But I still think it’s a Good Idea

Working in teams with the creatives here at Miami Ad School in Hamburg, I have a strong feeling of deja vu – of me as a young copywriter. The one defining lesson I took from my experience in the creative field was how much you can fall in love with what you believe is a great idea. But, truth be told, it is not a good idea – no matter how eloquently you post-rationalize it. The memory of me as a bad copywriter is my constant reminder how important the third person in the middle is to ask, “Does this really work?”.

A quote from a discussion this week: “I know it goes against all the values of the brand, but I want to present it anyway.” So what do you think will happen? That miraculously the client throws over board all his prior considerations and picks your idea? That would not a the brave client, that would be a stupid client.

Now there is proof you can make a client brave and bold, but you need substance and strategy that make sense for the client, not for yourself, not for the idea. I am still amazed how many of the seemingly crazy ideas (Old Spice guy) have obvious and clear strategy behind them (we need to address married middle-aged women because they make the bodywash decisions for their husbands, often choosing lady-scented varieties). Planning gruntwork and great creative helped P&G take a controlled risk, not a leap of faith.

Creatives have it tough. Idea after idea after idea rejected, buried, killed. Every meeting a rendezvous with the guillotine for your most brilliant work to date. I get why they hate it. I’d hate it, too. But all the great clients are usually the toughest clients with meetings that can be summarized (according to folks I met) as “Great! Your best work, ever! – Make it better.” To steal and paraphrase a quote from Winston Churchill: “Great creative is the result of going from one rejected idea to another with no loss of enthusiasm”. Creative is more about letting go many ideas than coming up with one perfect idea.

That said, being aware of the creative’s fragile mind I avoided to kill off the idea of the prior quote: I will let the person present their great idea personally, if they show up on time. Which they never did at any of our meetings. I rest assured we will not be wasting our client’s time in the meeting.

Recent Reading: Das Jetzikon

After having to read highlights of the romance genre, such as Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Flame and the Flower, Cecilia Ahern’s The Gift or Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables for purely academic reasons, on my extended train ride to Hamburg I got to read a piece I enjoy.

Das Jetzikon: 50 Kultobjekte der nuller Jahre by German journalists Tobias Moorstedt and Jakob Schrenk discusses the social artefacts of our modern (specifically German speaking) society in the first ten years of the 21st century. Artefacts that suddenly were relevant to society: USB Sticks, iPods, Coffee-to-Go cups, Crocs etc. They shed light on the historical facts, and reflect on their impact on society. It’s quite an entertaining read (in German) and sometimes insughtful, too.

The most interesting thought I found in the introduction: The US-anthropologist Timothy Jones, who examined contemporary waste dumps like archeologists would examine ancient sites, concludes “that there will be less information available about today’s society than about the Romans”. Most of the remnants of our society leave no clue as to what their purpose might have been.
I never thought about this that way. We produce more stuff in the least biodegradable materials than ever, but in 2000 years how will people make sense of what they find.
Most information of our information overload is stored digitally and thus bound to vanish. Harddisks, CDs, USB Sticks can only store for a couple of years, then their content disappears. There will be no chiseled information of how we felt, what mattered, what we did, what we believed or what we blogged. So… whatever.

  • Juli 4, 2010
  • Reading
  • comments closed

Hello Hamburg.

Hello Hamburg.
It has been quite a ride that last month: papers, tests, reading, preparations. Had my last exam Friday, spent a day on the train Saturday and woke up here Hamburg today.
Tomorrow will be the first day of the Account Planning Boot Camp at Miami Ad School. I am excited and looking forward to 12 great weeks here in this town.

The train ride was very long, we had more than 100 minutes delay because of a fire that blocked the tracks somewhere in Bavaria. The mood at the train stations made up for it: the air was humming with the songs of German supporters after the already legendary 0:4 ass-whooping for Argentina. It was joyous. Even the England Supporter in me was enjoying it. Admit it, the Germans did a better job in reducing Maradona to tears than the English side could have ever achieved.

  • Juli 4, 2010
  • Diary
  • comments closed

World Cup 2010: I am ready

I prefer to watch the video above without sound, theme songs were never a strength of FIFA Worldcups. I am in the mood for some football – especially after this last season with Cup title for Sturm Graz, St.Pauli and Newcastle United back in their highest leagues – and I have my Vuvuzela app, I have my app for real-time complete statistics of every game. Barbecue is scheduled for this afternoon. I am ready.

As for predictions, my tips are always spoiled by my preference of sentimental underdogs like Denmark, South Korea, Australia or New Zealand. All teams that have the same or less potential compared to Austria and still regularly perform better. I always rejoice when they annoy the big ones (Denmark 1992, DEN-BRA in 1998, AUS-ITA 2006, Korea 2002).

And then there is England. The team that must avoid penalties at all costs, or practice them for four years in preparation. And in this tournament they must not lose another player. How thin exactly the side is on some positions showed painfully in the first half of the Japan game. You will need all the luck in the world. Fingers crossed.

Looking at the BBC Team Tracker (highly recommended) I fear the worst for all of my supported sides. Some big ones will have to fall in the first rounds to make this interesting.

Ke Nako! It is about time!

  • Juni 11, 2010
  • Diary
  • comments closed

Persuasive Presentation

Take a look at this video:

Nick Vujicic is a total inspiration.

You see, I have been thinking lately about persuasion. Especially the really complicated kinds that go deeper than selling stuff, but touching people and changing their attitude (about themselves or important issues). I believe there are many people out there who tell these kids exactly the same things as Nick, they probably use exact the same words, but their words could never as resounding. Why is that, I wonder?

I have written down some thoughts about this, but it needs more thinking.

Why I want to work in Planning

Great news in my mail today: I have been accepted to the Miami Ad School Europe’s Account Planning Boot Camp in Hamburg. The program will start in July.
I am super-excited about this opportunity and about being able to see St.Pauli play in the German Bundesliga again.

One of the questions posed for the application was: “Why do want a career in Account Planning?”. Here is what I wrote:

First, because it is the field that makes the most difference in advertising. My perception is that the outstanding work of the last years was only possible because it had a firm strategic foundation.

Second, it will be the most challenging and exciting discipline in advertising. We are just at the beginning of the digital age. The maps of human behavior and communication will be redrawn. What a great time to be an explorer!

And third, because I hate being bombarded with lame, irrelevant and meaningless advertising. I want to change that.

On a more personal note, I have been excited about account planning and it’s practice since I studied it at the University of Oklahoma. It never let go of me. I kept myself informed and took courses. What I learned I put into practice at my job with DMS, but never worked as a planner.

I am applying here because I want to turn a hobby into a career.

PR 101: How to place yourself on the map

So you are the President of a country whose name sounds like a veneral disease and everybody expects you to wear an iron mask and green cloak. But nobody knows that you exist nor where your obscure European country is actually located.

So you have tried everything: you brought the Chess World Championship to your capital in your position as the President of the World Chess Federation. You introduced mandatory chess lessons in schools, but still nobody really remembers you, your republic nor heard of a chess child prodigy…

Here is what you do: You go on television and tell everyone you have been abducted by aliens.

This is what Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President / Economic Dictator of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia did. And – Wow! – it worked. Because now I know where Kalmykia is.
In case you are interested, too: Kalmykia.

  • Mai 15, 2010
  • fun, video, Weird
  • comments closed

Only Freaks have no Guns (in Afghanistan)

I just read an interesting piece in this month’s Geo Magazine about the U.S. Army’s HTS (Human Terrain System) program in Afghanistan. The HTS recruits ethnologists and sociologists and brings them to the war theatre to better understand the tribal cultures of Afghanistan.

Somebody figured out after four years (the HTS started in 2006) that it might be useful to listen to and learn from the people there what is important for them, what motivates them, how do they earn their living, what they want and what they need. Turns out it unravels actual insights into Pashtun communities, helps to understand why some sympathize with the Taliban and how to win them back.

However, the most intriguing quote for me was this one:

Many civilian ethnologists complain that their colleagues in combat carry guns. This would  contradict the scientific rule not to put opposites under pressure. These scientists obviously have never been in Afghanistan. A gun is the last thing that would intimidate a Pashtun. Instead, he will consider someone not carrying a gun a freak.

Important knowledge.

  • Mai 7, 2010
  • People
  • comments closed

The Days the Air Stood Still and Started Buzzing Again

itoworld.com has published this amazing visualisation of the Northern European airspace returning to use after being closed due to volcanic ash. Due to varying ash density across Europe, the first flights can be seen in some areas on the 18th and by the 20th everywhere is open. The data is a mashup from flightradar24.com, openstreetmap.org and contributors.

I am still wondering why there were so few flights to accumulate data to confirm or falsify the data of the models that predicted the ash concentration over Europe and were the basis for the airspace lockdown. I only heard of one flight over Germany. Do we know the data was right?

Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

Sometimes I like Direct Marketing

Sometimes there are moments that make me realize why I started to work in direct marketing. A few days ago I went to an optician to have my glasses repaired.

I handed them the glasses, they checked customer data and I was told to come back some days later to pick up the repaired item. Not even five minutes passed after leaving the store I received this short text message (translated and paraphrased):

Exclusively for YOU in April!
FREE spectacle frame (max. €99,90)
with your purchase of new glasses
at your XYZXY store until 04/30/2010.
This short text message = voucher

Clearly, turning in my spectacles for repair had triggered the text message. If my glasses hadn’t been a sad little backup set, I probably would have turned back checked out the glasses at their shop.