John Drake

My Five Things

At the beginning of every year I like to sit down and think about some general topics and questions that I'm personally curious about and want to understand better. Things to track and pursue in-depth exploration of in my own time in addition to all the other stuff I try to keep up on. If possible, I generally like the topics to tie to business in some way but in previous years I've had some that didn't. This year, five things are on my list...

Gen X: I'm a proud Gen Xer. The youngest of us is 30, the oldest is 47. We're now reaching an age where Xers will be making up the majority of leadership positions. And think of the span of development we've seen and will champion? From pre cable TV to interactive TV. From rotary dial phones to smartphones. From holograms in film to holograms in life. I love the unique balance that Gen X has. It's different than Boomers and Gen Y. I was reminded of this again last week while reading Decoded (terrific). So how does this unique position of Gen X affect our world and what do we do with this balance of experience?

The Mix of Mass Media and One-to-One: I still believe that the most successful marketing ideas are those that embrace some form of mass media promotion and some form of one-to-one engagement, all integrated together. Examples of success are everywhere. It works for big enterprise and small business. I'm continually fascinated by this: Who's doing it well and why does it work?

The Adaptive Web: I know that people report that they don't like that the web knows what they want. But what people say in surveys and what they really feel can be quite misleading. A tool that knows what we want is helpful. And finding ways to attract those who will truly find value in a product or service is good for everyone. How can this best work for consumers without being creepy, annoying and invasive?

Social Culture: Now that we're all on Facebook and participating and sharing in culture it begs the question, what is culture and how does it travel throughout the world? Why do some things trend and not others? How do we define culture--from those who create it to those who adapt it?

Us: I'm currently reading The Comfort of Things. It's about our stuff and what it means to us. Everything from family hand-me-downs that we display on our shelves to body tatoos and digital photos. It's lovely and interesting and has way more to do with anthropology than marketing. As we get more and more digital how do we make sure that we keep a healthy dose of analog?

Delicious makes exploring these questions easier to do. Sure glad they're not shutting down.

Two Great Ways To Think

I had a chance to catch up on Plannersphere blogs this weekend and I'm always amazed at all the great thinking that goes on over the course of a very short amount of time.

In doing this, there were two thoughts that particularly stood out to me which I wanted to further pass along...

First off Simon made a really interesting point in talking about trying to achieve strong brand minutes with our audiences and how that might help really hone cross-channel thinking. Considering a brand's full moment in time as it affects a consumer is a really interesting way to go about it...

If we stop thinking about broadcast and digital and experiential as separate things and just consider it in terms of ‘brand minutes’ then we can boil down the cross-media debate to one of the time people spend with a brand.

That's a helpful way to think about it, isn't it? As we're crafting ideas we should ask ourselves, 'are we making the absolute most of the time we have on stage and, more importantly, are we giving people the strongest logical and emotional items to carry with them to act upon and tell others?'

Next time you craft a brief it might be worth measuring the strength of the insight against the brand minute in produces in your mind... (And it's imperative that account folks and planners always write the first ad off the brief.)

Brief writing leads me to a second interesting way to think regarding the specialness of you. Or, rather, the unspecialness of you.

Adliterate has a great post about something called Unspecial Planning. How all of us are basically, unspecial, and being unspecial can be a real benefit in planning...

I am a fan of real insight, the revelations derived from real ife not research. And the truth is that the very best place to start in deriving real insight is yourself – so called planning from within. Your forensic understanding of your own behaviour and attitudes is your best first step in understanding how to change that behaviour and those attitudes.

The post goes on to say that basically if it turns out you are indeed special in some way outside the norm then perhaps your view of things is far different from the larger audience you're tasked with being relevant to...

I suppose at its heart Unspecial is about how similar we all are. While we all have our idiosyncrasies, we aren’t that special or unique as human beings, we like being part of the herd.

Anyway, I really like those thoughts. And I'm going to try to add them to the ever-refining kaleidoscope.

Check out their original thinking here and here.

Great vs. Good

Great vs. Good

Really enjoyed this presentation by Simon. Particularly the 'enemies of great' starting on slide 54.

Seems like a terrific way to start the week...

Art, Creativity, Marketing and Such

via

If you work in advertising (especially account management or brand strategy) I think you'll find reading Tolstoy's What Is Art? a valuable use of time.

In this relatively short book the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina articulates a guide that helps distinguish between what is indeed "art" and what is not.

As you can imagine, it sparked lots of debate and criticism in the early 1900s upon release but it's a fascinating read with Tolstoy's key definition of art coming down to this:

To evoke in oneself a feeling one has experienced and having evoked it in oneself then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others experience the same feeling--this is the activity of art.

I like that.

What it's basically asking is: Did the artist communicate with clarity that which was intended?

Tolstoy's definition preceded film... But this is probably art:

Moving beyond art, I believe the same guideline should be used today when we call something "creative" in marketing. Labeling something as really creative is, of course, an accolade for the idea. Is it creative? Well, are we clearly and concisely conveying our intentions? 

This sure did:

But we use the word 'creative' all the time. Perhaps too much. We just all assume everyone universally knows what it means. What Is Art? talked about this tendency too...

As is always the case, the more cloudy and confused the conception conveyed by a word with the greater self assurance do people use that word pretending that what is understood by it is so simple and clear that it is not even worthwhile to discuss what it actually means.

Isn't that the truth when you think about it? "Cool" immediately comes to mind. (A good definition of that can be found here.)

Anyway, I revisited What Is Art? after I read Newsweek's much forwarded article, "The Creativity Crisis," which is simply the best article on creativity I've read in a very long time.

The first key takeaway from the article is their rather simple definition of creativity:  the production of something original and useful.

Excellent.

But I'm really interested in how that definition turns the corner to define creativity in marketing which is why I loved the second key takeaway from the article:  that creativity is about problem solving.

And the good news about that is, interestingly, the process of creative problem solving can be taught and practiced. It's a way of thinking that engages both sides of our brain, not just the right hemisphere.

From "The Creativity Crises":

...When you try to solve a problem, you begin by concentrating on obvious facts and familiar solutions, to see if the answer lies there. This is a mostly left-brain stage of attack. If the answer doesn’t come, the right and left hemispheres of the brain activate together. Neural networks on the right side scan remote memories that could be vaguely relevant. A wide range of distant information that is normally tuned out becomes available to the left hemisphere, which searches for unseen patterns, alternative meanings, and high-level abstractions.

Having glimpsed such a connection, the left brain must quickly lock in on it before it escapes. The attention system must radically reverse gears, going from defocused attention to extremely focused attention. In a flash, the brain pulls together these disparate shreds of thought and binds them into a new single idea that enters consciousness. This is the “aha!” moment of insight, often followed by a spark of pleasure as the brain recognizes the novelty of what it’s come up with.

Now the brain must evaluate the idea it just generated. Is it worth pursuing? Creativity requires constant shifting, blender pulses of both divergent thinking and convergent thinking, to combine new information with old and forgotten ideas. Highly creative people are very good at marshaling their brains into bilateral mode, and the more creative they are, the more they dual-activate...

So taking all of this in, I'm currently thinking about creativity in marketing as:  The creation of something original and useful that successfully solves a business problem.

I dunno... I may not like that next week but I'm going with it today. After all, a recent IBM survey of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future so it's good that we all try and concisely define and understand what creativity means in 2010...

Human Communities Depend on a Diversification of Talent

There's tons to learn from Sir Ken Robinson's latest TED talk.

The subject is a revolution in education. That we need to examine going from an industrialized education model (a "manufacturing-type" format based in linearity) to one that's more of an "agricultural-type" model (an organic format where students develop their own solutions based on customized curriculums)...

"Human resources are like natural resources. They're often buried deep. You have to go looking for them. They're not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves."

Can't help but think there's an interesting correlation between this and Sir Ken's talk. And the significant impact thorough embracement and application of both ideas could have. 

The Premortem

McKinsey has a good article about trusting your gut. When is it wise to do so and when should you get some facts? Midway through the piece Gary Klein, a scientist at MacroCognition, talks about something called "the premortem," which I love. We've all heard of the postmortem, that wildly fun meeting when everyone hovers around after a project to discuss things that didn't go as planned and learnings to be applied. But why don't we do premortems? Perhaps we should start...

Klein: The premortem technique is a sneaky way to get people to do contrarian, devil’s advocate thinking without encountering resistance. If a project goes poorly, there will be a lessons-learned session that looks at what went wrong and why the project failed—like a medical postmortem. Why don’t we do that up front? Before a project starts, we should say, “We’re looking in a crystal ball, and this project has failed; it’s a fiasco. Now, everybody, take two minutes and write down all the reasons why you think the project failed.”

The logic is that instead of showing people that you are smart because you can come up with a good plan, you show you’re smart by thinking of insightful reasons why this project might go south. If you make it part of your corporate culture, then you create an interesting competition: “I want to come up with some possible problem that other people haven’t even thought of.” The whole dynamic changes from trying to avoid anything that might disrupt harmony to trying to surface potential problems.

What Type of Account Person Are You?

There's a great story from Peter Bregman over at HBR which identifies a core component of human behavior regarding how we act when we're paid to do something versus when we simply do a favor or go the extra mile. From this story comes the insight that every day each of us ask ourselves "Am I the type of person who..." in response to situations that come across our lives. 

Am I the type of person who sends thank you notes?

Am I the type of person who turns off my colleagues' office lights when I'm last to leave?

Am I the type of person who says, "actually, no, my meal wasn't ok" to the waiter?

We don't necessarily know we're doing it, but indeed, every day we are put into situations with other people where we make judgement calls about ourselves...Bregman writes that 'people tend to think of themselves as stories and when you interact with someone you're playing a role in their story' as well as your own.

I like to correlate most things back to advertising. One dimensional? Some say so. Anyway, reading this piece made me specifically think about Account Management.

While job descriptions are abound the great account person approaches every day differently, ready to respond to whatever situation needs leadership. Could be client requests, creative team guidance, strategic development, accounting matters, you name it. 

When it gets right down to it, great account people make the difference. They're the only ones in the agency who truly touch every part of an account. And it's a job chalked full of person-to-person interactions. Therefore...

Am I the type of account person who...

-Stops and thinks about every assignment and brainstorms solutions before getting other departments involved?

-Crafts a brief to be so concise, clear and insightful that I could write good ideas from it?

-Treats the traffic manager with as much respect as the Creative Director?

-Believes it's up to me to proactively lead everyone: from the CEO on down.

-Strives to measure ROI for all efforts without client prompting?

-Studies great creative work from around the world and thrives to be involved in its creation?

-Voluntarily contributes content to the web?

-Checks fear at the door?

-Smiles (even though I might be totally freaking out inside)?

I doubt whether any of the above statements are included in job descriptions at most agencies or that account teams are measured against any of them. But do your best to be that type of account person. The difference is felt agency-wide and makes the job a whole helluvalot more fun. Anyway... Stuff to ponder. 

Some Tips On Data Visualization

Russell posted this video the other day and it's pretty interesting... Actually, if you work in Account Management or Strategic Planning you should probably watch it. It's about data visualization, something that will come more to the forefront of business and communication as we get more and more access to data. The key takeaways here are, A.) take proper time to consider how you organize data so you communicate in ways that people will understand and remember, and B.) keep a watchful eye so that you always think for yourself regardless of the dataviz in front of you. 

Change By Design

Over the holidays I had a chance to read Change By Design by IDEO CEO, Tim Brown. If you are at all interested in design, creativity and how these things can influence business, you should read it. Pick up a copy here. Some highlights include the importance of prototyping, the role of a blueprint and finding "T-Shaped" people. These things can apply to every business.

But more about those later...

For today, the thing that stuck out most to me is the importance of Empathy. Or, in other words, truly understanding the business challenge from the mindset of users.

If you work in marketing, ask yourself: How often are you in the field? How often are you out watching customer behavior? My guess is, not often enough. Especially these days...

It's tempting to think that we are connected because we are reading consumer tweets and blogs. But that's only half of it... The small irony is that the more we stop and read the less we physically observe. And if there's one thing that comes screaming out of the case studies in Change By Design it's the sheer amount of time that was spent in the field by IDEO design teams understanding, talking with and observing the needs of people in the user environment prior to concepting.

So in 2010 it's important not to be solely focused on the screen in front of us... be it a computer a mobile phone or a Kindle. Look up, watch, listen and take the time to link things together.

Change By Design is about "Design Thinking." And while the definition of Design Thinking is pretty much the entire book it was summed up nicely at one point as "translating observations into insights and insights into products and services that will improve lives."

Good stuff.

Teamwork, Courtesy of Derek and Tom

Derek Jeter was just named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated, a most deserved honor. If you read the article--and study Jeter's career--you'll mostly be struck by one word: Teamwork. This is relevant to nearly everyone, considering that most Campaign Planning readers work in some sort of team environment...

What's particularly worth making a note of are Jeter's five obstacles to winning. True in baseball and everywhere else teams are at play:

5 Obstacles to Winning

1. Individuals who don't care about winning.

2. Self-promoters.

3. Measuring success by individual statistics.

4. Injury talk (i.e. if you choose to play don't find excuses for failing).

5. Negativity.

Great list.

Adding to this from elsewhere, there is also a really interesting Q&A with Tom Petty in this week's Rolling Stone that touched on similar thoughts...

The article is largely about how important Tom's band (The Heartbreakers) are to him. (Several band members have been playing with Tom since the early 1970s.)

Here's how important they are...

Tom Petty: "I get nervous, to this day, bringing a song to the band. They're tough. It runs the gamut, from being very quiet, not saying anything. That drives me insane: 'Well, what do you think?.... I look for their approval in the songs. When they give me "Good song" it makes my day."

This is famous TOM PETTY we're talking about, nervous to present his music! Makes sense though... The Heartbreakers, while not as well known as individuals, are amazing musicians and Tom knows that success is derived from all of them working together on material. The collective effort raises all. 

Derek and Tom are not only great examples that success is achieved from team play but they enlighten us as to how to think and act in the team environment.