So what do you all think?
So what do you all think?
How can traditional advertising agencies be more like digital agencies? How can they be part of the creative revolution driven by these places that weren’t built by or to be creative agencies? Digital agencies weren’t built to be “creative”, they were built to deliver experiences that solve consumer problems. The funny thing is, the more disciplined the digital agency, the better their solutions. The more discipline, the more creativity is possible. Think first. What is supposed to happen online to influence the brand? Now how can we make that happen? Lack of discipline leads to random experiences that may not solve problems.
Many years ago, Y&R ran a house ad that said, “You can really fly if you know where you are going.” The truth.
Give yourself a break. You just can’t be in two places at the same time
So in today’s Sunday NY Times,
It’s great and not-so great and of course illustrates the fundamental problem all working parents face—you just can’t be in two places at the same time. I’m an Obama fan so I tried to see this as positive. I’m a 30 year veteran of the working parent wars so I cynically looked for the last paragraph in which those who work for the President claim that they too are able to make their children real priorities and contrasted that with Rahm Emanuel who called the White House family-friendly to Obama’s family.
I guess truth lies somewhere but we’ll probably never know exactly where. No working parent gets through without missing something. Obama missed his kids when he campaigned and will certainly not be accessible when he is away so if he wants to try to be more involved with them when he is home, I get it. It’s a good stretch goal. And the President is smart enough and realistic enough to know that there may be something that he has to do one day that will get in the way of a school concert or soccer game. His children will be fine. I hope the worst thing that happens to them is that their Dad misses one or two school events.
I just wish we didn’t try to make so many rules, put so much pressure on ourselves, and were more pragmatic. It would be a better message for our kids and our world. We do the best we can. If we don’t try of course, we can never win. I heard a wise woman, author Julie Salomon who wrote, among other books, Rambam’s Ladder about the necessity of being giving, describe this situation faced by the US professional classes, as an “allocation of resources” problem. It’s real but it’s certainly nothing like the problems faced by working parents in many parts of our world. If we just remember to try to make the most of things, to take the long view and understand that not every situation can be perfect, we will be much more successful as parents and professionals but more importantly, as people.
What is old anyway?
“Old Fogies by Their 20′s” says the New York Times. I can’t help but wonder if such an established media brand doesn’t get a bit of a thrill by warning today’s young 20-somethings that there’s a new cohort coming up behind them. It is undeniably true that today’s elementary school group is just going to be so much better at the newest digital tools than today’s techno-savvy workers.
But I am beginning to feel it doesn’t matter quite as much as we think it does. People adapt. If they have to. And the need to achieve is quite a driver. If you need a skill you develop it. Or develop a “work-around”. And the more I watch the workplace evolve, the clearer it becomes that nobody is really good at everything. So different skill sets start to be just that, different. Work today is complex, global and 24-7, naturally, so it needs teams. People contribute differently to the whole. Sure there is more tech to know but the good news is that there are specialists for everything and as long as you bring something to the party, you will be invited.
Worry not 20-somethings. Just play your own game and be open to learning about someone else’s. By the time you are really running things you will have a whole group of new experts to rely on.
Give it a ponder
I’m so excited about an initiative Y&R developed for our LG client. It’s a real thrill when a paying client asks us to work on something that can make a contribution. I was privileged to help LG find a way to help teens text more responsibly. One might suspect that harassing people via mobile phones is simply schoolyard bullying in the cyber age. But that is just not the case. In traditional bullying, the bully is motivated by a desire to torment the physically weak or the social outcast. But traditional and mobile bullying are enormously different. What adults think of as mobile bullying is a behavior so deeply engrained in everyday teenage life that it is seen as simply a normal and expected part of communicating. Teen texting is not really about bullying weak kids. Instead it’s about gaining on the popular kids.
Go to giveitaponder.com and give it a ponder.
(I know I haven’t posted for awhile. I’ve been pondering. But I’m back!)
What to do?
At the August 19, 2009 ARF Board of Directors meeting we were privileged to hear Bob Johansen from Institute for the Future. He had lots to say and he gave me lots of ideas for things to blog about. Here’s one that applies to most of what we do when it comes to business but I want to use it when I think about recommendations I make or research I design. He said, “You need to be clear about where you are going but flexible about how to get there.” So right on. How much more creative would we be if that were the case, especially when it comes to the design of research for creative development. When it comes to research we jump right to “what should we do” and often don’t spend enough time on “why are we doing it, what do we need to learn, what can we expect to learn?” and so we do the predictable thing with a predictable result.
Just force yourself to think a little bit differently. I used to think there was no merit in people who simply wanted to try something new for the sake of trying it. Now as we know the world is constantly changing I think that UNLESS you try something new (make a big or small change) when you design research, you might think about skipping it altogether.
Extreme, no?
Research 2.0
I spent yesterday at the Advertising Research Foundation helping an amazing group of research experts develop the primal branding code for research.
As part of a team of experienced leaders from marketing and research organizations, we worked with Patrick Hanlon (author of Primal Branding) and his company Thinktopia to develop the brand code for “marketing research” in the new world. It was fun and inspiring as I believe the person of the future in our business is someone who can tell stories from data and as such we need to make sure we attract talent that can do so.
The exercise was about thinking through the research brand’s creation story, creed, icons, rituals, sacred words, non-believers and a religion. One thing I loved about the experience was that I so believe research is like religion and yesterday was about helping to shape it.
I will have more to say on this but for today I was struck by the fact that we had no universal creation story to why advertising research came to be. Luckily for me, at Y&R, I was able to talk about the fact that our commitment to strategy and research came from our heritage, George Gallup, the then famous academic social researcher was hired by the agency founders to help make our work better. Moving forward I hope we always think strategically before we act.
Vive la France!
I’m back. I was “off the grid” at least as far as this blog is concerned. Spent a week in Paris and Beaune. Drank wine and ate cheese daily. And I did research. We stayed in an apartment in the 14th. We pretended we lived there as our friends and their baby accompanied us on many excursions.
Store checks–it is amazing how different and yet how similar the supermarket experience is. I can’t imagine what fresh-baked Walmart bread would taste like but I will never forget the baguettes from the Monoprix. We walked everywhere and I was struck by how accessible things were. I love my NYC subway but have to say as foreigners we had an easier time than the folks I see struggling at the Broadway and 96th Street stop.
And it was fun to speak French. I could do it. 30 years ago I did it better but it was so much fun to do it last week. Using your brain that way makes you think about things from different perspectives.
The true purpose of research, wouldn’t you say?
