In defence of the hobby
I have always hated hobbies, even the very idea of hobbies. They seem to me to be childish pastimes attracting a childish name. The word hobby comes from ‘hobby horse’, a wooden horse that children have played with since the Sixteenth Century. And for some curious reason known only to the vagaries of the English...
The value of deep work is your only real value
There is eternal battle that I fight every single day of my working life. It’s by no means exclusive to strategists and planners in advertising but I think that it affects us more than many. And it’s the battle to engage in deep work. Proper, meaningful, in flow, immersed work that delivers the thing we...
Singing eats strategy for breakfast
This post has an intent, something that I advise that you do immediately you have read it. And that is to join a choir. And to join a choir particularly if you can’t sing or rather tell yourself that you can’t sing. Now you may be thinking, what the fuck has that got to do...
Why worship one brand god when you can worship many?
I’m no great fan of monotheism The idea that there is one true god, one answer to the entirety of life, the universe and everything has always struck me as rather arrogant. Indeed, I am deeply suspicious of certainty in any guise, religious or otherwise. Certainty seems at odds with a genuine search for truth,...
Think like a CSO
I’m not going to pretend that speaking at the APG’s inaugural ‘Think Like a CSO’ (Chief Strategy Officer) sponsored and hosted by Mintel was anything other than phenomenally intimidating. Of course, I jumped at the chance when the Account Planning Group asked me, I’m a huge fan of the APG and increasingly impressed with their newfound...
How to love presenting as much as sex
I tend to try and channel Eddie Izzard when presenting – find your presentation hero? I love presenting, its one of the greatest aspects of the planner’s job as far as I am concerned – getting up there and letting rip on whatever subject you are required to hold forth upon. But I am aware...
A decade of Moleskines
The passage in Songlines in which Bruce Chatwin names the Moleskine. Image courtesy of Songlines. The biggest cliché in advertising is not lunching at the Ivy, drinking chilled rose on the Carlton Terrace or doing coke with the intern in the toilets at the Christmas party. The biggest cliché in advertising is the Moleskine notebook....
No more heroes any more
The original Forward thinking motherfucker. I gave a little talk at an APG (Account Planning Group) event recently. It’s a regular series of talks called Noisy Thinking and I shared the bill with Craig Mawdsley, Rachel Hatton, Russell Davies and Malcolm White, a pretty impressive line up in the world of planning. I talked...
TED Global 2010 – Day Three
My last Day in Oxford owing to work commitments – that old problem of prioritising the urgent over the important – and a corker as far as I’m concerned.
TED Global 2010 – Day Two
Not a vintage TED day as far as I am concerned but one or two highlights.
TED Global 2010 – Day One
OK, so here are the people and talks that I think are really worth following up form day one of TED Global. Of course the talks themselves will appear on TED.com in the future so get ahead of the curve and check them out now. Its worth remembering that the theme for this year’s TED...
Best of TED – Day Four
Manhattan on the 12th September 1609 and today. Image courtesy of Traceybrown914 Last but not least the best from the final morning session.