How Much Difference Does A Good Director Make?

A lot.

That's what occurred to me, looking at the three new pieces of work that kindly readers and PR companies have forwarded to me today.

Have you seen the new Ladbrokes ad (below)? The strategy's not bad - "got an opinion on football? put your money where your mouth is" - though arguably a little convoluted, and the script is pretty fresh, with a cracking twist at the end. But the direction is excellent - the banter between the professional footballers feels amazingly natural, and that's what makes the spot.



Then there's this charming website for Virgin Trains. Everyone's jumping on the environmental bandwagon nowadays, and the idea of Britain's flora and fauna getting together to write a letter extolling the benefits of trains could have been hectoring and/or naff. However, the direction of the film is both deft and daft, and so the whole thing just works.

Finally, this ad promoting the Vancouver Film Festival. Admittedly, it's a great strategy - 'after 16 days of films, nothing will faze you' - but the direction (from the Perlorian brothers) is truly outstanding. Casting, performance, special effects, wardrobe, make-up... all the 'production' bits.... are first-class, and together they raise the work to another level.

That's what a good director can add.

The New Dove Ad

Okay, maybe not quite as good as Evolution. But very good nonetheless.

Some people are saying that Dove are hypocritical to slag off the beauty industry, and then sell... beauty products. I say that's rubbish. There's nothing wrong with moisturising creams and deodorants. But there's plenty wrong with the manipulation & lies some companies employ in selling them. All Dove are doing is pointing that out. Fair play to them.

How To Sell A Free Magazine

I don't know if where you live is the same, but London has recently been swamped by people thrusting free newspapers and magazines at me. The guy in this film is the MD of one such, and this film showcases his utterly toe-curling instructions to their 'agents' (mag-thrusters). Make sure you read the YouTube comments. They're priceless.

The Ad Blog Charts For September 2007

Here are the world's most popular ad blogs, as measured by traffic rankings from Alexa.

Top 25 Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1     (1)	AdRants	30,171
2     (2)	Advertising/Design Goodness	53,828
3     (6)	Duncan's TV Ad Land	62,958	↑
4     (4)	Adverblog	69,591
5     (5)	AdFreak	75,466
6     (3)	Adverbox	83,833	↓
7   (10)	Copyranter	126,746
8     (7)	Ad Punch	129,038
9     (9)	Adland	132,908
10   (8)	Logic + Emotion	138,399
11   (11)	AdPulp	149,156
12   (12)	Coloribus	171,437
13   (17)	Experience Curve	248,130	↑
14   (13)	Jaffe Juice	270,084	↓
15   (14)	Twenty Four	285,642
16   (new)	Agency Spy	360,055
17   (16)	AdScam	385,524
18   (19)	BrandFlakes for Breakfast	426,704
19   (18)	Make The Logo Bigger	450,425
20   (22)	Advertising For Peanuts	466,269
21   (21)	Hee-Haw Marketing	466,418
22   (20)	AdArena	492,901	↓
23   (23)	American Copywriter	515,733
24   (15)	How Advertising Spoiled Me	526,330	↓
25   (24)	Beyond Madison Avenue	588,231

The rise of the 'ranter continues. Copyranter is now up to No.7. Done a shit ad? Find your flak jacket.

There are no UK blogs in the Top 25 at the moment. Sniff.

An ↑ means a blog's traffic has gone up by 15% or more in the past month, and a ↓ means it's gone down 15%.

Top 10 UK Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1   (5)	Crackunit	591,486
2   (2)	Adliterate	630,419
3   (1)	Welcome To Optimism	637,916
4   (3)	Scamp	685,128
5   (6)	Faris	955,125	↓
6   (7)	Northern Planner	1.0m
7   (4)	FishNChimps	1.2m	↓
8   (9)	TV's Worst Adverts	1.4m
9   (10)	Living Brands	1.5m
10   (8)	Serendipity Book	1.6m

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new Number 1. After a 3-month reign at the top, the W&K London blog Welcome To Optimism has been unseated by Iain Tait's Crackunit. Where does Iain find all the amazing stuff he features? I don't know, but I'm glad that he does.

In other chart news, Daniel Mejia over at AdStructure has put together a useful ranking of the Top 27 ad bloggers aged 27 and under. Nice work, Daniel.

UK means UK-based. Ad blog means ad blogs not marketing blogs, so that excludes Gapingvoid. Although Paul Colman is now a planner at W&K, he doesn't class the wildly popular Life In The Middle as an ad blog and Russell Davies no longer blogs about advertising. He just writes about it in Campaign. Also, I'm only counting English language blogs.

If I've missed anyone out, please tell me and I'll put them in next month.

Lesbians Of Arizona - Bite Me

Internet dude Faris reports he is now top of the Google search results for the word 'Faris'.

Well, a year ago, I wasn't even on the first page of the Google results for 'Scamp'. In fact there were eleven other Scamp-themed websites ahead of me, including one for lesbians in Arizona.


Anyway, Faris inspired me to check again, and I was delighted to see I have now moved ahead of the sunbelt lady-lovers, and am up to fifth place.

The top-ranked Scamp is a site offering "A new frontier in communication for people with disabilities." I like to think mine does much the same.

The Stereotypical Creative

Make The Logo Bigger found this hilarious spot.

It mercilessly rips into a stereotypical Spanish ad creative, whose biggest nightmare is the cleaning lady wearing his trainers.

He also journeys to a mythical forest where adland's stereotypical characters live, including 'Smooth Shave Guy' and 'Three Mates On A Sofa'.

If you can stay the course to the end (it is in Spanish) you will even see an appearance from adland's most famous butler...

Tuesday Tip No.26 - Reject Rejection

A Creative Director was asked to train some Account Handlers. He had them spend the morning making a model airplane. Then at lunchtime he reviewed their work. He took each plane in his hand and crushed it to pieces. "That," he said, "is what it feels like to be a Creative."

This story probably isn't true, but it does illustrate one of the harder aspects of our job - daily rejection of our work.

There is no way around this problem, only better ways of dealing with it.

Here are 10 tips you might try. If one of them works for you, great. None of them work for me. I still get pissed as hell.

1. Our work is often autobiographical, so we take rejection of our work as rejection of ourselves. But this is bullshit. The team/client have no clue of your autobiographical inspiration, they're purely rejecting the pieces of paper they see in front of them. You're a valid person! It's just the work they have a problem with.

2. After each negative meeting or review, ensure you have some time alone with your partner to curse the account team/ client/ creative director to high heaven. Don't feel bad about doing this. It's essential.

3. After the slagging-off session, do not be tempted to begin a sulking session. Slagging-off clears your head. Like a sorbet. But sulking is bad, because you can get sucked down into a negative spiral. So don't sulk. Rant, clear your head, then get back to work. If you sulk, the terrorists win.

4. Okay, so they've said no to your idea. Bring it back later, when they're desperate...

5. Okay, so they've said no to your idea. But did they reject the whole thing, or is there one bit of it you can salvage?

6. Tell a trusted friend the idea. If the friend doesn't think it's much cop, then you realise you haven't lost much anyway. If the friend thinks it was brilliant, then you will get a lot of sympathy from him.

7. Focus on what you've learned from the rejection. So your CD was once bitten by an orang-utang and will not countenance any primate-based TV ads. That's a good learning.

8. It was a shit brief anyway. Now your work has been rejected they'll put another team on it. Great news! You're off the hook.

9. Remember, you can only be happy if the world recognises your genius. An ad that doesn't get bought, can never be recognised as genius. You need an ad that DOES get bought. Only that can make you happy. Or a little less unhappy, at least. So stop snivelling and get back to the layout pad.

10. Put your rejected work in the bottom drawer. A good idea never dies. It just sits there in limbo, like a soul waiting for the right body.


Tip No.25 - Look Creative
Tip No.24 - Don't Be Afraid To Ask
Tip No.23 - Your Idea Has To Be 120%
Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Clip-Art Ad Men

Where's My Jetpack? has started a clip-art cartoon strip about agency life. This one made me laugh, in a self-pitying kind of way... (click on the image if you need to make it bigger)

Dude. What’s With The Girl Sitting On Your Lap?

This clip was posted on a wonderfully scrabulous site I've just discovered (thanks Paul) called Agency Spy.

It's an interview with one Harry Bernstein - aka Harry B - a Senior Art Director at Berlin Cameron United in New York. Watch it and find out why it elicited comments including: "What a douche", "Punkassbitch... way too old to be wearing his hat like dat", and "This guy is a triple douche."

Why Does Everyone In Advertising Have These Trainers?

Some kind of meme, I suppose.

Women Take It In The Face For A Brand

This web film for Polaroid Glasses is maybe over-long and familiar (objects getting whacked in slo-mo) but there's an integrity to the cod science that I like. It's a bit cheeky too.

Hidden Gems Of D&AD

So the Annual's been out a few days now, I've had a sift through.

Not too painful this time. There's an unbelievable amount of non-UK work in there, which doesn't have the power to upset me like a great ad by someone I know does.

Anyway, here's my hidden gems - ads that were not multi-award winners at all the big shows, but which nevertheless are, in my opinion, great.

(You may need to click on some of the images to make them bigger)

Topical, hilarious. Love it. And I'm a vegetarian.



A profound thought, about peace being fragile. And very poignant images. Plus I love the contrast of making a hand grenade out of something as gentle and staid as Wedgewood.



I've always loved really detailed, complex images. The autistic side of the male brain, I suppose.



Death is always funny.



I think this is my favourite one of all. It's unbelievably cheeky, and yet unarguable. In case you can't read the small type, the idea is this: the South African anti-piracy organisation made their own pirate DVD's, and sold them at markets. But their videos stopped after five minutes. And then displayed an anti-piracy message, and a 'thank you for your donation to the anti-piracy cause' tag. What a gotcha.




Finally, this one's from my good friends at Lunar BBDO. Surprising, and appropriately shocking. 'Nuff rispeck, guys.

Nike Judge The Mood Just Right

It's England v South Africa in the Rugby World Cup tonight, our most important match for 4 years.

I love this Nike tactical ad, scanned from today's Sport magazine.

A manly yet honest thought - "Yes, we're going to lose, but we can at least go down fighting" and an awesomely bombastic 'they shall not pass' -type image.

One thing though. Lawrence Dallaglio is gurning something rotten, like he's just dropped a couple of E's. I do hope he hasn't.

Tuesday Tip No.25 - Look Creative

Whenever I raise this topic, I seem to get a defensive reaction.

Along the lines of "no one gives a shit what you wear" or "that's a silly thing to care about."

But is it?
In any job, what you wear is vital - it helps establish your credentials.

We of all people should know that, because we're experts at presenting brands in the best possible light. So why do we never think about how we're presenting ourselves?

And it's especially important in a business like advertising, because what we do is largely subjective. No one knows for sure if your idea is any good or not. The main thing that will convince them is you telling them it is great. And if you look creative - i.e. you just look like the kind of person who has good ideas - then that will make a difference.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting you go out and buy a 'uniform'. (Although if truth be told, there is one).

There's more than one way to look creative. Pick the one that's right for you.

'Writer' With A Capital WWear this kind of gear and no one will ever re-work your headlines. And they will automatically think the dialogue in your TV commercials is brilliant.


TrendyThis look says "I know what's hot right now." How can an account team question your choice of track for a commercial, when you look like this?


ArtyBecome unassailable on all matters relating to typography.


Okay, these are extreme examples, but I hope I'm making my point. Please don't think I'm being tongue-in-cheek here, because I'm not.

How you look does make a difference. Make it make a difference in your favour.

P.S. Yes I know it's Wednesday today, I was very tired last night

Tip No.24 - Don't Be Afraid To Ask
Tip No.23 - Your Idea Has To Be 120%
Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Cadbury's Gorilla - How Viral Is He?

In today's Media Guardian, Naresh Ramchandani offers a smart write-up on the drummer du jour.

I particularly like the way he answers some of the ad's plannery critics by quoting the rather less highbrow language of the YouTube commenters - "Dis adverts funni." "Best ad ever." "Love this ad made me laugh proper bad hee hee."

However, his article is headlined "How a gorilla and chocolate bar went superviral."

Have they?

The most popular version of the ad on YouTube has only 10,101 views.

Admittedly, the score is fragmented because several people have posted the ad. But what's going on?

A Second Cracker Already

Just a few days since the drumming gorilla, and already, another cracking TV ad.

Yes, it's from my agency so you could accuse me of favouritism if you want. I don't care, I think it's brilliant... even though it makes me look bad 'cos it's so much better than the last Vodafone ad, the one I did.

It's a clever idea (written by Nick Gill, who has more good ideas in a month than most of us do in a career), beautifully shot (great job by Frederic Planchon) and it's a long time since I've seen a commercial as genuinely romantic. The last example might be that animated French AIDS ad.

Anyway, here it is.

Okay, So There's Another Ad With A Drumming Gorilla

Did Juan nick the idea? And if yes, is that a problem?

In my opinion, he's probably never seen it, and it's definitely not a problem.

Why? Because an idea is not the same thing as a piece of film. An idea is the connection between the images and the product.

Example: take the footage for Guinness 'Surfer', and change the endframe to 'Visit Cornwall' (Note for non-Brits, Cornwall is a UK surfing destination). Now the ad is predictable and quite shit. Because what makes it great is (among other things) the unexpected connection between surfing and Guinness.

The connection between a drumming gorilla and a shop having a sale is quite unexpected, I grant you. Actually I quite like the ad, though the execution is v. shonky. But it's nowhere near as interesting - or dare I say it profound - as the link Juan creates between a drumming gorilla and a bar of chocolate.

This Is So Good I'm Not Even Angry

Here is the new Cadburys Dairy Milk ad, by Juan Cabral at Fallon London.

It is so obviously brilliant, I don't think there's any need to do a Private View-style description of what makes it brilliant.

But it does beg the question - "what does an agency have to be like, to produce work like this?"

Well, here's the Fallon model:

1. Great planning. Someone has to have the balls to say 'Cadburys Dairy Milk = Joy And That's It'. A big, simple, unitary, true, thought. It's that easy, Planners. And that difficult.

2. A culture that says "the creatives are always right." This ad would have been incredibly difficult to sell, let's not be under any illusions about that. At the vast majority of agencies, the account people would refuse to even present it to the client. So creatives end up not writing breakthrough ads in the first place; they know there's no point. But at Fallon, the culture dictates that the account handlers have to persuade the clients to do what the creatives want, rather than vice versa. The culture says "the creatives are always right".

3. The creatives actually have to be right, time after time. Seems at Fallon, they are.

The Ad Blog Charts For August 2007

Here are the world's most popular ad blogs, as measured by traffic rankings from Alexa.

Top 25 Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1     (1)	AdRants	28,723
2     (2)	Advertising/Design Goodness	49,570
3     (3)	Adverbox	62,866
4     (4)	Adverblog	70,064
5     (5)	AdFreak	73,487
6     (6)	Duncan's TV Ad Land	78,545
7     (9)	Ad Punch	125,593
8     (7)	Logic + Emotion	127,410	↓
9     (10)	Adland	137,651
10   (12)	Copyranter	140,324	↑
11   (11)	AdPulp	140,668
12     (8)	Coloribus	146,898	↓
13   (13)	Jaffe Juice	222,840
14   (14)	Twenty Four	264,031
15   (15)	How Advertising Spoiled Me	356,592	↓
16   (16)	AdScam	357,618
17   (20)	Experience Curve	373,782
18   (17)	Make The Logo Bigger	399,741
19   (19)	BrandFlakes for Breakfast	403,513
20   (18)	AdArena	406,765
21   (23)	Hee-Haw Marketing	414,772
22   (re-)	Advertising For Peanuts	438,273
23   (22)	American Copywriter	459,612
24   (21)	Beyond Madison Avenue	518,555	↓
25   (24)	Welcome To Optimism	569,585	↓

Brilliant to see Copyranter in the Top 10. He's a god, isn't he? An angry god.

An ↑ means a blog's traffic has gone up by 15% or more in the past month, and a ↓ means it's gone down 15%.

Top 10 UK Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1   (1)	Welcome To Optimism	569,585	↓
2   (4)	Adliterate	621,484
3   (3)	Scamp	630,337
4   (2)	FishNChimps	636,110	↓
5   (5)	Crackunit	656,933	↑
6   (6)	Faris	767,712
7   (7)	Northern Planner	1.1m
8   (new)	Serendipity Book	1.4m
9   (10)	TV's Worst Adverts	1.5m
10   (8)	Living Brands	1.5m

New in at No.8 this month is the wonderful Serendipity Book by Lee McEwan. Well worth clicking on over.

UK means UK-based. Ad blog means ad blogs not marketing blogs, so that excludes Gapingvoid. Paul Colman doesn't class Life In The Middle as an ad blog and Russell Davies no longer blogs about advertising. Much. Also, I'm only counting English language blogs.

If I've missed anyone out, please tell me and I'll put them in next month.

Permanent Advertising

An extremely sad person has had adverts tattooed on his skin, and apparently is making good money from it. Story here.

Thanks to Doc Rogers for the tip.

Tuesday Tip No. 24 - Don’t Be Afraid To Ask

When you’re a junior and you’re in the process of making an ad, whether it be TV, radio or print, and you’re sitting in a sound/editing/retouching studio, it's easy to feel pressured into saying ‘yes that’s looking good’, when your inner voice is thinking, ‘hmmm... i’m not sure... something doesn't feel right.’

Just come out and say it. Even if you’re not sure what’s wrong, it's better to register your concern there and then, rather than let it go. Because if you don’t, it’ll niggle at you, and you may regret it later.

And quite often... that little inner voice is right.

Thanks to RM for this one

Tip No.23 - Your Idea Has To Be 120%
Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Why No Scamp For A Bit

That Thriller Video

Is it more sinister than it appears?

Tuesday Tip - Your Idea Has To Be 120%

I owe this one to Andrew Fraser, formerly of DDB London, now ECD at Rapier.

I once showed an idea to Andrew - I think it was a print ad for The Guardian - and what he said was: "Yes, it's fine, it's good, it works."

But his tone of voice was a 'no'.

I asked what the problem was.

He replied: "Your idea has to be 120%, to survive the weakening."

I learned a good lesson that day. Here is a diagram of what I think he meant.



Tip No.22 - Read Iain's Tips
Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Two New Creative Blogs

Oh happy day.

Where's My Jetpack has been around for a while, and I really should have linked to him before.

Mr. Jetpack is a copywriter in what he calls the Sub South (Deeper than the Deep South) of the U.S.

In a great post about billboards, called "No One Is Writing Down Your Number", he points out that no one EVER wrote down a phone number while they were travelling in a moving vehicle. Furthermore, you don't need to put www. in front of a word that ends with .com or .org or .biz - it's totally obvious you're talking about a web address. Quite right. He provides a telling before-and-after using the Jetpack method.



The second new creative blog is The Toad Stool by a New York-based copywriter/creative director.

Toad, as he styles himself, has a nicely snarky tone to his blog, and brings us this funny story about the sadness of Second Life:

In real life Mr. Hoogenstraat is an aging hippie who suffers from diabetes and chronic joblessness, in Second Life he is a muscular young entrepreneur with a fortune of some 1.5 million Linden (SL’s virtual currency) and a hot young Second Life wife. (Mr. Hoogenstraat’s SL avatar married a female avatar in a ceremony that was attended by several dozen other avatars. Really.) Mr. Hoogenstraat is able to “employ” a virtual security guard for one of his virtual malls. Which means that someone is logging on to SL to pretend to be a mall security guard.

I doubt we'll ever catch the Planners, but it's good to see more Creatives tapping away out there.

Clients Sabotage Their Own Ads

Say readers of this blog.


I asked a couple of clients of my acquaintance to defend themselves. Here's what "Anonymous Female Client" said:

So clients are to blame according to a poll amongst advertising creatives...now there's a surprise!

In reality I think everyone's a little bit to blame when an ad goes wrong, but to even out the scores I'm
going to vote for account management.

Account management is one of the most undervalued roles in an agency. You have to be a revolving ball - representing the client to creative and creative to the client. They have to be a mediator and negotiator. They have to communicate and provide the clarity which prevents the need for compromise on either side later on (when it is often too late). It's not an easy job. But I would say that poor account management skills are often to blame when ads don't turn out the way you want them to be.

And this is what an account-man turned client known as "Boggy" had to say:

Planners always take the credit when a campaign has been proven to be effective (but then it's them who's collated all the evidence), so you could argue that they should take the rap when it is ineffective.  If only it was that easy.

Each department has a different role in the ad process. The thing is, ineffective advertising can come if any part of that process breaks down.  Creatives can seduce teams and clients into buying the wrong creative, planners can deliver the wrong strategy, account men can fail to protect the idea from worried clients, and clients can get any part of their bit wrong at any stage.  The trouble is, its easy for creatives to blame clients, because ultimately it's they who buy the work, or fail to buy the obviously brilliant idea that they should have bought.  

In an ideal world, clients should get the work they deserve - brave clients should get great work and dull clients get crap work.  We all know, however, that that is rarely the case.  Plenty of brave clients have been sold short by poor work, and supposedly dull clients have had very effective work (Cillit Bang anyone?).

Long answer to say that there is no one culprit, but perhaps a plea for agencies to understand a bit better the pressure a client is under buying work. 

The process most commonly breaks down when the client doesn't trust the agency.  That can be because he loses faith in the creative, or disagrees with the strategy, or feels that the agency is just interested in awards/glory, or because under time pressure, the battle lines become drawn when there is no time to debate the issues or search for alternative approaches.

Clients often ask for alternatives to give them confidence that there will be at least a viable solution, whereas agencies always want the one perfect solution.  This creates tension, and this can cause the trust/faith to break down.  If agencies accepted the reality of the need for alternatives, and managed the situation from that reality, then they could probably avoid clients forcing the wrong solution due to fear..  Also, creatives should learn to talk to clients as partners in the process, and not the enemy - this will help build the trust/faith/understanding!

My own view? I don't blame account management that much. Yes, maybe sometimes they fail to sell a great campaign. But not often. I think creatives like to believe that everything they come up with is brilliant. It isn't.

Clients sometimes play things too safe, and buy the more conservative of two routes, or water work down, so that it ends up being too boring for consumers to be interested in. So they must take some blame too.

But the group that must shoulder the most blame, in my opinion, is the Planners. And surely this is fair? Effectiveness is their explicit responsibility. And it is the strategy that makes the work work, or not work (the power of the creative acts as a kind of amplifier, in most categories).

Sorry, Planners.

I still love you.

Giant Fucking Rabbits Are Coming

As seen on Talent Imitates Genius Steals

Tuesday Tip - Read Iain's Tips

It would be remiss of me - nay, positively neglectful - if I failed to include The Seven Deadly Sins Of Digital (by Iain Tait from his Crackunit blog) as part of my Tuesday Tips series.

To be a successful creative you need more than just talent, Converse trainers, and the hide of a bullet-proofed rhinoceros.

You also need knowledge. Not a lot. But some.

And the most important knowledge you need is a comprehensive knowledge of what has already been done.

Why? Quite simply, so you know what not to do.

Iain Tait's 7 Deadly Sins is a wonderful primer for that. Make sure you've read it.

Tip No.21 - Don't Behave
Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

The Hype Starts Here

It seems filming has begun in New York City on the latest Bravia ad, the follow-up to "Balls" and "Paint."

Not much is known about the script, except that it involves Play-Doh. I must confess that I (along with everyone else in adland) am eager for news.

Fortunately, one of the Sony clients is Twittering from the shoot.

She has already revealed that she spent her first night in New York sipping gin & tonic at the Soho House rooftop pool bar.

Let's hope Frank is ready for her incisive comments...

New Smirnoff Epic Really Delivers

Wow.

I'll say that again. Wow.

The new Smirnoff ad from JWT London is nothing short of a tour de force.

It's easily my favourite ad of the year so far. And a dead cert for a pencil / Gold Lion. No question.

The idea of the sea 'rejecting' man's pollution gives the ad a political angle that adds a satisfying depth to the special-effects bonanza. But it's not heavy-handed. Did you catch the shot of the guy filling up his 4x4? The addition of the Greek statues and 'epic' soundtrack make it timeless.

And this ad will sell vodka, there is absolutely no doubt about that. What young guy doesn't love second world war aeroplanes? The sight of them rising from the depths of the ocean is simply awesome, there's no other word for it. And is that a dead pilot I see at the controls of a commercial airliner? Daring. This ad has balls and a social conscience.

Plus, the logic is impeccably tied up at the end.

I don't mean to sound like some kind of groupie, but it's ads like this I come to work for.

1-18-08

Neat trailer for a forthcoming monster film.

Two things struck me as particularly interesting, though.

One is the extent to which the studio is pre-marketing the thing on the internet, by setting up several fake blogs, including Slusho, Eathan haas was right and Ethan haas was wrong.

And secondly... the famous monument destroyed, frantic descent of a smoke-filled stairway... is America re-imagining the 9-11 experience as a monster movie?

Friday Poll - INeffectiveness

A post at Adliterate urged planners to speak out if they felt the work wasn't right.

Because "account handlers get fired if the work doesn’t happen, creatives get fired if the work is no good and planners get fired (or should get fired) if the work doesn’t work."

I applaud his encouragement of 'speaking out'.

But should the planners really be the whipping-people for when a campaign doesn't perform?

Or is it those award-chasing clients? Or the creatives, with their endless insistence on 'budgets' and 'brand guidelines'?

Who do YOU think is most commonly responsible for ineffective advertising?

Vote now, in the top right hand corner of your screen.


Previous poll results:

Friday Poll No.14 - Your Personal Success Record
Friday Poll No.13 - Which Department Is The Most Insane?
Friday Poll No.12 - What Music Do You Listen To While Working?
Friday Poll No.11 - What Time Do You Get In?
Friday Poll No.10 - Who Drinks The Most?
Friday Poll No.9 - Press v Online
Friday Poll No.8 - Success Or Glory?
Friday Poll No.7 - Is Reading Blogs A Waste Of Time?
Friday Poll No.6 - Job Satisfaction
Friday Poll No.5 - Festive Greetings
Friday Poll No.4 - Ad Of The Year 2006
Friday Poll No.3 - What's Your Favourite Medium To Work In?
Friday Poll No.2 - Agency Of The Year
Friday Poll No.1 - Which Department Is The Most Overpaid?

Here Is Your Appraisal

>Russell writes quite movingly in Campaign today about how wounded he was by an appraisal.

The problem seems to be that it was very detailed. So instead of general comments about 'areas to improve on', he was told specific things like that he was "an arse" (joke I'm sure). Worse still, he was able to work out who had said what.

Shortly after this appraisal, he quit.

Now, Russell would be the first to admit he is a gentle, sensitive soul.

But even in the dog-eats-other-dog-for-lunch-on-expenses world of advertising, I don't think he's alone.

An account handler of my acquaintance was in tears after her appraisal. Although it was 95% positive, she found herself focusing exclusively on those one or two negative comments. Maybe that's human nature.

But it leads me to wonder... are appraisals a good thing, or are they actually the work of the devil?

Are they ever inspiring, or are they always demotivating?

Is it better for managers to drop little comments here and there throughout the year, rather than deploy the 'shock and awe' of an annual 360?

And is it better to live in ignorance? In other words, if you are an arse, is it better to be unaware of that fact? After all, arse-itude is probably something that you can't change anyway.

There Are Apparently Only 12 Types Of Adverts In The World

My friend Doc Rogers points me in the direction of a piece of research by Donald Gunn, he of the Gunn Report, who has determined that all ads fall into one of 12 categories - or "master formats," in his words.

This slide show presents some recent ads exemplifying each of Gunn's 12 basic categories.

Does Gunn have a point? Or are his categories meaningless? Well, even he admits they are pretty arbitrary, in as much as several of them blend into each other.

And if he does have a point, could his system be useful in any way? It feels more like a system for classifying ads after they've been written, rather than a technique that could help in coming up with them.

The very idea that there could be a "system" for creating adverts is laughable wishful thinking, isn't it?

And yet... maybe as a series of starters they could be useful, for when you're stuck for inspiration.

John Webster apparently used to pop down to WHSmiths and flick through the greetings card section, when he wanted to get his brain working. Nowadays, I suppose there's YouTube.

So I may just take one or two things from Gunn's list.

We all need 'starters' sometimes.

The Ad Blog Charts For July 2007

Here are the world's most popular ad blogs, as measured by traffic rankings from Alexa.

Top 25 Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1     (2)	AdRants	23,518	↓
2     (3)	Advertising/Design Goodness	44,404	↓
3     (4)	Adverbox	61,895
4     (6)	Adverblog	70,418
5     (3)	AdFreak	71,648
6     (9)	Duncan's TV Ad Land	90,986	↑
7     (7)	Logic + Emotion	105,680	↓
8     (8)	Coloribus	113,056
9    (11)	Ad Punch	135,534
10   (10)	Adland	142,577	↓
11  (13)	AdPulp	151,195	↑
12   (14)	Copyranter	175,872
13   (12)	Jaffe Juice	202,546	↓
14   (15)	Twenty Four	263,549	↓
15   (16)	How Advertising Spoiled Me	290,008
16   (18)	AdScam	332,305
17   (21)	Make The Logo Bigger	392,140
18   (19)	AdArena	395,206	↓
19   (re-)	BrandFlakes for Breakfast	399,518
20   (16)	Experience Curve	410,578	↓
21   (20)	Beyond Madison Avenue	420,758	↓
22   (25)	American Copywriter	424,300
23   (23)	Hee-Haw Marketing	435,440
24   (22)	Welcome To Optimism	465,353	↓
25   (re-)	FishNChimps	469,995

Big shock this month.

The reigning No.1 - Houtlust - has ceased publishing. Not sure why. But he promises to return at some future date.

An ↑ means a blog's traffic has gone up by 15% or more in the past month, and a ↓ means it's gone down 15%.

Top 10 UK Ad Blogs		(world
		ranking)
1   (1)	Welcome To Optimism	465,353	↓
2   (2)	FishNChimps	469,995
3   (3)	Scamp	560,088
4   (4)	Adliterate	692,070
5  (new)	Crackunit	836,311
6   (6)	Faris	840,035	↑
7   (7)	Northern Planner	1.1m	↑
8   (5)	Living Brands	1.4m	↓
9   (new)	Dan Germain	1.6m
10  (new)	TV's Worst Adverts	1.7m

A well-established blog but new to this chart is Iain Tait's Crackunit, a veritable beacon of quality content.

New in at No.9 this month is Dan Germain's blog, with the tagline "creative stuff, milky baby breath and some other rubbish". As you would expect from the man behind much of the wonderful stuff produced by Innocent Drinks, Dan's blog is warm, witty, creative, and shot-through with childlike wonder.

And new at No.10 is the blog that bites the hand that feeds us, TV's Worst Adverts.

UK means UK-based. Ad blog means ad blogs not marketing blogs, so that excludes Gapingvoid. Paul Colman doesn't class Life In The Middle as an ad blog and Russell Davies insists he no longer blogs about advertising. Also, I'm only counting English language blogs.

If I've missed anyone out, please tell me and I'll put them in next month.

Ad-Man Crawls

Me and a few other people from BBH are doing a sponsored crawl to raise money for Barnardo's, the charity that helps vulnerable children get a better start in life.

Simply click this link to make a donation.

Donations are secure and sent electronically to Barnardo's. If you are a UK taxpayer, Justgiving will automatically reclaim 28% Gift Aid on your behalf.

It's an excellent cause and I've bought kneepads and everything, so I'd really appreciate your support, dear blog-reader.

A tenner is fine.

Go on. Click the link.

Scamp's Couch

Today I received this e-mail:

Yo Uncle Simon. I have a question for you: We have the worst client here ever! He won't even listen and eats up a constant conveyor belt of Account people. What should I do when I really want a client to get a fucking grip and stop being an arsehole? What I really mean I guess is, how far can one push it? Do you have any advice? You can stick this on Scamp if you want, but don't mention my name! Yours, Mr Angry/ Mr Coward.

My answer was this:

Being rude or angry to clients doesn't work - they just get defensive. The only way to get them to "get a fucking grip" by which I assume you mean "buy your work" is to explain, explain, explain. Explain your idea a thousand different ways. Get reference. Lots of reference. Make them see it. Show it in situ. Show them what their consumers are really like. That kind of thing. All the best.

Any better suggestions?

Did The Vauxhall Corsa Puppets Hire A Prostitute?

TV's Worst Adverts seems to think so.

In a post entitled C'Mon Out Of Bed he explains his interpretation of the latest Vauxhall commercial.

One of the C’Mons (the red one) has hired a prostitute for the *band* to enjoy. While he’s showering himself down after the event, the prostitute decides that the 20 quid she got for doing the dirty with a band of puppets wasn’t enough, so she steals their Corsa as a tip. This goes down particularly badly with the Red puppet who has to wake the rest of the band enjoying a post-orgy nap (in the same bed) to chase after her.

Do you agree with his view? Or is there some other explanation that fits the advert?

Tuesday Tip No. 21 - Don't Behave

Returning after a hiatus caused by running out of ideas, here is another in my long-running yet doubtfully useful series of Tips For Young Creatives.

What I want to talk about today is being well-behaved, and why you shouldn't be.

First of all, I must make clear that I'm not advocating 'bad' behaviour, like turning up late for meetings, being rude to people, not listening, being untidy or uncouth, and generally walking around thinking that you're the shit. All of that is not on.

What I am advocating when I say 'Don't Behave' is - don't do things just because that's the way they're always done, or to make things easier for other people, at the expense of the work.

Five examples to explain what I mean.

1. Behaving means spending 90% of your day on that retail radio brief you've been given, with almost no time left over on the big TV brief that's floating around the department.

2. Behaving means saying yes when the account team ask you to write an alternative 'safe' version of your script, which they promise they will only present as a fall-back.

3. Behaving means always coming back with ideas for the media specified on the brief.

4. Behaving means agreeing with your creative director even when you think he's wrong and is going to mess up the ad.

5. Behaving means doing an average job on a dull brief for a difficult client, aka "you're really helping us out here".

In short, DON'T BEHAVE.

It won't get you anywhere. And it's so much less fun.

Tip No.20 - How To Discuss Ideas
Tip No.19 - Read Hugh's Tips
Tip No.18 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part IV - How To Turn A Placement Into A Job
Tip No.17 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part III - How To Approach Agencies (re-print of Tip No. 7)
Tip No.16 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part II - How To Put A Book Together
Tip No. 15 - How To Get A Job In Advertising Part I - FAQ
Tip No. 14 - Make Friends With Traffic
Tip No. 13 - Get Reference
Tip No. 12 - Don't Stop Too Soon
Tip No.11 - Be Very
Tip No.10 - Breaking Up
Tip No.9 - Working Well With Your Partner
Tip No.8 - Finding The Right Partner
Tip No.7 - How To Approach Agencies
Tip No.6 - Never-Seen-Before Footage
Tip No.5 - Dicketts' Finger
Tip No.4 - Two Blokes In The Pub
Tip No.3 - Play Family Fortunes
Tip No.2 - Should You Take A Bad Job?
Tip No.1 - Don't Overpolish

Creative Generalism Rears Its Head Once Again

There's a post today over at Serendipity Book asking "Is creative generalism the answer?"

Well, let me answer that question.

It isn't.

In fact the idea enrages me so much that every time it pops up I feel the need to reach for a hammer, like I'm playing a blogging version of whack-a-mole.

If you want to know more about this accursed theory - which is godless, anti-capitalist, and contrary to all good sense - then Rusell Davies has written about it here and here. There's even a whole website dedicated to its evil.

Here's my Top 5 reasons why Specialism is better than Generalism.

1. You go ahead and try to staff an agency with generalists. There just aren't enough of them out there. Think of it like football. How many players can defend, create goals, and score goals? Not many. Johann Cruyff maybe, but that's about it.

2. Great advertising requires different skills - creative, strategic, inter-personal. How often do you find lots of all of these in the same person? Not often. For example, who is creative and organised? Not me. I've just basically made the same point twice in a row.

3. You need different personality types too. Take the Enterprise. They had Spock, Bones, Kirk and Scotty. Ah, now that would be quite an agency line-up, wouldn't it?

4. The advantages of specialisation are well known. It's been over 200 years now since Adam Smith showed how "the main cause of prosperity... is increasing division of labor." Don't these people ever learn?

5. Let's get hypothetical. Here's my team of specialists - Johnny Hornby (CEO), Paul Feldwick (Head of Planning), Richard Flintham (ECD). Could anyone put up a team of three generalists, that would make a better agency than HFF? I doubt it.

Read A Book! Read A Book!

If all public service advertising were this funny, it would be a whole lot more effective.

The swearing is good too.

Swearing is the most funniest thing. Fact. And puppets.

Who Knew That Hitler Was A Sheffield United Fan?

Every other year, we suffer a summer without football.

Maybe it's that keenly-felt lack which makes this YouTube mash-up so amusing.



Once again via the excellent Nitmesh.

p.s. I'm Jewish so please don't tell me I can't enjoy jokes involving Hitler. I can.

W&K Still Quite Good

Wayne Rooney hits the target.



The whole 'is it real or is it fake' debate has actually become a positive now, in my opinion, as I reckon people show these things to their mates and ask them what they think.

Here's a superb tactical ad on the same theme, a poster that has just gone up in Liverpool (who recently signed Fernando Torres to be their new No.9)


Full story here.

Blogs Galore

Maybe I'm lazy, just posting about other people's blogs.

I'm certainly slow, because these two have been around, like, for ages.

Still... better late than never.

My friend Nitmesh points me in the direction of two truly spectacular blogs - crackunit by Iain Tait, who is the planning partner at super-funky web/ content / experience agency Poke, and rubbishcorp by Nathan Cooper, formerly of Poke, now ECD at RGA London.

Both of these blogs are much better than mine.

You should certainly add them to your 'blogs I check regularly' list.

Here's a few reasons why.

From crackunit, 'Daft Hands':



"You have to give it a minute or so before it gets going", writes Iain, "but have patience, it’s worth it. It’s just really simple and charming, but a great bit of technique and something someone’s obviously put a lot of work into."

I quite agree. Very nickable too, if you're a creative. Whoops, I didn't say that.


From rubbishcorp, this 'Second Life in the real world' film:



I do like rubbishcorp. Even his logo is cool.

Great New Agency Blog

Most agency blogs start out stupendously dull. And then quickly die. Of boredom.

But today I became aware of a cracker - Lunar BBDO.

It's not the kind of content you see on the W&K blog, like how we won the Nokia pitch, it's more left-field and eclectic, with opinion on matters ranging from Live Earth to Big Brother.

Up at the moment is this incredible Danish viral which you must watch immediately.

In Need Of Some Serendipity

A bit down today, because Raining Time didn't get such a great write-up in Private View.

But this funny T-shirt cheered me up.


It's from Serendipity Book, a new (to me) blog written by Lee McEwan, who is Head of Research at Leo Burnett in London.

Lee's blog is well worth checking out because he has an excellent sense of humour.

And if we stop laughing, it means the terrorists have won. (Irony).

Another Baby. Literally.

The guys over at Incredible Flying Car put every ad they produce up on their blog. I like their candour, it's inspired me to do the same.

Here's my latest.


I'm not saying it's the greatest ever ad in the history of the world ever. But I do quite like the misdirect (albeit brief) that Barclaycard are introducing a credit card for babies.

God-Botherers Where Are You?

Just started The God Delusion, really enjoying it.

In fact I'm now desperate to run into a 'faith-head' so I can have a good argument with them.

Problem is, I don't know any. Maybe there aren't any in our accursed industry...