There’s a fine line between healthy cynicism and bonfire pissing. And it’s a fine line that the experienced creative industry practitioner has to tread carefully. Especially when she or he is dealing with the fresh-faced envangelism of a young, thrusting brand manager. Marketing can be a ridiculously up itself business …
I pay you for your opinion. So said a client of mine way back when. (Maybe it’s just me but I never fail to be pleasantly surprised when someone is explicit in placing value on my point of view.) In this instance it wasn’t any kind of strategic input that …
Norman Mailer told me to stop being a fucking pussy. I went to see him speak at the book festival and asked him a question at the end. What did he most regret doing, what did he most regret not doing, and which was the bigger regret of the two? …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBjEUyOw_00] Coffee with an ex-client turned into a conversation about “happening” agencies around the world. And from there to a revealing, client-eye view of agency marketing, agency models, agency philosophies and the ™ packaging of agency processes. Said client must have had thousands of cold calls, hundreds of chemistry meetings …
Most Americans can’t get their heads around cricket. In return, like many British people, I’ve never managed to get my head around American football (NFL). However, I do like one aspect of that otherwise arcane game. I like the bit where one side is attacking (offence) and the defending side …
I want someone to mock me, to kick my ass, to make me feel stupid. So said Jasper Westaway of Onedrum.com at TechCrunch Edinburgh on Wednesday last week. He was talking about the value that good product marketing people bring to tech businesses, and how difficult they are to find. …
I am indebted to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought Of That blog for posting a leaving speech from a guy I’d never heard of. Chris Pullman was “design visionary” at Boston based public broadcast service WGBH in Boston. This, Point 7, from his What I’ve Learned speech really resonated …
The first rule of Pitch Club is that you most definitely DO want potential clients to talk about your presentation afterwards. And they’re more likely to do so if they can actually remember what you said. We’ve all been there. You attend a presentation. Someone who didn’t attend asks you …
I’m in two minds about this old giving-clients-what-they-need-not-what-they-want adage. On the one hand it appeals to the image we agency types like to project of being top-table, C-Suite, trusted adviser consultant types. On the other I shy away from the intellectual arrogance that it implies. I suspect that many clients …
For dramatic effect in this post I’m going to say that there have been two attitudinal moments of truth in my career to date. The first was learning and embracing the art of delegation. The second was dropping the lead agency mentality that had been instilled in me after 18 …
