I’ve been facilitating brand workshops for at least 14 years and have done about 65 by now. Although I was lucky enough to receive professional training in facilitation when I started, the more practical and political side of things I’ve had to pick up as I went along. So, to save someone else the learning … Continue reading Facilitating Workshops – what I wish I’d known
In my mid-20’s, as a full-time agency Planner, I thought I had my career all figured out – next stops Senior Planner (check), Head of Planning (check), then onto the Board. That last jump never happened. It turns out that it’s quite hard to juggle working 50 hours a week with caring responsibilities and also … Continue reading My aim: to do good work for nice people
I’ve still got my mind on creative briefing as I’m now gearing up for my usual winter stint as a Visiting Professional for the Creative Advertising course at Leeds Arts University. Fundamentally, we can’t come up with a strategic, and then creative, response to solving our client’s problem, if we don’t know what the problem … Continue reading Hey client, what’s your problem?
I'm delivering more creative brief writing training at the moment and I've gone international! I'm working with a global agency where the creatives aren't always in the same timezone as the planning and client services teams working with them. So good Baton-Passing becomes even more important. Baton Passing relates pretty well to the journey of … Continue reading why Good creative brief writing involves good baton passing
I have a client at the moment who refers to the agency team as ‘subject matter experts’. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but it has really grown on me. It signposts to the client’s marketing team and wider stakeholders not only that we, the agency team, know what we’re talking … Continue reading we should aspire to be seen as ‘subject matter experts’
Over the last 20 years I’ve worked as a Planner/Strategist at five agencies and freelanced at over a dozen more and they’ve nearly all claimed to have their very own, unique to them, insight ‘process’. This is usually brought to life in a pitch with a powerpoint slide using circles and/or arrows from left to … Continue reading Independent agencies – sorry, but your strategic ‘process’ isn’t unique
Brief writing is front of mind for me at the moment - I'm getting ready to deliver a fourth wave of brief writing training for a very fast-growing agency and also prepping to deliver lectures to Creative Advertising undergraduates. One issue that rears its head again and again when I train account handlers is that … Continue reading I (still) really care about creative briefs
The New York Times recently proclaimed that Remote Work is Failing Young Employees (HT @bruceclarkprof) and I couldn’t agree more. In the early days you learn so much by leaning over people’s shoulders, eavesdropping, asking your seniors questions that would sound stupid if you wrote them down and generally absorbing by osmosis how to get … Continue reading The lost art of leaning over and listening in
In the past few years I’ve come across quite a few aspiring planners (of all ages) and ‘I’m strong strategically’ senior agency people who seem to be under the impression that the only place that strategic thinking can possibly come from is the pages of a book. You know the ones, they have 50+ marketing … Continue reading Strategy is not just about book smarts
Agency growth mentor, digital strategist and all-round decent bloke Mark Kelly recently asked me to join season two of his Agency Thinking Podcast. We go way back to when we were both at Poulters, once one of the hottest and biggest agencies in the North but sadly no longer around. We’ve kept in touch through … Continue reading a freelancer’s view on agency thinking
