Left Brain Overdose

A lot of negative space, strat planners live in.

They're pretty grumpy because of it.

Sure we don't mind doing decks, that's because setting up the sales pitch is part of the fun.

Also, they don't mind creatives speaking in straight-up, simple language

Recently there's been a huge debate of what the role of a strat planner is

And it's pretty funny when you put 3 strat planners on that subject

it gets more and more confusing.

Let's see...

From Strat Planner 1 -

wtf does it even mean.

well not to worry, we have 3 strat planners right? Let's see if this one can explain it better. Here's the chart she pulled out.

The Butterfly?

Like seriously man.

Sometimes i think agencies just have nothing else better to do

MD 'How do we milk more out of the clients?'

Strat Director 'I know, how about we charge clients for common sense. Let's call it... The Butterfly!'

Meh.

Two down. One to go. Let's see what she replies with.

I'm not holding my breath no more.

The Karmic Customer wheel.

Like phoar.

I don't know man.

Strats should just be a way to explain in common sense, the Big Idea

Since every strat planner and ad agency in the world wants to come up with their own chart

Maybe they should look at the purpose of coming up with the charts in the first place

Strategically, proposing charts on what strat decks are, are off strat to start with.

What we need is a simple, processed workflow of when strat is needed.

Lest we forget, why the heck we're doing strat in the first place.

Everyone's got a chart.

I was too lazy to comment.

So i just did one of my own, nobody has emailed me back since.

I think that's good news.

Smart had one good idea, and that idea was stupid

You've seen 'em all.

All of those 'cool' jeans campaigns

Funny thing is you gotta ask yourself

Despite seeing all them super award-winning jeans ads

Did any of them actually made you go out and buy a pair of jeans?

No?

Stupid ads.

Well maybe they were too... smart?

Well at long last, one of them did.

Diesel. Stupid is smart. Very.

Wrangler's Gold-winning Caveman campaign? Meh.

We are animals? Meh.

Levi's the Odyssey? Meh.

The last jeans ads that actually spoke to me was when i was 15, and it was one of them stupid skateboard print ads in those skateboard mags. (Speaking of which, stupid skateboarding mags are a vault of design and copy references if you're working on above-mentioned demographics. Which at some point or another, we all do. I think I'm gonna stupidly pick up a copy or two come to think of it)

The funny (and stupid) thing is, it really does speak to quite a few of us.

I'm not sure what your stupid story is, but at one point or another, we all yearn to do stupid things and not be judged by it.

Sure, that's a common enough insight into the rebellious teenage mind.

But come on. Don't be stupid.

When was the last time you saw a campaign so stupidly simple.

Heck. When was the last time a client was balls enough to be stupid?

Think, stupid.

Can't think of any?

That's a Unique Selling Proposition right there.

(The 'stupid' positioning. Not the fact that you're thinking, stupid!)

Where I work, we have a couple of stupid phrases for campaigns that we want to do well on.

Most stereotypical award-driven KPI agencies would asked, 'Is it Gold?'

We say, 'Is it retarded? No we haven't gone full-retard yet.'

Most suits and strategists will ask, eventually, 'is it gonna be Effies material?'

(actually come to think of it they don't ask. But anyway...)

We say, 'If we wanna fail, make it epic fail.'

I wish we did these campaigns for our house ads, instead of trying to be oh-so-smart.

It's definitely inspiration for something stupid.

And all the while. You're looking at a typical fashion ad.

The agency managed to sneak in something to be proud of.

Who is this stupid agency?

Take a guess.

CP+B? They try not to do ads when doing ads, so nope not really

W+K? They make smart ads. not stupid ones.

BBDO? They're busy selling 4-wheel-drives to Koreans (In English)

Did I just say something stupid?

Wow these ads are effective indeed.

The agency?

Anomaly.

Go look them up stupid.

And stay tuned for the rest of the diesel campaign.

It's gonna be quite stupid.

(although i think their integrated + digital incarnation's a little uniqlo-ish in execution.)

For the full campaign

Please visit theinspirationroom.

Thanks for the lovely pics by the way.

Some stupid people were saying my posts are too copy heavy.

Also. I'm too stupid to know how to crop the images, so you really do have to visit theinspirationroom to see the campaign.

The video also features a catchy electronic track and what looks like my idea of a strat/creative deck.

How to present like an american consultant

The Americans

They made Arabs part with their land to make Israel

They made their people believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

They made the ipod

They're pretty good at making things up that's for sure.

I had the pleasure of being in the presence of a super-killer-motivator-sell-ice-to-eskimos-person

and I would like to share a few familiar 'killer' phrases that can be 'game-changers' at your presentation.

First of all, here are some rules of usage.

1. Use it often.

2. Put the audience in a spot by using those phrases and asking them while looking at them in the eye

3. Affirm an obvious scenario. Eg - the room is silent, you say, 'see i just changed the mood of the room just by tuning my voice one octave lower, it's the power of (fill in the blank with whatever word/phrase that i have below)

Here are the few consultant-language words that make you sound smarter, or your audience slightly more stupid:

I've also included links to the words so you guys can read-up on how to use them.

1. Idiosyncrasies - 'This campaign touches on the idiosyncrasies that are specific to our target audience, and speaks to them as an individual. Now when was a last time a TV commercial did that?"

2. Ontological - "This isn't an advertising campaign, it's an ontological journey we're about to embark with our target market." Then you look the marketing director in the eye and ask "Isn't that what we should be doing with all our advertising? Great!"

3. Dialectic - You may use this word when clients ask if the campaign works for Bahasa and Mandarin, like so, "Listen, we're not about to launch into a dialectic that dilutes the purity of the big idea. What's important are the emotions that the imagery conjures."

4. Cartesian Cage - Caution. Use this phrase carefully. If you google the words 'Cartesian Cage' nothing coherent comes up. NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IT MEANS. So it's a little like an emergency eject button, use it when the clients are deadlocked in an indecision about your campaign, "Let's not get locked in a Cartesian Cage with our questions. Shall we move on?" And continue selling the rest of the campaign.

5. Soulsmen - This one is power. Instead of saying 'We need our sales team to be advocates for this campaign to work' you can say "We want them to be SOULSMEN, not SALESMEN".

6. Content VS Context - I quite agree with this point. And I actually will try to use it sometime in the future. Use this when a client, in his own delusional megolomaniacal mind wants to start his own 'facebook' or 'twitter' instead of latching onto existing social media platforms. Like so, "It's a case of Content VS Context. We're already being bombarded with too much content. What we need is to utilise the content we have, in the right context. Now check out this TVC"

7. We'll figure it out - use this phrase when the clients have already bought the big idea, but wants to put a bigger logo than the picture and you don't want to argue any more in the same meeting, "Don't worry, we'll figure it out"

And now. Let's see if we can string together the most god-like opening pitch presentation speech known to man (or American man):

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. Today we have a unique campaign that really touches the idiosyncrasies of our target market like never before. In fact, I wouldn't even call it advertising, rather, an ontological journey that will do away with all the dialectic confusion you face with your current campaign (a slight gentlemanly jab at their current ad agency). So before we start, we want you guys to really take a deep breath and move out of your cartesian cage. Today we are all soulsmen, not salesmen for the brand. Today, we'll figure it out!

Please drop me a message or hire me if any readers do win a pitch with the above opening sales pitch.

Cool Use of YOUR CAMWHORE PHOTO by FCB for The Swedish Broadcasting Corporation (orsomethinglikethatit'ssoawesomewhocares?)

Hello phantom readers and inner-insomaniacal mind,

It's been a while since the last posts

maybe it's cause i've been busy

maybe it's cause i've been too preoccupied with more quality content in front of a monitor screen like Mass Effect 2 / Dragon Age / Bad Company 2

But every once so often

And i do agree that quality is the best kind of quantity

Something pops up on your hyperlink that really puts the HYPER in the Link

(Ok yeah lame. I need to start practicing or stop pretending to be in my twenties more often)

Anyway. Yes. This totally blew my mind.

I know it's quite a few months old and i've been meaning to twit, sorry blog about it

but life got in the way

UNTIL NOW.

THE POWER OF CONSUMER-GENERATED-CONTENT

We've all been there before

We've all attempted it or tried to (we're actually in the midst of something that we hope can match a fraction of the awesomeness of what i'm about to show you)

We've all been suckered into wasting our time loading faces on certain photos

The most infectious being that 60s college yearbook app website

yearbookyourself! that's pretty good right?

This makes the yearbookyourself experience look like porridge.

Enough of my verbal diarrhea

check out the awesomeness by clicking on the word awesomeness right here!

Ok let me calm the hype and be rationale about what i love about this.

Is it absolutely the future of entertainment? yes.

In a few years, if i dont' get a choice on deciding how a TV commercial ends, then it ain't a TV commercial at all!

Is it absolutely the death of tv commercials and the film industry in general? no.

The web is another media for storytellers to spin their tale. The colour tv killed the black & white tv, but it's an evolution, not a darwinian case of media extinction them naysayers (who incidentally make millions of predicting bullshit they call trends) make it to be.

Is it immersive, interactive and thoroughly infectious in nature? Fuck yeah.

The last time i got this excited, was when i was 14 and found a usable name and password for all-platinum access to a porn site.

Functionally you can twit and facebook about it, if you wish.

But really, i think this campaign can't be measured (well just like advertising in general, nothing has changed after all) because of the word-of-mouth/chat it generates.

Everyone's a closet megalomaniac

and that is why everyone will try this website once

because it's just awesome

and it makes you awesome

so you'll want to tell people how awesome you are

nuff said.

And to cap it off.

A little self gratification of self-awesomeness.

My own million dollar TV campaign

right here

Cool Use of THE CREATIVE TEAM by DDB New Zealand for the New Zealand Coast Guard

This campaign is awesome in so many levels.

You always hear talk about how much creatives love their jobs. About how we throw everything we’ve got into our campaigns. What if you could throw yourself into an ocean for the cause?

The above is speculations, of course. It could be hardy, healthy talents in the campaign. God knows how long a writer/art director/producer/suit will last in the open ocean.

The point I’m trying to make though, is that this campaign, is a perfectly integrated example of a 2.0, reality-series driven, consumer generated content world meets old school media plan of TV, radio blabla so called ‘traditional agency’ model.

It’s an example how of creative agencies can take back ownership of an idea. That we can shove a finger up sexy digital agencies, with their oh-so-smart technical know-how and say, ‘Hey. You’ve got the means. We’ve still got the ideas.’

It’s the only way to survive in the cold, merciless ocean of change.

You don’t need to be wishfully thinking ‘oh… how I wish I could do that in my oh-so-traditional agency’. You should be wistfully dreaming ‘oh… I’m gonna do this great idea. What do we need to make it happen. Is it gonna fail? No… is it gonna EPIC FAIL? Am I gonna have to do it myself? Like, am I gonna be sharkbait to make it happen?’

Yes oh.. yes. I’m looking forward to asking myself that question every day.

Oh and before you go, please visit the link to see for yourself, the awesomeness.

Cool Use of A STRETCH OF ROAD by Wieden + Kennedy for Nike

It's 12:48AM on a Monday morning.
Two weekends we've been prepping a brand plan for our client.
The signs are good, fingers crossed.
You hope, pray and above all you believe.
You believe that your campaign can achieve some sort of awesomeness

The point is
There's got to be a point to all this madness
If you think it's a job
Then you really shouldn't be here
Otherwise you'll probably hate a huge part of your life
Given the amount of time you spend.

Sometimes.

A great campaign comes along
and it lifts your spirits
it pushes you on
it calls out to you...

The Nike Chalkbot campaign is something like that.

In short
It's a consumer-generated-campaign using social media like twitter to send messages of hope directly to an automated chalkbot
it will write all your messages along the road
where Lance Armstrong and his band of volunteers will ride for cancer
urged on by your messages.

Click on this link to see what it's about

It's about doing great work
It's about staying late nights
It's about believing in yourself
and
It's about believing that one day you'll do something as awesome as the Nike Chalkbot.

Cool Use of A NEWSPAPER CLIENT by JWT Mumbai for Times of India

I guess we've really got to thank Droga5 for making it all possible with the Tap Project

Not to mention Leo Burnett Sydney for Earth Hour

Well they certainly were our inspiration when we set about our epic CSR campaign for Canon last year.

Epic because it was a first step. But definitely the destination is something as OMFG massive as Tap Proj. and Earth Hour.

And then comes JWT Mumbai happily strolling along with this piece of beauty

Times of India

It's an Ogilvy account

And Ogilvy India's been milking this cow at the awards to no end

Well guess what

JWT Mumbai comes along and presents something so deceptively simple, efficient and charming that it just had to be done.

Why?

1. Your product is a newspaper - it reaches millions of people every day. Politicians live and die by the ink on your press. Why not put it to better use?

2. You have one of the highest illiteracy rate in the world, yet you have as well, some of the best brains on earth. Why not put it to better use?

3. Creativity is about bringing two things together. Absolutely powerful creativity brings two people together.

And there you have it... TEACH INDIA is as simple an idea as Tap Proj and Earth Hour. It doesn't hide behind 'clever' visuals. Neither does it wow anybody with 'humourous' commercials. It tells the story in two words. Hell screw that. It moves an entire nation with just these two words.

More importantly. It's a slap in the face to the incumbent agency. It's a serious lesson in relevance and the importance of adaptability.

Let's hear it for TEACH INDIA and the good people of JWT Mumbai!