 04:10 AM
As another ex-HHCL'er [is that a word?] I totally agree with you Richard.
It's not that Cripin's [another ex-employer of mine] and the like are bad - they're not - I just feel they often shine because the rest of the industry have declined into a pit of mediocrity.
OK, so that's a bit harsh - but at HHCL it was about bravery with intelligence, not just humour with a logo - and when I look at what is happening out there in adland, I am somewhat disappointed to see we are entering the age of devolution.
Posted by: Rob @ Cynic | November 13, 2006 at 05:10 AM
Bravery and intelligence: I like that. They seem to be 2 words that really form the basis of innovative, interesting communication.
While I don't work in advertising, I can see from Richard and Rob's comments that the agency and it's people were pretty special. Maybe everyone who worked there should come together and form the advertising version of a supergroup; the industry and the people could do with it.
Posted by: Daniel Longchamps | November 13, 2006 at 08:46 AM
Bravery with intelligence - that's fantastic. It's what every agency should be about, yet very few are.
I totally agree with Richard's point. It makes me sad to think how the industry really has not evolved in the last decade in either its thinking or actions. And he makes a good point about what made HHCL (and maybe St Luke's) special - they didn't just talk about stuff philosophically, they did things to change agency life whether it was hotdesking, tissue meetings or bringing other communication disciplines into the agency.
Posted by: Gareth | November 13, 2006 at 02:23 PM
Really glad you have found this - I have a copy and was thinking of scanning it in and putting it up somewhere. Thanks for doing it.
If you get any heat from doing this let me know and I'll contact Adam to keep it in the public domain.
And it is great stuff.
Posted by: jon leach | November 14, 2006 at 06:55 AM
I think this is great. I have had a fascination with the whole idea of change for years and all the areas I have thought about are covered here
I love the idea of Bravery and Intelligence for the position of an agency. Because thats what a client should pay an outside company for. If they wanted the same thing or the simple things agencies have been feeding them for years.
They could just do it themselves
Posted by: mikej | November 14, 2006 at 09:01 AM
I remember talking to a lovely lady at HHCL, Lousie Vanstone, about this whole intelligence / bravery thing and she said [if memory serves me] that bravey without intelligence is just stupidity with an inflated ego.
The work was great because the thinking was great - it wasn't Planning Vs Creative, it was HHCL Vs The [Ad] World.
Posted by: Rob @ Cynic | November 14, 2006 at 10:08 AM
Just wanted to thank you for sharing this. It's quite inspiring.
Posted by: Noah Brier | November 17, 2006 at 09:20 AM
A bit gobsmacked after reading this last night to find it so prescient and loaded with contemporary language as well as communication ideas. I also found few thoughts that I thought were my own recently!. False memory syndrome at it's best. Adam Lury... what a champ. Well done and thank you.
Posted by: Charles Frith | January 05, 2007 at 11:53 PM
Jesus. The book I now don't need to write, or maybe I do? We've got to keep plugging away I guess...
Posted by: Stuart Parkinson | January 22, 2008 at 06:51 AM