Will work for…

• Healthier Community
• Leverage cycling to improve environment and health
• Creative Education

Just 3 of the quick things I wrote down after visiting a new site created by IDEO and Collaborative Fund canned Will work for.

What did you think of? Write it down we will come back to it.

Will work for is a kick starter to a new conversation – what constitutes work, how we go about our work and what value does it have for us and society?

The convergent impact of middle class incomes dropping, the notion of the career changing as a good thing and stayed structures meaning junior and progressive managers looking for new routes to progress is altering what we will work for and what we look to get from it. Daniel Pink explored some of this idea in Drive when he discussed how creative people are not motivated by carrots and sticks but by autonomy, mastery and purpose. This concept is now being put into action as a necessity to progress and I think its an amazing thing.

The videos on Will work for explore the concept of big data being applied to farming, digital innovation to eduction and a 16 year old maker building electronic devices to improve the wealth of the community by selling power back to the grid. AMAZING! These are all things that to most people at just insane but are being done, they will change our world in a positive way and its being done by people no smarter than you or I (borrowed line from Steve Jobs).

In this really short blog post Karyn Campbell (investor) touches on a few key concepts for me:The notion of work is changing

How we apply out creative talents is changing

The role of business in the world is changing to be a force for good

The latter is the most interesting for me right now. Karyn said in her post that both businesses had looked at their goals and values found they aligned and took action through a simple idea. Business is now seeing the value in doing good and making a profit, it doesn’t have to be an either or scenario anymore and in fact the profitable and socially good company has a much greater positive impact on society than just about anything. Just think how much better off the UK economy would be if Starbucks had paid its taxes (which they agreed to do today).

The future is for us to create.

So what 3 things did you write down at the start?

How you use your skills and knowledge and apply them to make things better?

Check out the videos for some inspiration.

Starting with why…

Have you ever asked why you do what you do?

Why the business you work for does what it does?

Why you get up and go to work everyday?

Why you are here?

You know what you do. I do, I advise businesses and brands on how best to leverage digital technologies and strategies to create great ideas that connect with consumers.

I also know how I do it. The processes, methods, knowledge required to execute one of these ideas.

But why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Starting with why is scary, it requires confidence to think about why you want something and being true to that reason. I believe this is what really separates the super successful form the not so successful.

Having a big enough why changes everything.

Even though its incredibly hard to define your why, your purpose it is amazingly rewarding and leads to Maslow’s theory of self actualisation if you start to build on your whys.

Simon Sinek’s idea is nothing short of  brilliant.

Enjoy.

IDEAS…

This video is an utterly brilliant insight into Steve Job’s brilliance but what I really took from Jonathan Ive’s speech was how IDEAS HAVE ULTIMATE POWER. Now working in advertising I should know this but it is the way that he talks about creativity as a process that for all has underlying fears and concerns that is really enchanting.

The key things I took from this video were:

IDEAS ARE POWERFUL

HAVE GOOD, BAD AND BRILLIANT ONES

START AS EMBRYONIC THOUGHTS

BE PERCEPTIVE + HAVE ABILITY TO LISTEN

DO SOMETHING RIGHT – THAT YOU BELIEVE IN

SIMPLICITY IS KEY – BUT IT COSTS

WORRY. IS IT GOOD ENOUGH?

BELIEVE YOU WILL EVENTUALLY CREATE SOMETHING GREAT.

SOMETHING GREAT FOR EVERYONE.

IGNORE REJECTION.

GIVE A DAM.

What is the future for digital agencies still focused on the front-end?

This question came about following two recent market developments:

1. The increasing number of clients creating in-house online UX, design, development and content creation teams

2. The continued democratisation of the web (great example of this here: www.moonfruit.com)

When you consider both of the above situations its quite easy to jump to the conclusion that agencies supplying web design and development services will become obsolete in a few years due to plummeting costs and speed of production. That a site will be so cheap and easy to produce that no one in their right mind would pay above £2k for a full e-commerce site.

The problem with this view is its narrow and misses the point entirely. Businesses supplying these services will come under increasing competition if they continue to supply the same services and providing the same value. Agencies due to their amazing ability to generate new ideas across a range of media and disciplines will just have to pivot, the speed at which they do this is another topic for debate entirely.

Adapting and launching new services will be an absolute must for all agencies. Employees wont be asked for their views on campaigns they will be asked about how they develop strategies (at exec level), what startups they have launched, how they can show a case where they pivoted an idea based on new information and how they plan to kil the cash cow in the current businesses.

Clients might end up doing all the front end because its more cost effective and manageable and I dont blame them its a smart move but the significant growth in digital to come will throw up so many more challenges for them and opportunities for  nimble and innovative agencies to satisfy everyone (or the ones that are able to deliver).

I see a huge market still in digital and not just specifically in advertising. It just hasn’t been tapped in terms of the real business potential and the learnings we have here in the UK need to be shipped overseas by those businesses with the balls to adopt true globalisation.

So…

What are you doing for your  clients  in the digital space outside of the next Facebook campaign?

Step above the day to day in your business and see where digital could help (I did it just this week and realise collaboration was actually something we needed to address, quick search, few twitter recommendations and a trial of Huddle up in 24 hours).

What if your agency couldn’t deliver traditional advertising services from tomorrow – what would you do? How would that change the dynamics? How could you test this?

Are you really working in an agile way?

What was the last innovative service you brought to market for a client or new business prospect? (No launch a social media department doesn’t count, setting up a data insights team that has partnered with a dashboard supplier to determine traffic source ROI does!)

There is loads of opportunity abound, talent more accessible than ever and plenty of reasons to want to try new things so whats stopping you?

Mistakes…

In a presentation this week our friends at McCann London Pulse presented some amazing insights from their Truth About Youth report they created which features as part of a series. Full of facilitating and scary insights that certainly left the 20+ members of the group in deep ponder and debate about its ramifications.

One slide in particular has really stuck with me for the last 24 hours.

It was about mistakes.

About how young people today increasingly seek assurance, prevent trouble and stated that they ‘hated the idea of making mistakes’.

This is truly scary. The only way we learn, develop and can move forwards in life is by making mistakes, without them we stand still. Managed mistakes create success, mistakes left unchecked, unnoticed or actually ignored can bring a man to his knees and deprive him of one of the most humbling and motivational realization one can experience.

Isn’t the fun in life about giving it a try and seeing where you end up. Isn’t this what being a true entreprenuer, inventor, innovator  about after all?

Not learning from mistakes provokes a reactive personality, breeds mediocrity and a feeling that others have to change before yourself in order to achieve.

If the youth of today are to get through the tough years ahead, and I count myself in this group, we need to start watching where we make mistakes, large and small, get scared, get leverage on ourselves and ACT TO CREATE REAL CHANGE and be different!

Recent experiences tell me most occurrences of mistakes humble you, make you feel human but also if seen in the right way motivate and present opportunity. They also do two great things to everyone. Make you feel uncomfortable and frustrated. These are two feelings I love. They force you to act, to change, to plan and to ponder life. Only in taking full responsibly for our mistakes  will we be able to move ahead, develop greater strengths and peace of mind.

So tomorrow why not sit down at the end of the day and write down all the mistakes you made and then decide to take action to ensure you don’t make them again or at least learn from them.

My 3 for today were:

1. Allowed someone else’s behaviour to impact my mood – change – I control my emotions not anyone else

2. Got caught up in the day and missed an opportunity to deliver something of real value – change – I will not let the  flow of a day distract me from achieving what is most important to me

3. Ate two cakes and a massive tea – change – stop being a pig!

Strength-Finder 2.0…

For a time now I have been a great believe in self directed behaviour and the ability that everyone has to achieve anything they ‘think’ they can. This does not include the completely deluded entrants of the X-factor however funny they are, I’m talking about everyday men and women finding ways to achieve new and exciting things.

We all have the day-to-day slog of work but in an increasingly fluid and connected world I believe more of us are getting the itch. The itch to create, to make things, to share, to communicate and collaborate. One of the best examples of this for me is www.parkonmydrive.com a really nice way for people to rent their driveways around stadia in the UK and the absolutely fantastic Social Product Development site www.quirky.com inspired and created by Ben Kaufman.

Wrestling with the ‘what to do’ and ‘how can I make a difference’ I picked up a book I bought a while ago called StrengthFinder 2.0. The test was produced by Gallup back in 2001 and is developed with the premise that all too often school and society make us focus on our weaknesses this increases our awareness of them and suppresses the strengths we possess.

This test refocuses you onto the things you are good at, gives you a sense of what can be achieved with your traits and the really neat part is the action plans produced against each trait.

The outcome of a 35 minute online test are 5 traits. My traits were: Competition, Learner, Activator, Intellection and Command – for those of you that know me these will not come as any great surprise without even having the details of what they mean. Their description is uncanny in its relation to who I think I am.

They showed me why I get frustrated when not involved in a projects from the start and that this is where I add most value, to focus on a career in technology (handy), to be a catalyst for change, how creating competition in the things I want to achieve will push me to act, how my best ideas are created when I follow a leaning trail and connect past and present ideas (this is all about networks – see this video for more on idea generation) and how my activator trait means I work best when left to make my own decisions, to start something new and to act immediately when presented with an innovative idea – too name a few.

For those of you looking for an insight into your psychology or just something that will make you feel good about who you are check out the book and site here – http://www.strengthsfinder.com/home.aspx.

My questions is: Why don’t schools, colleges and universities use this?

Strengthsfinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now Discover Your Strengths.

The art of doing to learn not to succeed…

 

So at 11:49 on a Monday evening and I’ve just read this article on procrastination by This Person at This Blog (read his who I am section and it will make sense) and apart from making me look at the decisions I have made recently entirely in the interest of instant gratification I took great comfort in an unstoppable want to learn and to think about what I am thinking about. This got me thinking about what my 37 year old  self would think looking back at these articles.

 

How would I reflect on my thinking at this very moment in time? How would I perceive the decisions I was in the process of making? How can I make better decisions by projecting myself 10 years into the future and qualifying decisions. What if I thought about things I had chance to do and passed up – would me in 10 years think I was stupid or smart?

 

I struggled to think back to when I was 17 and what my thought process was then.

 

Were the classes I took chosen in the full knowledge that they would lead me to where I am now? Probably not.  I think of two friends from college Adam and Lee – they had a very definite view of what they wanted. Lawyer and Pilot – alas they both achieve their goals and good on them. They were at 17  aware enough to not step through life without a goal and it shows what focus and specific action can achieve.

 

This leads nicely into my big thing at the moment, or the one thing I keep stumbling across – doing to learn, creating something, experiencing new things. It seems to be the buzz word tagged onto entrepreneurship but the point is being missed. Entrepreneurship is derived from innovation (wont go into this bet I strongly recommend <a href="Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Classic Drucker Collection) “>Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Classic Drucker Collection) and innovation if your business is to grow has to be top of your agenda. You are not entrepreneurial unless you make something better.

 

Now take 30 seconds and think about what you have created recently outside of work – if the answer is nothing go and do something. Put pen to paper. Write an article. Plan a business. Just taking part in this process precludes procrastination.

 

So given that train of thought I ended up planning a new project. I went through the usual train of thought. It won’t lead to anything. I dont have any good ideas? Why cant I think of something? Will it work? All with the expectation a great idea will just pop into my head (it never does by the way). I needed a problem.

 

The Problem: How can we get digital thinking to permeate every part of the agency? How can we ensure that everyone has an appreciation for digital and the amazing capabilities it offers and how can we involve the Manchester community of businesses?

My idea – digi-pprenticeships.

Take a non-digital account handler, creative, planner, client, brand manager and drop them in a totally digital environment for 1 month.  Sure it would cause some pain but that’s only because it change. Thoughts continued to drift towards how we could implement and why it would be great.

 

Hyper Island then hit me as being basically this model (see no idea is truly original) but the application of training with a client and account team is a new way of looking at ‘learning by doing’. We know that working in isolation doesn’t work. We know that if you try and get people to work together who haven’t met they wont deliver a great project and we know that clients and agencies should work together on projects not pass emails back and forth.

 

The Vision that Hyper Island has is a manifesto for all agencies and people looking to push forward digital integration, knowledge development and idea development. The vision has huge potential when applied to business (no wonder they have had been so successful) but in its basic form ‘learn by doing’ is no different from Edgar Dales Core of Learning I wrote about a few months ago (https://johnkeiller.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/do-the-real-thing/). Doing something real is the only way to gain real experience and retain the things learned from the experience.

 

Drucker talks about two sources of Innovation – Unexpected Success and Failure – you can learn as much from both but you have to be in a position to do in order to learn.

Challenges for large agencies…

Interesting conversations with some of the guys this week about large agencies and what the shift in the market could do to them.

So lets start with the market shifts. Digital is core to everything we do now but the effective execution of digital communications is still a challenge. The thought process and identification of problems is still traditional and made all the more complex due to this approach. Approaching to digital campaign briefs in a traditional manner produces ineffective strategies and poor execution leading of course to reduced engagement and delivery on the core business objectives.

The approach is still based on the client knowing what problem they face, delivery is still through a linear process with many touch points  slowing down any outputs and creating massive wastage.  I also find that key questions aren’t askedor considered at the start – almost a lack of planning consideration and not as a means to find a consumer insight but to make sure you get the job done. This could be a by-product of the retainer to project based transition and lack of adequate training.

Changing the processes and working from this traditional model is difficult. You have a status quo, a movement towards change will frighten some and be far to slow for others. There is conflict between those that know we need to change and those that think they have the grasp of the scale of change taking place. The worry agency heads have is if the people that own the relationships with the client aren’t aware of the change or able to speak fluently about it then they look uninformed and are ill equipped to deliver the best results. Thus a change of staff from low level productivity to high is required but is that  step too far?

Fear is a key challenge with digital – the fear of screwing it up, the fear of it not being right, fear of change resulting in a bad campaign and the loss of a client. But as with most fear it is irrelevant and is the cause of inertia, inertia that in advertising will see traditional agencies start to lose out to a innovative ways of thinking and working by smaller agencies. The sooner everyone gets that we do not have full control of the message the sooner we will be more focused on putting things out there that aren’t perfect or actually considering the full possibility of engagement with the campaign.

A small step in the direction has to be collaboration. Working with clients pro-actively and regularly, getting different teams in the agency together, involving the delivery team at the start and everyone working on the strategy not just the planners. The key problem large agencies have is generalisation – instead of focusing on the core 20% of their business and delivering amazing work they try and do a range of things and ultimately each area becomes diluted and less focused.

This is however great news for nimble smaller agencies that are implementing these types of working practices. Its also great for the larger agencies that have made step changes in process, staff, focus and innovation.

So where do I think it will all end up. Smaller agencies will specialize in a few niche areas, get bigger to a point of maximum output and if smart will then tap into the local community on larger projects and outsource for with a respectable margin. Clients will start to see this as an evolution of the open source development model that is now ubiquitous and trusted. Larger agencies will get smaller, leverage the integrated story more but again do their core business extremely well and leverage their access to key content creators and partners such as Google and Facebook. They will also have to collaborate with the community more and amen to that.

Some interesting articles on this subject below:

http://madebymany.com/blog/my-talk-on-future-advertising-models-at-the-apa

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/mayhem-on-madison-avenue.html

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2010/id20100712_542186.htm

Marketing has changed…

Just came across this article while looking into how my client can increase engagement with communities by leveraging the great work they are already doing.

The article gives a really  interesting insight into Virgin’s strategy of partnerships around digital products by linking up with the likes of NESTA on app development. This is great to see as it elevates them as a force for good within two communities and is something relatively small with wide reaching impact.

I broadly agree with Ridgway’s view that traditional forms of marketing still have a place, it has to have a place as people still consume a vast amount of TV but I argue that it is the generation of small actions from ATL campaigns that will see the greatest impact and I don’t mean through a ‘like’ but through physical involvement.

Placing the consumer at the heart of the campaign is critical for all successful marketing, that has never changed. I am reading Truth, Lies and Advertising at the moment and Jon Steel makes a point that is still relevant and will be relevant for a very long time to come.

‘Almost all of the best advertising campaigns are based on very simple ideas. Look for what is right under your nose. Find a simple insight derived from understanding the habits and motivations of a consumers product or service consumption’.

Sounds so easy doesn’t it.

Good interview below also with John Hayes, CMO of American Express.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/App_Themes/v2.0/swf/external_player.swf

It is also interesting to see such similar changes in the way corporations are managing the change along with agencies. We are having to be more integrated in order to meet client demands and improve our ability to deliver quality, fully considered, creative work – clients are having to ensure that marketing principles and thoughts permeate every part of the business and start to shape the actual products and pricing to name just two considerations.

We see the idea that ‘If you’re not experimenting, you’re not learning’ being brought to life in the form of quick and dirty prototypes to test strategic insight and user interaction. The idea that a master strategy can solve everything is quickly being taken over by going on a hunch, building, experimenting and sharing ethos driven by an agile methodology.

Article Link: http://bit.ly/pgkV2Z

 

Do the real thing…

Stumbled across this yesterday while reading a financial investment report. It was presented in the context of education and how greater classroom participation can increase retention of information. The key thing that I took out of this is the doing the real thing. A friend of mine that owns a very successful business always advises the best way to learn something is to give it a try, make mistakes and try again.

 

The thing that stops a lot of people (myself included) from learning more and having greater experiences is the doing part. The idea of getting to the doing isn’t motivational because it usually seems like such a huge task – focusing on small steps to get you there makes the whole process a little easier (but not easy).

I also wonder if brand awareness and retention is increased by getting consumers to engage in physical action, presenting something back to the community or doing the real thing?