Merry Fucking Christmas, And Thanks For A Good Year

We are blowing out the candles here at Sell! Towers, and shutting up shop for two weeks over Christmas and New Year (don't try to rob us, we have a two hungry Dobermans prowling the premises). Thanks to everyone who has helped to make 2013 a fun, challenging and rewarding year. And a special thanks to you lovely people who continue to read and comment on the blog, because without you, we would just be crazies barking at the moon. Have lovely Christmases, have fun, rest up, and enjoy. Woof!

Thought For The Day...

Christmas Shit

Many of you cultured souls may already be aware of the Catalan Christmas tradition of the "Caganer" - a squatting, trousers-down defecating figurine that often accompanies the usual suspects beside the crib in a nativity.

Apparently the shitting figurine is a symbol of fertility and good fortune.

As a Christmas tradition it certainly beats leaving out a carrot for a reindeer.

There's a whole, thriving industry devoted to the production of these marvellous objects. And while the most popular example is the Catalan peasant wearing a floppy red cap, shops are packed full with versions of the good and famous all taking a dump.

Some highlights below.

Someone Got Paid to Make This.

please submit any examples of "Someone got paid to make this" work you've seen to : entries@canneslions.com

Do you remember pictures?

Feels like every piece of logo and stationary design these days is made up of sans-serif typefaces,  two initials in a circle and gold foil print finishes.

Have a look at some of these letterheads from yesteryear. How fresh do they look compared to the letter of today. Check more here.

Consumer Engagement Lifecycle

It doesn't look how you expect it to look...

Branding Heroin

An interesting project documenting Heroin Baggies from photographer Graham MacIndoe. In New York between 1975 and 1982 there were over 400 Heroin Brands on the market apparently.

Just Say No

Much gnashing of teeth about the latest company (GSK I believe) to ask agencies for a fee for the pleasure of working on their business.

These kinds of request are clearly absurd, but there is an easy way to stop this from happening.

You don't need trade bodies to step in, or collective agreements, crisis summits, or any of that bollocks.

All you need is for any agency involved to simply take responsibility, grow some balls, and say no.

Clients will quickly rethink when they realise that they can't get anyone of any quality to work on their business.

A brief history of Computer game title design

Computer games have come a long way since pacman.

Website Of The Year, Possibly All Eternity

The best website of this year by far. Possibly in all eternity.

Motherfucking website: find it here.

Going Nuclear In The Sound Booth

This is a brilliant bit from Toast Of London, with Steven Toast (Matt Berry) in the sound booth. You can tell Berry has done loads of voiceover sessions as this is uncannily true to life. "Have fun with it" is such a lame/brilliant bit of absurd direction, I've heard it used in real VO recordings more than once. And I think we've worked with that Clem Fandango chap...

Monkey Hanging Tuesday

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we proudly present Monkey Hanging Tuesday.

You may or may not know that, according to legend and folklore, during the Napoleonic wars the good people of Hartlepool put on trial and executed a shipwrecked monkey as they believed it to be a French spy.

In fairness to the townsfolk, the monkey was dressed in full French military uniform so you can see how their suspicions were aroused.

Another theory abounds that they were only able to claim salvage rights if there were no survivors from the shipwreck and they needed to put paid to the monkey so they could fill their boots with the booty.

Either way, this act of simian capital punishment has given Hartlepool unique notoriety and fame. Fans of Hartlepool are affectionately labelled "monkey hangers"and its own mascot is a monkey named, you guessed it, H'Angus.

This ridiculous and bizarre incident has provided a rich source of comedy ever since 1810 as this witty little ditty from Boothby Graffoe demonstrates.

Dave Trott Lecture

Dave Trott breaking it down nice and simple. I think everyone - 'professional' or otherwise - could do with watching this.

National Geographic Found Tumblr

Today, you lucky people, I'm going to share with you one of my very favourite places on the internet. The National Geographic Found Tumblr. If you don't already follow it, you are in for a treat: FOUND is a curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives. In honor of our 125th anniversary, we are showcasing photographs that reveal cultures and moments of the past. Many of these photos have never been published and are rarely seen by the public. It's updated very regularly, the images are of an unbelievable standard and breadth, and every time I go there, they blow me away. Pure photo-porn. Here are a few examples to whet your appetite...

Westinghouse demonstrates an electric razor using x-ray technology, May 1941.

A man and his dog on the Overhanging Rock in Yosemite National Park, May 1924.

Three adolescent Jewish boys, their heads traditionally covered with skullcaps or top hats, sitting in front of school lockers in Brooklyn, June 1982.

Original William Henry Jackson print held in the collection of the Colorado Historical Society. This is a hand-tinted print.

Botafogo Bay and Rio de Janeiro at night, September 1920

People watching a solar eclipse squint through smoked glass or film on Rebun Island in Japan, March 1949.

Unpredictable

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." 1878 Western Union Memo

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one on particular." - David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920's

"The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad." - Michigan's Savings Bank advising the lawyers of Henry Ford

"The cinema is little more than a fad. It's canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage." - Mr C. Chaplin.

"Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." - Darryl Zanuck

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home" - Ken Olson

Now, what do the above quotations tell us?

On the one hand, you could say that they remind us to ignore the advances of our technology at our peril.

However, on the other hand, I think they more powerfully demonstrate the futility of so-called experts making predictions with about what will or won't happen in the future.

It's something that the advertising business, to its detriment, has become obsessed with in recent years.

Armies of ridiculously named 'futurologists' and 'trend-hunters' telling us that 'everything has changed' and falling over themselves to convince us that there's a pot of gold at the end of some mythical rainbow.

Nest-feathering, militant digital evangelists parroting "TV is dead. TV is dead. TV is dead" without any facts or substance.

Conference upon conference dedicated to new ways of thinking. New ways of doing things. Conjuring up new buzzwords and brainwashing the easily influenced and simple of mind.

It's a sad reality that there are far too many people working in the business today who are more focused on doing something new than doing something good.

If all the energy put into obsessing about the future of marketing was channelled into doing some better work in the here and now, then I'm convinced the overall quality of advertising would improve and standards would rise.

Less talking, more doing.

Because, to misappropriate a famous Keynes quote;

"In the long run we are all dead."

Ad nauseam by Adam Corner

If you do any reading today (I won't be, it's friday for god's sake) read this arrangement of words by Adam Corner on cynicism and anti-consumirism in advertising.

Designers touching their faces

I don't think I'd enjoy the internet as much if it wasn't for silly Tumblrs.

This weeks silly Tumblr is designers touching their faces.

Indoor League

Another blast of nostalgia to brighten up a chilly day. You can keep your Sky Sports Super Sunday nonsense. Televised sports doesn't get any better than Fred Trueman introducing Shove Ha'penny with pipe and pint in hand. You know he's deadly serious when he says it's "the biggest bonanza of sporting skill I've ever clapped eyes on". See for yourself and watch that bonanza of sporting skill right now.

Cache Monet

Click this link for the weirdest website you'll see this fine friday morn.

Guess The Brand

This is funny, I especially like the two ladies at the end trying to guess who the ad is for.

Big trucks that are really good at driving backwards.

This is good.

A single minded product benefit portrayed in an interesting way.

You don't see a lot of that these days.

I'll even forgive them for using Enya.

Christmas Ads Part 2

How could we forget this two minute celeb-fest from Woolworths from the bunch below?

It would have made Twitter explode if it was around back then.

All This Year's Christmas Ads In One Place

Well, all the ones we can find at least. Have a look, compare and contrast. What do they tell us about ourselves, society, commerce, the companies involved, advertising, trousers and/or turkey giblets, I wonder? In no particular order...

Argos



John Lewis



Morrisons



Tesco



DFS



Cadbury



M&S



Boots



TK Maxx

Can You Help?

I wonder if you can help me.

I hope you can.

A lot of us talk about the ad industry being in a poor state, and the output (the work) being of a pretty shoddy standard.

Some people counter this by saying that advertising has always been 80% shite 20% good. Some say 90% shite 10% good. And that today is no different.

I have a some sympathy with that argument, because I know there was a quite a lot of shit advertising in the 50s, 60s, 70, 80s and 90s.

But I just can't shake the nagging feeling that it is worse now than ever.

But I know, maybe I'm being too harsh, maybe I'm looking at it through the rose-tinted eyewear of  nostalgia.

Maybe today isn't so bad, after all.

So I'm wondering if you can help me, kind reader. And I would appreciate you enlisting the help of others in this little request.

Please could you, via the comments section, share with us, companies and brands that have been around for at least more than 20 years, but that have done their best advertising in the last 5 years?

Then I'll be able to rest easy.

Advertising Needs Good People To Do Something

I've written before about how advertising people have to take their share of the responsibility for the current poor state of the advertising business.

This has upset quite a few people, I know.

They prefer to lay the blame squarely at the feet of clients or holding companies.

The thing is, I agree with them.

I'm not saying that poor clients (not all clients, but an increasing, poor, majority) and the giant holding companies are not to blame.

My point is simply that as advertising people, we have two clear choices; we can go along with it, or we can fight it.

And going along with it is the same as accepting it.

And accepting it is the same as endorsing it.

And if you're endorsing it, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Because no one else is going to change it for us.

Do you think that suddenly, the holding company board and shareholders are going to go "Oh, okay you're right, this is terrible. We're going to to make all of our companies independent again and put our money elsewhere"?

No, they are not. Not while they can still squeeze a buck out of you they're not, anyway.

And do you think those legions of poor quality clients are going to suddenly say "Goshdarnit, my marketing qualification wasn't worth shit, I should really stop imposing a culture of fear and monetary pressure on my agency, whilst simultaneously listening to their recommendations more and not try to do their jobs for them"?

No. It's not going to happen.

So you are left with those choices above. Either fight and push and bite and scratch for what you think is right.

Or just go along with it.

But, I know, I am realistic. I don't expect everyone in advertising to fight.

There are hundreds of people in advertising who are just happy to be in the room.

People stealing a living from advertising. They have neither talent, nor energy, nor principles. They are happy to just be working in advertising.

I'm not interested in those people, they're lucky to get the entry keycard, and they know it. They're not going to rock the boat.

Change is in the hands of the good people. Smart people, talented people, energetic people, principled people.

These are the people who we need to fight back. To start their own companies, with principles, with standards, and who stand up for the right way to do things.

Creatively-led companies.

So that we hold the best work, the best talent, the best people to ransom.

Accessible only to those clients willing to pay reasonable fees, allow proper amounts of development time and who want to build respectful relationships.

Only then will we see things really start to change.

Because, as Edmund Burke famously said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Revolution, my arse.

So, you may have noticed yesterday in the news that Tesco have signed a deal with, ahem, Amscreen to install hi-tech screens in their petrol stations that scan the faces of shoppers to detect their age and sex so that advertisers can target them with a tailored message.

Yep, you read that right folks. Petrol stations. 

A petrol station. That sanctuary. That haven. That oasis of calm where a captive audience of relaxed car drivers with time on their hands are going to be most receptive to pay full, undivided attention to a piece of digital advertising on a screen while they are trying to pay for fuel, fags and a cheeky pasty. 

Unsurprisingly, given the vast amount of cash that's no doubt changed hands, this is being talked up by both parties as some kind of advertising revolution.

Revolution, my arse.

More like a couple of fairly meek and apathetic protestors gently waving a placard in an empty cul-de-sac. 

I promise you, this innovation will not overthrow the status quo and create some kind of new world order for the advertising industry.

Technology can be a great enabler but just because you can do something, it doesn't automatically follow that you should. 

This malarkey is just another instance of taking every opportunity to bombard people with ads without any real regard for human nature or due consideration as to whether there is any appetite and desire for them to be consumed.

Given the extremely limited dwell time in petrol stations and the mindset that customers will be in whilst at the till, my instinct is that ads in this "medium" will end up being seen like one giant banner ad. 

Just irritating and distracting noise that will end up being screened out. 

Wallow in these marvellously deluded soundbites from these pioneers of technology and groundbreaking retail wizards.

Simon Sugar, Amscreen Chief Executive and son of you-know-who said "This could change the face of British retail" 

And Peter Cattell from Tesco had this to say "We're always looking to work with partners who provide innovative ways to enhance the customer shopping experience… The ability to tailor content based on time and location means it can be extremely useful and timely for our customers".

Who the fuck is he kidding? It's all about Tesco trousering pots of money from desperate advertisers.

I'd sincerely like to know how this intrusion actually enhances the "customer shopping experience" [if you can genuinely call buying stuff in a petrol station a shopping experience] or how exactly it can be useful and timely for customers.  

Sugar also claimed that the devices were "like something out of Minority Report". Not a particularly accurate or clever thing to say given that the technology raises serious issues about civil liberties and individual privacy rights.

I'm sure that most people, if pressed on the question, will probably not be comfortable with having their faces scanned or "detected" without having given any prior consent. And the argument that it's acceptable because no data is being collected is just lame, patronising and embarrassing.

Drill down into the actual detail of what the technology does and it's hardly a shining example of bespoke micro-targeting.

The cameras can only determine gender and three broad age groups. So, if I get a haircut and don't shave it'll know I'm a fortysomething bloke. That's it. 

That isn't remotely enough information to be able to produce a credible "tailored solution" for an ad as they know bugger all about what I like or buy or would potentially be interested in liking or buying.

Also, there's only one bloody screen as far as I can tell. Last time I went in, there was actually a queue at my petrol station. A not altogether infrequent occurrence either.

Does that mean I'm only supposed to get to fleetingly see the ad that's just for little ol' me when I'm actually at the front of the queue doing something else [i.e. paying for petrol]?  

I'm not actually surprised that this nonsense has been cooked up by Amscreen. Sugar's track record for genuinely innovative technology that sticks is patchy at best and as far as I can tell he's got a relatively unsophisticated, crude and blunt view of how advertising works.

It'll be interesting to keep a watching brief on this one to see what develops. Maybe I'm wrong and this will be the future.

However, for the time being I'll be counselling our clients to not get seduced by the hype and to steer clear of any involvement. There are many far better and proven ways to connect with customers than  advertising to them when they're in a petrol station.

If you're blue...and you don't...know...

Photofit

If the Daily Mail is anything to go by - pedophiles, rapists, murderers and misc bad guys/gals are running wild on our streets - with newspaper front covers littered with photofits inviting us to play a more serious over-breakfast edition of Guess Who.

It's going back afew years, but I wanted to share a project photographer Giles Revell did in 2008, called simply 'Photofit'.

"In providing each sitter with the same tools – a 1970s police Photofit kit, the process by which they created their self-portrait was democratized; the immediate, tactile qualities of the kit enabling them to tell their own story as a likeness falls into place, piece by piece."

Great photographer with some truely awesome projects : http://gilesrevell.com/

It's made out of fucking cookies

This video was doing the rounds last week. If you haven't seen it, you must. Makes me laugh every time.

Utterly Meaningless Adjectives in Marketing

Craft
Real
Artisan
Proper

Na na na Batman

Saw this advert for the new Batman: Arkham Origins game the other day.

I quite like it.

It immediately stood out from all the adverts that had gone before.

The sheer simplicity of the idea and the creepy almost-real-but-kind-not CG grabbed my attention and kept it.

Maybe could have done without the fist fight at the end.

All in all, quite a good advert for what is a pretty shit franchise.

Russell Brand On Newsnight

If you watch only one thing today, make it this. Superb stuff.

John Webster: The Human Adman

I agree with Steve Harrison's assertion that advertising people would be well served to be more educated about the work of successful people who have preceded them. He makes the argument that no budding director would set out without studying the work of the great directors, no writer would be devoid of knowledge of the great writers and their works. But every day, hundreds of advertising people go about their business knowing next to nothing about the greats of advertising.

I've heard the argument that your influences should come from outside of advertising - this is a favorite assertion of young creatives and so-called 'cool people'. I agree, you should have a wide sphere of influences - the whole of life, art, film, writing, design, technology, clouds, oranges. But that's no excuse to not study the work of people who have already done what you're doing, and done it better than you. Times have changed, but the essence of what makes things great is still the same.

Anyway, here to help in this regard is this film about John Webster. He needs no introduction from me other than to say that if you work in advertising and you don't know who he is, this can be your first step to enlightenment. The film was made by Nick Werber, Tom Baker, David Carr and Martins Millers, creative students at the School of Communication Arts in London in conjunction with Patrick Collister. It does contain a few people saying the odd daft thing to camera, but that's inevitable in any documentary about advertising – it is well, well worth a watch. So thanks to them for making and sharing it.


There's a site supporting the film, with full credits and background here.

Tactical naivety

Tactical naivety.

I'm not talking about footballing pundits describing the approach of African footballing nations to defending in the 70's and 80's.

No, the post refers to the depressing trend of a lot of advertising to focus on producing one-off executions rather than long running campaigns that help build a brand over time.

Now, it's clear that there's a prevalent culture of short-termism that puts pressure on everything needing to be done by yesterday but this runs counter to the way that most advertising actually works.

If companies genuinely want people to think or feel differently about their brands then they need to recognise that it takes time for this kind of step change to actually happen.

There is no magic wand that can be waved that will change the way a brand is perceived overnight.

It takes time. And it takes money. And it takes repetition of a consistent message within a consistent campaign to really cut-through and have impact.

Clients can be impatient as they're often in a hurry to make their mark as quickly as possible so they can continue to shin up the greasy career pole.

And agencies can be impatient too as winning awards, the allure of creating something shiny and new along with a "not invented here" syndrome that can exist in creative departments means that investing in a long running campaign is not top of their agenda.

All of which sadly creates a vicious circle that leads to more one-off, temporary, wheel-reinventing executions being created or campaigns being killed before they can reach their full potential.

There's no doubt that things like "crowdsourcing" and the rise of the "viral" and "online content" have exacerbated the problem as the ridiculous and unrealistic assertion that great ideas can come from anywhere has made advertising seem much more disposable and undermined the real value that great creativity can bring in the eyes of an easily influenced and increasingly inexperienced marketing community.

Some agencies and clients are pissing money away by actively encouraging pieces of work with no depth and substance that have a lifespan shorter than a mayfly.

And the "always in beta", "everything's changing", "let's throw lots of things against the wall to see what sticks" attitudes of the blinkered neophiles hardly stimulates the kind of breakthrough thinking that ends up with giving a brand a distinct and differentiated campaign that can live for years and years.

From a wider perspective, this short-term outlook and behaviour means that advertising agencies are in severe danger of being dragged down into a tactical ideas bunfight with other marketing service providers.

Rather than getting into X-Factor style idea auditions where fluffy, nebulous, PR generating soundbite stunty bollocks ideas are the order of the day ["let's build the world's tallest mountain out of cake", "let's sponsor the tomato/donkey/goat/ant throwing festival in Spain", "let's make a fake Turin shroud and pretend we've washed it"] advertising agencies need to reclaim the ideas high ground.

They can do this by concentrating on doing what they do best and doing what nobody else can do.

Producing brilliant, entertaining and rewarding long-running advertising campaigns that consistently captures the public's attention and imagination.

The bottom line is that's the thing that puts value on the bottom line.

As my old mate Sun Tzu said in the boozer last week;

Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

Go, be righteous.

We've been in research mode here at Sell! Towers digging out reference for a new project - and have noticed a distinct trend amongst contemporary Advertising that we're fondly dubbing the 'Over-sincere-close-your-eyes-and-wank-over-existence' genre.

Being British (and as I don't work in PR or prostitution) - there are periods of my day when I'm not grinning from ear to ear projecting how stoked I am with being. On the whole though, life is not that bad : I often have more than 2 types of cheese in my fridge at home, my co-workers frequently make me coffee without prompting, and my girlfriend has nice hair. 

But after watching some TV - I'm starting to think I'm perhaps not doing something properly and a shadow of what I could be. Should I be diving off a cliff, dancing playfully in a forest and filling every inch of my neck with tattoos? T'would seem that enjoying some eggs on toast followed by Beethoven's 5th is not seizing the moment enough according to some Strategy Director.

There's projecting an aspirational brand image, or offering up that 'Happiness is a Hamlet' - but these are assuming the population are miserable under-fulfilled closet molluscs.

Ray-Ban Optical Illusions

Check out this cheeky little video for Ray-ban by Brussup.

It's great (besides the title of the video). Really simple idea and execution but big on impact. Great Stuff.

Click the link above to see more mind-bending illusions.

Grand Budapest Hotel

New Flick from Wes.

Looks impressive. Quite a cast as well.

Throwing Wads Of Money Into The White-Hot Furnace Of Delusion

Company specialising in making content which relies on sharing, publishes a study showing that sharing content will become more prevalent.*

A social media specialist writes how brands will have more success with conversational marketing via social media than conventional advertising.*

An online video platform publishes a report stating that the watching of online video is rising quicker than the watching of conventional television.*

Ark manufacturer predicts huge flood.*

Fork specialist releases report revealing expected pronged implement usage set to increase.*

Excrement removal specialist predicts influx of well-fed bears into heavily wooded area.*

It's unbelievable that so much confusing and perjured propaganda from interested parties is reported and subsequently re-shared as news in advertising and marketing.

It's no wonder so many clients are throwing wads of their company's hard-earned money into the white-hot furnace of delusion.


* Have a go at the game of spotting these kinds of reports. Although mildly depressing, it's quite good fun too. Share them with us and we'll add them to the above list.

Cheaping Out

Came across these wise words recently. It was polymath Benjamin Franklin wot wrote 'em [well, I doubt he actually hand painted the sign, he was probably too busy mucking around with electricity and drafting the Declaration of Independence to do that].

Anyway, it struck me that this statement is as true today as it ever was.

Fair enough, everyone loves a bargain. However, society now has an obsession about chasing the lowest possible price whatever the cost.

No matter if an item of clothing is made in a sweatshop by a blind Bangladeshi child working eighteen hours a day being paid a pittance, if you can pick up a nice new jumper for less than a fiver, you're quids in. Bonus.

Now, I fully appreciate that price is a very important factor for the vast majority of honest, decent, hard-working folk who need to count the pennies and get by on a budget. That's just everyday life.

However, I think we've become so conditioned to chasing the cheapest possible option that we forget that things like product quality are equally, if not more, important in the long run.

And I think marketers and agencies are largely culpable because they invest so much time and energy in relentlessly churning out offer specific communication without investing properly in brand equity. Buy me! Buy me! Look at this deal! Great discounts! Unbelievable prices! Hurry!

Now, the cut and thrust of retail means that price led advertising isn't going to go away. However, ain't it about time that more brands stood for something truly differentiating?

If you're constantly bombarding people with starbursts in advertising, chances are you're cheapening your brand.

And over time competitors can always come along and undercut you on price leaving you with bugger all competitive advantage.

Great brands have a value attached to them way and above their cost. They communicate compelling benefits that help convince consumers to pay a premium for them.

If low price is the only benefit you're communicating, you're in a hole that's very difficult to get out of.

If you're in that hole and you need some sort of ladder to help you get out, just make sure you don't choose the cheapest option and buy on price alone.

Remember.

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.  

Roll Up! Roll Up!

It's the time of year when Universities set out their stalls and hold Open Days - trying to attract the brightest young minds to their campuses like flies to an Insect-o-cutor Light.

Same deal with Ad Agencies - the internet is full of microsites and youtube videos selling themselves as Craft Institutions, Idea Campuses, Message Artisans, The Hogwarts of Marketing or whatever they can think of to avoid using the dirty Ad Agency label.

Here is BBH's offering for their 2014 Ideas Apprenticeship scheme.

Even if you're not interested in jumping aboard their Grad Train* - its worth a watch to play "Guess The Job Title".


* the comment above in no way implies that a penetrative 'Train' situation would or wouldn't be involved in BBH's Apprenticeship Interview Process... even if it did, it'd most probably be refered to as an Ideas Conga.

Africa

"Africa" by Toto. As performed by the Crew of the Bourbon Peridot off the coast of West Africa earlier this year. One scene a day shot over 4 weeks.

Any excuse to get Toto's Africa on the blog.

Why Agencies Are Responsible For 'Unreasonable' Client Expectations

A smart salesman that I know once blew my mind with this simple statement:

We train clients to expect what they expect.

It's a simple truth.

Clients can ask for a campaign to be turned around in a day
or five different 'routes'
or a TV commercial to be made for way less than it should really take
or a photo shoot on a pittance
or for changes that make the work worse
or for excruciatingly small fees from the agency.

They can ask for what they want. It is a free world.

But it is only when agencies say yes to these things, only when agencies and agency staff are complicit, that these requests, and this behaviour, is given credibility.

Agreeing to do it endorses the request.

That is how clients have been trained to expect all of the unreasonable and harmful things that have become part and parcel of advertising for most people at most agencies.

It is because there are always enough agencies and people out there willing to say yes to the next unreasonable demand.

I'll be honest here - we spend an unbelievable amount of energy here at Sell! Towers managing the process of not agreeing to the kinds of things listed above. It's the harder road. It's much easier in the short term to say yes.

And we know that many agencies out there are saying yes.

But, we are honest with out clients about our high fees up front - and we know that some clients who wanted to work with us have walked away because of that - we can live with that.

It means the ones who work with us, value us.

We resist changes and amendments to work that we believe will make it less good, that takes a lot of managing and takes time, energy and skill to build relationships with clients strong and respectful enough for that to be possible, but we think it's worth it.

We don't work to piss-take schedules, we don't make people work weekends and through the night to meet them.

We don't take the piss out of suppliers by passing on unreasonable cost requests, or by hammering them unreasonably just because a job is a 'creative opportunity'.

We don't churn out work to meet a set number of routes, or as cannon fodder. We only work on things that we think will be the solution.

In short, we do all of the things that we think it takes to be a creative agency of integrity, with standards and professionalism, and with respect for those we work with.

But it's becoming increasingly obvious that there are tons of agencies out there who will literally do whatever they're asked to gain or keep a piece of business.

On a level, it's understandable. The advertising market is massively over-supplied. This means that some people become increasingly desperate to win business.

Small agencies trying anything to compete.
Other kinds of businesses - like digital specialists, pr firms, and production companies - trying to get in on the advertising budgets.
And network agencies, pushed by pressure from afar to gain and retain clients at all costs.

They all have their reasons.

It's understandable, but it's not excusable.

And yes, we are lucky, because we are masters of our own destiny, so to speak. We can make these choices.

But we have made the choices not to become a lowest common denominator agency, not to compete on price, speed and how often we can say yes.

And the result is, we work with the kind of clients who value that. We have a great group of clients, but it takes a lot of work, and effort and time to build those relationships of trust and respect.

And it often seems like the number of clients who want an agency like that is reducing - so much so that these days we openly say that we're the "Creative agency for the 1%" of clients.

And we're okay with that.

It works for us.

But it's funny when you hear agency people complaining about clients' behaviour and expectations.

They blame it all on the client. Yet their own agency endorses those requests by agreeing to them.

The simple fact is, while there are enough agencies out there that will agree to the unreasonable, the unreasonable will always be expected.

If clients aren't made to realise the something is unreasonable, how are they expected to know that it's unreasonable?

No one made out it was unreasonable. They asked, and someone said yes.

Or in other words, as my friend rightly said: We train clients to expect what they expect.

Bullshit Detector

I came across this Adobe ad again recently and it made me chuckle given all the nonsense that was floating around in the afterglow of Social Media Week.

Personally, I think Adobe missed a trick by not making these bullshit detectors for real. They could have made a fortune as some clients are beginning to slowly cotton on to the fact that there's a lot of snake oil being peddled in the often shady world of digital marketing and could do with some help in quickly outing the purveyors of meaningless gobbledygook.

Needle in a Haystack

Its uncommon to make it through a day without seeing some bullshit chart that unlocks the key to the consumers mind, the ideal production process or how to optimise your brands social media like to sale conversion.

Some on the other hand make a whole lot of sense.

Ad Factories

I'm going to nail my colours to the mast here:
I don't think that advertising is something that benefits from being mass produced.
Yet the vast majority of the advertising we see is produced in vast ad factories.
Factories housing hundreds of people, a production line of human machines each adding a part to the product.
It's efficient.
But it isn't the best way to get the best advertising.
Advertising is conceived and made by people. And talented people tend to make better advertising.
But there aren't enough talented people to produce all of the advertising that needs to be produced.
There aren't enough talented people to keep the factories' production lines moving.
So the factories make out that it isn't the people that make the advertising great.
No. It's the process. The production line.
So the ad factories claim to clients is that their particular production line will ensure the best advertising.
Some clients fall for it.
They buy the production line. They buy the schematic. They buy the chart.
But a schematic doesn't come up with an idea.
A schematic doesn't know the difference between a great edit and a cheesy one.
A schematic can't come up with an image that blows peoples' minds.
A schematic doesn't know how to arrange words into moving, persuasive sentences.
But ad factories have become the norm.
The factories have been successful in selling the production line to clients.
Ad factories are poor at making advertising.
But they are good at selling ad factories.
And let's face it, it's an easy buy for a lot of clients.
Very few dare to buy into the uncertainty of people.
That's a scary thought.
I have to put my budget, and success, into the hands of people?
And hope that they're talented and smart enough to make it great?
It's much easier to buy into the certainty of a process.
A into B, B into C. Output D.
So ad factories have become successful at attracting clients.
They make up the vast majority of the advertising industry.
Agencies, rated by size, by billings.
'The top 30 agencies' say the lists, the articles.
Top 30, always by size.
By the size of billings.
Even though 99% of the advertising that fills those billings is pedestrian.
As if size is the best arbiter of what makes a top agency.
And one of the real shames of all of this, is that many talented people set out to make their own agencies.
They set-up a small boutique, a small workshop of talented people.
They make great advertising.
They craft it, they skilfully, artfully create advertising worth paying attention to.
But then they allow themselves to grow into another factory.
Or be absorbed by one.
Another ad factory, churning out a production line of pedestrian work.
And that, unfortunately, is the work that makes up 99% of what we are subjected to as customers, as punters, as people, every day.
Mass produced, low quality product, from vast factories.

Eeek!

The Inaction Of The Call To Action

Call to action.
It's one of those phrases that have become such a part of the business of advertising, that they're said and heard often without realising how weird they are.
Apart from when people are arguing about whether an ad should include one or not, that is.
It's a silly argument really, when you think about it.
If someone desperately thinks an ad is lacking a call to action, it's because the ad itself is wrong, or not doing the job properly – or there is a tacit difference of opinion about what the ad is meant to be doing.
Or they don't know what they're doing.
If your intention is for someone to do something specific as a result of seeing a piece of communication, then that should be the actual job of the ad – it shouldn't be relegated to a line of copy or VO thrown in at the end.
I am utterly convinced that your typical one-line call to acton makes absolutely no fucking difference to whether someone does that thing or not.
Say I'm watching an ad for, say, a burger.
If the ad doesn't make me want to try that burger when I'm next in the market for a burger, then adding "Try our burger" at the end, is not going to make any difference.
And the even greater stupidity of adding "Try our burger - Now!" will not convince me to try it Now! either.
It's as if nothing has been learned over the last hundred years of marketing.
People aren't stupid.
If you compellingly show them how something will be good for them, if you explain why something would be in their interests, or convincingly make them desire something, the chances are, you will have successful advertising.
Just adding "Do it, do now! Now! NOW I tell thee!" won't.
It is marketing stupidity of the highest order.
People do things – download an app, buy a burger, test drive a car – if they feel it is in their interests do so.
They do not do it because you tell them to.
Stop it.
Stop it NOW!

Ravel's Bolero like you've never seen it before.

This shiny new website for the London Symphony Orchestra is pretty special.

It's an interactive extravaganza that allows the viewer to watch HD footage of the orchestra performing Ravel's Bolero from lots of different angles at the same time. The functionality lets you flick between them, focus on one, view 4 at a time or find out about the orchestra. All harmoniously in sync with the music.

These things are always difficult to get right. Lots of big, bandwidth heavy media, complicated user interfaces, too many features etc. But the guys at Sennep have smashed it out of the park. I can't think of a better multimedia experience I've had online.

It's utterly compelling, even to the classical music layman. Watching Valery Gergiev's intense focus as he masterfully conducts the orchestra is mesmerising.

Oh, and I'd recommend whacking your speakers up to 11 to get the full Bolero hit.

Vespa Print Ads from Voices Of East Anglia

Voices Of East Anglia is not a new talent show hosted by Alan Partridge. It's actually a treasure trove of retro and vintage pop culture ephemera from, in their words, "the deepest recesses of the internet".

The site's always well worth a visit if you want to lose yourself in the obscure, the bizarre and the long forgotten as this nifty collection of Vespa print advertising from around t'world illustrates.

More Vespa ads from their collection here.