Posts Tagged ‘Strategy’
Why disruptive ideas are important.
Jim | 26.06.2009
John Hunt, Worldwide Creative Director of TBWA, in a series of four videos talks about disruptive ideas.
Tags | Advertising, brand, Branding, ideas, Strategy
Categories | Advertising, Branding, Digital, Featured, Strategy, Tank, Video
How to live happily with a great designer
Jim | 6.02.2009
One of our favourite strategy/branding gurus, Seth Godin has a great post in his archive which we thought we’d re-publish here. It’s simple, powerful stuff.
Enjoy.
Why do some organizations look great… and get great results from their design efforts and ads… while others languish in mediocrity? I think it has little to do with who they hire and a lot to do with how they work with their agencies and designers.
Here are the things your design team wishes you would know:
- If you want average (mediocre) work, ask for it. Be really clear up front that you want something beyond reproach, that’s in the middle of the road, that will cause no controversy and will echo your competition. It’ll save everyone a lot of time.
- On the other hand, if you want great work, you’ll need to embrace some simple facts:
- It’s going to offend someone. If it doesn’t offend them, then it will make them nervous. The Vietnam Vets memorial offended a lot of people. The design of Google made plenty of people nervous. Great work from a design team means new work, refreshing and remarkable and bit scary.
- It’s not going to be easy to sell to your boss. That’s your job, by the way, not mine. If you want me to do something great, you’ve got to be prepared to protect it and defend it. Come back too many times for one little compromise, and you’ll make it clear that #1 was what you wanted all along.
- You can’t tell me you’ll know it when you see it. First, you won’t. Second, it wastes too much time. Instead, you’ll need to have the patience to invest twenty minutes in accurately describing the strategy. That means you need to be abstract (what is this work trying to accomplish) resistant to pleasing everyone (it needs to do this, this andthat) and willing, if the work meets your strategic goal, to embrace it even if it’s not to your taste.
- Help me out by pointing out the work you’d like this to be on a peer with. If you want a website to be like three others (in tone, not in execution) then point it out. In advance.
- Be clear about dates and costs. Not what you hope for, but what you can live with!
- You don’t know a lot about accounting so you don’t backseat drive your accountant. You hired a great designer, please don’t backseat drive here, either.
- If you want to be part of the process, please go to school. Read design magazines or take a course from Milton Glaser or get a subscription to Before & After. By the way, that one link is the single best part of this post.
- This one may surprise you: don’t change your existing design so often. Not when your kids or your colleagues tell you it’s time. Do it when your accountant says so.
- Don’t get stressed about your logo.
- Get very stressed about user interface and product design. And your packaging.
- Say thank you.
Tags | clients, designers, happiness, happy, Strategy, work
Categories | Branding, Graphic design, Strategy, Tank
Eyebrows
Jim | 28.01.2009
I was sent this, the follow-up to Cadbury’s brilliant Gorilla ad, of which many feel will raise some eyebrows (pun intended).
Here are a few thoughts as to why I think it’s just as brilliant as the Gorilla ad:
1. The brief is ‘Joy’ – simple and broad.
2. It has cut-through appeal, it is like nothing else.
3. It will be analysed and over-analysed by industry blogs.
4. People will share it, it’s fun.
5. People will try it and mock it.
6. It’s about the joy of chocolate ie. the joy of life. Cadbury will begin to own the concept of simple feeling joyous. Not a bad strategy at all, open to an infinite number of possibilities.
7. It’s simple and true.
Visit the Cadbury Eyebrows Facebook page here
Tags | Advertising, cadbury, chococlate, Strategy, Video
Categories | Advertising, Branding, Social Media, Strategy, Video
A clever spot of media planning
Jim | 21.01.2009
Here is a clever spot of media planning in today’s Daily Telegraph.
Tags | mediaplanning, obama, Strategy
Categories | Advertising, Strategy
Some things I learnt today / 02
Jim | 27.12.2008
I believe that every day is filled with little lessons that shape who we are professionally and personally – I’d like to capture these lessons right here in an ongoing post called ‘Some things I learnt today’. They’re brief, blue-sky and only my opinion at the end of the day, so take them at face value.
- Perception is reality.
- Loyalty can not be bought.
- Listening isn’t just about hearing, it’s about being there, in the moment, when someone is talking to you and understanding what they are trying to say.
- Listening is very, very difficult.
- Paul Simon kicks ass.
Tags | advice, design, learnings, listening, loyalty, managment, perception, Strategy
Categories | Graphic design, Inspirational, Strategy, Tank