Good ideas are timeless

I love ideas as in creative ideas that are playful with the written word or art directed in a way that captures your eye. (Ideally both of these skill sets work even better in conjunction). Take these two examples which came up in my social media feed, they stopped me in my tracks, my thumb came to juddering halt, I wondered why? Both have charm in tone of voice, both are also informative. They treat the viewer with intelligence and there's no need to 'fill in the gaps' as many marketing director's these like to do. This is what great ideas do, it moves you to act. To buy product, ohh those dirty words that seems to be the trend these days, to avoid selling stuff, ironically at all costs. 'Brand purpose' is all the rage but these posters have a purpose and their purpose is to flog stuff. What is also of interest, these two posters must be at least 40 year's apart, the Tide poster was conceieved just after the end of WW2, when Britain was in rebuilding mode after her cities where bombed, this is my hometown, London, East London to be precise. I love the line, it even has the brands name in the headline. (Dave Trott would I'm sure be impressed) and if you look closely it even has a bit of a special build going on, the use of type and graphics is dated but somehow would look fresh now, it has that retro feel to it. The headline" Tide's in - Dirt's out! what a line - just 4 words and hits a home run and the product benifit pitched in a charming way. Fast-foward to the 90's and we have a poster van driving around selling a bedside cabient. Again what a headline this is, it made me smile and again just 4 words to sell the product. How many ads have you seen lately that can do that? B&Q is the only work out of Uncommon London I can recall that has acheived that lately. These are timeless and like all good ideas will be remembered and recalled, as for the 99.9%, they'll all go in the black hole of nothingness. Work to be done for all creatives to get noticed and sell stuff. Tick,tock.

Instagram Good Time To Post

Insta Depressed

I saw this idea from WWF, called #TooLatergram caught my eye and I thought it was clever way to draw attention we are doing to the World we live in from crystal clear seas, to Alice In Wonderland Coral reefs and snow-topped glaciers covered in snowdrop coloured flowers. Through the lens of travel bloggers they truly look awe inspiring the locations just look like a place we all want to go. There lies the problem, as earth’s natural wonders have disappeared because of people. In this social activation WWF tries to engage millennials to take environmental action. They invited famous travel Instagramers to post images of international beauty spots as if they were paying them a visit. But thousands of followers who gushed over the pics discovered there was a bleak story behind the post. The sites had already been ruined and bloggers responded by posting a picture of the current situation at the same place. #TooLatergram well one thing it did for me is depressed me on what we have done, I clicked on the link at the end and as it was in French, didn't give me the option for English version and the site was pretty slick in interface, but that's it just information on the places and a newsletter sign-up, surely we should be doing something more? Pre-perpared letters to Govs? Protest? Not sure but it just felt a bit design and idea over end output. I go back to feeling miserable after watching this.

If You Want Change Start At The Top

This is #MarketingMurmur 6 vodcast, Some views on the #Shesays event I attended at Karmarama the other night. Hearing the panels horror stories, it struck me how unbelievable rude some clients and agency people behave. Appalling in their demands and bullying emotionally and physically. It's rife in our industry and we do nothing, shame on the management within agencies who allow clients to treat agency staff in this way. Sadly ares holes are at the top regardless of their gender. Most agencies eventually fire clients only when the business is about to leave or they can't make anymore money from it, they then say we did it as they were treating our team badly. The sad truth is; talented people leave the business because of these attitudes. Interested to hear your thoughts and your horror stories and maybe some suggestions on how to change this behaviour.

Tetris bookcase

I love ideas that: Combine offline with online. Are visually appealing and functional. Are playful hacks made by super smart geeks. Thank you Oyvind Berntsen who added LED's to his bookcase and made them programmable. Genius.

Ideas- it makes you think

Read brief, read brief again - Go for a run, swim, walk, play monsters with the kids, read brief again, read books and blogs, watch films, watch everyday people going about their everyday lives, sit with the cat, read brief, eat cake and drink coffee. Then I begin to doodle, if I'm relaxed, ideas then flow- I usually start by word mappiing - then doodles - then ideas, then scamps.Read brief, read brief again - Go for a run, swim, walk, play monsters with the kids, read brief again, read books and blogs, watch films, watch everyday people going about their everyday lives, sit with the cat, read brief, eat cake and drink coffee. Then I begin to doodle, if I'm relaxed, ideas then flow- I usually start by word mappiing - then doodles - then ideas, then scamps.