Finding a marketing career that's the tits

Tomorrow I start a new gig at Tequila - and I'm feeling like its going to be a great move. Coming from companies that might seem worlds apart - In-tellinc and The Necessary Group - they've actually both been awesome for the exact same reason I wanted to work at Tequila - the people, and in particular the boss.

Rob Campbell and Paul Isakson wrote great posts a while back on finding the right agency. Rob says:

"...as much as working for one of the ‘cool agencies’ might sound great, it’s never as good as having a boss who will take you to places you didn’t even know existed."

This is so on point. My past bosses gave me a platform to learn and develop - not just a shitload of work. So in many ways I feel like its been an advantage NOT coming from a big brand agency.  

So, joining a smart new team with a great philosophy, beneath a planning boss who I already look up to (all of which just happens to exist inside an agency that's cool as shit), and having already locked in a Monday 10am with one hell of a client, I think this must surely be the next step towards a career that is indeed 'the tits'.

Why marketers need to be more like DJs

Andy C aka "The Executioner" is arguably the best drum and bass DJ ever. Aside from the fact that he destroys dancefloors, I think there are some other qualities that marketers can respect in the guy.  

"There was something different about him that people noticed." - GQ MC

Andy is a unique talent - and you feel it as soon as he steps up. I think its more important than ever to be brave and truthful in what we do. Check out this short interview with John Jay, ECD at W&K. He talks about the value of never letting others define who we are by their terms. Very cool video.

"It's quite remarkable what he can do with 2 or 3 pieces of vinyl and a set of decks...it's unbelievable." - Red One

While the world is scrambling for new ways that technology can make them better at what they do, Andy C continues to find new levels in himself - with 3 turntables and a mixer - shit that was invented in 1877.

"He can touch all genres of drum and bass, and it works." - Ed Rush

Andy is a complete DJ - he doesn't exist in the silos that lots of DJs - and marketers - tend to confine themselves to. I don't believe you can really be taken seriously as a planner if you're just a 'digital guy'. This is the hole I'm trying to dig out of now.

"He's the first person to really take it out there to the world...he opened the doors..." - Optical

Leadership brands aren't held back by convention, and Andy has been a true leader for over a decade - for the heads and the DJs. Drum and bass may be an acquired taste, but Andy's career doesn't reflect that of an artist who's ever been constrained by underground stereotypes.

"He always wants to keep the energy level there...take it to the next level." - Red One

Being voted 'Best DJ' 10 years in a row doesn't happen by accident. Andy's sets are smart. Every drop, double drop, triple drop - all precisely executed touchpoints along the raver journey. And Andy's right there with them every step of the way. Watching and making it better - right until the last drop.

"The fact that he can make any room work is a talent." - Ed Rush

Andy doesn't just impose his style on the dancefloor - he listens. Each new record that hits the platter is a stepping stone towards a shared vision - blended in perfect context.

"I wanna have fun. I find mixing today is as much fun as it always was...it's such a privilege to be up there mixing tunes." - Andy C

We all face the challenge of staying in touch with what's happening at street level - through the eyes of our audiences. Despite years at the top, Andy is still in it for the right reasons. And is probably loved by the ravers more than ever. Big ups Andy C.

SocialPoll.tv gets a workout at Oxford Uni

SocialPoll.tv got a massive workout at last month’s Hows My Feedback Conference at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. According to the How’s My Feedback Blog, there were five talks, each offering different perspectives on the phenomenon of online reviews, ratings and rankings.

The SocialPoll.tv experiment - ‘evaluating the evaluators’

Brave presenter and social scientist Andy Balmer agreed to participate in a real-time SocialPoll, where members of the audience could vote ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ throughout his talk.

Apparently Andy’s experiment raised all kinds of ethical concerns and discussions. Brilliant. Thanks Andy - very cool.

It was definitely cool watching the live worm happening in Oxford from my loungeroom in Tasmania. Can’t wait to see the videos guys - big props.

Convention hunting 2

'The ladder' is a disruption theory tool for identifying a category's communication / advertising conventions - and is helpful in the construction of the convention planets - another convention ID tool used in disruption.

The ladder
Helps to identify and disrupt communications conventions and explore brand visions along 6 areas of focus.


How the ladder works

In a given category, there is often one focus for communication which dominates. In doing a competitive review, going through competitors' TVCs (for example) and just marking a place on the ladder for each one will start to unearth the category's conventions.

Then ask 'why'? What is the assumption that explains why everyone is focussing on this? The answer to this will help fill in the convention planets and to identify assumptions that are being made about what the consumer thinks or wants.

Ladder elements or 'registers' in detail

• Top of mind - What is the one word that you would want consumers to keep in their mind about you to best understand the vision? This is the first and most immediate association with the brand.
• Attribute - What specific attribute does your product need in order to give you reason to believe in it? Ingredients, promotions, packaging, services etc.
• Benefit - What benefits do these specific product attributes bring the consumer? Emotional as well as material.
• Territory - The objective is to construct a real or imaginary territory surrounding your brand. This is a description of the territory or world that the consumers enter thanks to our products.
• Value - If we sell products that bring our customers these benefits, what are the values that we might stand for? A value which can be shared between the brand and the consumer.
• Role - If we as a brand, stand for these values, what role do we play in the wider spectrum? It can be a role in consumers' lives. It can be a role in society as a whole.

Convention hunting

The starting point for disruption in marketing is looking at where the brand is today and identifying the basic assumptions and common wisdom that maintain the status quo and inhibit imagination. 

Disruption theory offers a bunch of tools for doing this, but at the core of these is 'convention planets'.

Convention planets
For a defined competitive set, this tool reveals the underlying assumptions that currently bind the marketplace.

How convention planets works

This tool's derived from asking "why?". Why do we see things the way we see them? Why do people hate banks so much? What keeps this brand where it is? What we're looking for here is where the norm is open to challenge, or where there is an untapped truth or opportunity to build on.

Consider the conventions that dominate the marketplace along four key areas or 'planets':

• Corporate - i.e. a company's culture, branding, staffing structures, mission, values etc
• Marketing - maybe pricing strategies, or a way something's always been packaged
• Communication - assumptions on the best media or executional cliches 
• Consumer - consumer perceptions, habits, attitudes, prejudices 

You need to stand back and put your finger on what's really going on in the minds of they key players in a given space - find our just how conventional it really is.

Once you have a good list of conventions across all four planets, search for connections - a root cause or convention that influences all others and defines the worldview of the organisation (most likely found on the corporate planet). This is what we're looking for.

Here's an example of a corporate convention influencing consumer attitudes towards a brand of cognac.

It's not all about the customer

Breakthroughs aren't created through conventional frameworks and repetition. I've done my best to forget university textbooks and change up the way I do stuff. But the reality is that in some way, we're all stifled by conventional thought.

Something that's immediately pointed out in Beyond Disruption is the importance of consciously disrupting convention. If we don't, we inevitably find ourselves "trapped, unthinkingly within the existing framework of conventional thought." So true.

Convention #1: Everything starts with the consumer   

The customer is always right. The customer should be at the heart of business strategy. The customer is the hero. Everything starts with the customer. This is the kind of thing marketers say all the time. It's so fundamental to conventional wisdom that I've never really questioned it - and never identified it as being strategically limiting. But it is.

"The disruptive notion here is simply that the idea is the hero, not the customer." 

Killer ideas rarely come from letting the customer call all the shots. Most people don't really know what they want. And suggestions are usually lame and based on stuff that's already familiar to them. Of course, lets respect our customers and value their input. But don't confuse consumer input with marketing output.

Great companies generate original ideas that they truly believe in - positioning themselves as heros in the customer's eyes, not the other way around. Listening is good, but becoming a leadership brand means doing things that customers would never even think to ask for. You can't delight someone by just giving them exactly what they expect.

I've just started working with a client who's floundering in customer feedback - trying to be exactly what their customers ask for. They're basically their customers' bitch. And there's no respect in that kind of relationship.

Apple is a great example of a leadership company with the ability to generate surprising and original ideas that transform markets. More recently, Old Spice is also a pretty good example. Customers just can't come up with that kind of gold.

So the whole point of this: Be customer-informed but idea-led. It's not all about the customer - really, it's all about great ideas.   

Convention/Disruption/Vision

Just picked up Jean-Marie Dru's Beyond Disruption - Changing the Rules in the Marketplace. First time I've been excited about a book in ages.

Thought I might blog some of the book's best bits, just to get them in my head. Here's a safe place to start:

 "Start by identifying the Conventions that restrict the thought process, then you challenge them through a Disruption, a radically new and unexpected idea. This is all done with a very definite sense of Vision - of where you are going, of the ground you want to cover from today to tomorrow."