The no-assembly-required, batteries-included brief.

On November 22, 2010, In Agency life, Great sites, By John Ellis

I came across the expression “no-assembly-required, batteries included idea” in Tom Wolfe‘s latest novel, ‘A Man in Full’. Now, I’m obsessed with the idea and plan to revisit it on Ellisism, often.

Here’s my first attempt to put this into practice: Creative teams love a brief that they can use straight away. They open the box and begin to play. They don’t want to “see the website” or go to a server for more information. And they don’t want to summarize the research spread across a half dozen conflicting reports. They expect that work to be done by account managers and planners. And that’s fair.

The no-assembly-required brief comes ready to use. Ideas have already been connected. The logic already works. Someone has taken the time to figure out what has to be said. All that remains is figuring out the best way to say it.That’s what creative teams do best.

The opposite of the no-assembly-required brief is the Swedish-furniture model. This approach dumps a pile of crap and an allen key on people who didn’t train to be nimble-fingered assembly workers.

If you want your teams to do their best work, give them something they can work with. Give them a short, tight brief with everything they need to create relevant, engaging creative. Don’t send them to the store for batteries. They might not come back.

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Stress or excitement. It’s up to you

On November 7, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis

It's up to you.

If you’re a client banging out a last-minute brief or a writer on the receiving end of a super-rush ASAP, “lots of eyeballs on this one” project, you’ve opened Word and stared down the blank page. Is it stressful or exciting? The answer is, it’s up to you.

Stress and excitement are cousins. If you were on a game show and could win $1,000,000 by writing a brief, or cranking out a web banner in one hour, it might seem exciting. It might even be fun. If I had a million bucks for all the published work I’ve created in minutes instead of hours I’d be writing this from someone a hell of a lot warmer.

The difference between stress and excitement is just a matter of perspective. Great clients and star creatives usually love what they do. They come to work thinking, “This awesome. I get to do this.” Not, “This sucks ass. I have to do this.”

As creative thinkers and content creators we are fortunate to make our livings with our minds, at a time when the potential for revolutionary thinking is so great.

Making the shift from “I have to”, to “I get to” is not always easy but it’s a choice we can make, not just for our sanity but also for the sake of our craft. Stress is proven to suppress the creative process and excitement is proven to accelerate it. Stress or excitement. It’s up to you.

Confession time: This doesn’t always work for me. When I have bad days, they’re really bad. But when I’m working with a smart team on cool stuff, and I know how hard some people have it, I think, “This is pretty cool. I get to do this.” I’m probably up to 4 days out of 5 but I’m working on it.

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If you’re stressed out, stop building coconut radios

On October 24, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis
Some of us grew up watching Gilligan’s Island, wondering why the professor wasted his time building radios out of coconuts when he should have spent every waking minute trying to fix the boat.
According to Gilligan’s Island.com, he had a B.A. from the University of Southern California, a B.S. from the University of California at Los Angeles, an M.A. from Southern Methodist University, and a PhD from Texas Christian University. His specialty is dull metals and he was at work on two books. The first book was entitled: “Rust: The Real Red Menace, ” and his second book (the reason he took the “three-hour island tour”) is entitled: “Fun With Ferns” (He is also particularly interested in island areas: the sand and soil, the vegetation, local natives and their customs, etc. That is the reason for his trip to that locality, and the real reason he happened to be aboard the S.S. Minnow.

Check out the photo. The boat wasn’t totalled. It had a hole in its ass. As viewers, we laughed at the stupidity and the drama. As artists with families and mortgages we don’t see the entertainment value when we find ourselves focused on the wrong this or too many things at once.

If overload is stressing you out, maybe it’s time to think about fixing the boat and seeing if that makes some of the other problems go away. Focus on a few key objectives (cutting down trees, making planks, nailing them to the boat, planning your escape from the island, real strategic planning) and make progress against a handful of money- and brand-building activities.

There will always be daily maintenance (fixing the hammocks, fighting the natives, watching for Russian subs in the harbour, updating the site) but when it becomes an overwhelming obsession you’ll stress out and remain on the island forever.

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Agency life. The brief and the briefing. Not the same thing

On October 21, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis

The best motivators in the marketing business know that a great creative brief is not complete without a great briefing. To illustrate the difference, imagine this scene from your favourite war movie.

The commander stomps into the hangar. Young pilots sit on metal chairs, their helmets in hand. Their wingmen at their wing. The commander wastes no time. She tells them that they’ll be flying out of the morning sun to rain down hell on some tax payers in another country. He talks about patriotism, duty, Jesus, country, mom and dad. He gets the team fired up. By the time he’s finished they are rushing to their fighter jets yelling shit like, “go, go, go” and “whoahhh”.

The commander may have lots of background information and detailed intelligence justifying the campaign but she does not present this by reading aloud every word of a 20-page PowerPoint deck. This would bore the troops and possibly alert them to gaps in logic. They would grow tired and send text messages to their wing-friends. “Christ, is she going to read every word?” “Dudette, we know where Absurdistan is. We’ve got GPS on the dash : ).”

See the difference? A motivational briefing makes the team want to work on your project. It moves up the pile. They become invested in the work because you’ve made them excited. If the brief is well-written and organized, they’ll find the information they need, when they need it.

Instead of reading the brief, consider:

Telling a story. Drawing picture. Going offsite. Brief on location if people need to see the product or process. Role play. Do anything but read aloud. A good briefing, like a good story, is something that we can repeat off the top of our head. When you’ve done a good job, we know exactly what we’re trying to achieve.

The brief is…

A document

Precise

A contract

Rational

 The briefing is…

An activity

Flexible

A canvas

Emotional

It’s not easy to conduct an emotional briefing but the rewards can be worth the effort. Pick your moments and when you need people to buy into your project, put on a great show and give them a reason to get excited.

See also: Fightin’ Words, a trivial look at the language we inherited from military terminology, mostly cribbed from the books of Jack Trout.

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Good read. Social networking at work can work.

On October 19, 2010, In Agency life, Good reads, By John Ellis

This requires about five minutes of your time but it may be worth it if you:

  1. Get pissed off when you find a co-worker goofing off on social networks instead of getting the work done.
  2. Work in a collaborative space and wonder if there’s a better way to share information and progress.
  3. Really, really hate it when people use email to have conversations.
  4. Get into big brother conspiracy debates.
  5. Just need a five-minute break.

This is the story of a social network called Salesforce Chatter. According to a BBC story titled, ‘Can your social networking profile get you a pay raise, “Chatter is largely an imitation of Facebook and many of the same principles apply. Employees build personal profiles, form groups, send status updates, and share information openly. ”

As we all look for better ways to collaborate, systems like this one will continue to improve. One day, we may even simulate the effectiveness of two smart people going for a pint and figuring shit out.

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Where’s the brief?

On August 8, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis

To a creative team, the project brief can look like the over-sized bun in the famous “where’s the beef” TV spot.

The creative briefing process comes down to this: The brief tells us what needs to be said. We find the best way to say it. It’s that basic. Briefs with one, simple articulation of the problem always get the best solutions.

It’s never been easy to create a great brief. And compounding the challenge, digital projects are always complex and require lengthy project briefs that need to inform dozens of disciplines. But miles downstream from the background slides, the broad demographics, and the necessary technical specs, sits a writer who has to find something more to work with than “24-79 and breathing.”

One way to edit a creative brief for better results is to engage a creative director or senior writer and ask him or her to highlight the information that will matter to the person who will turn a nine-page brief into a five-word, kick-ass headline or an irresistible reason to engage with an experience.

Too much yellow throughout is the sign of a scattered brief. This is risky because the writer might mistakenly focus on aspects of the brief that seem interesting or workable but may not align with client expectations. Money wasted. Frustrated client.

Not enough yellow is the sign of a purely technical brief that doesn’t expose enough of the consumers mindset. The result will be rational advertising with no emotional impact.

Yellow in the wrong places is a harbinger of disappointing creative presentations. Insights and direction should not be added to the bullet list of 15 “executional considerations” on page 11. They won’t be found.

And now for a simple solution to a basic problem: Play: Where’s the beef?

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Agency life. Great account people will make you great.

On August 6, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis

Friction between agency departments is stupid, risky and bad business.

In the digital agency, the suits and the dungarees have to get along. Creative people who appreciate the value of good account managers will dominate the next generation of agency life.

Great account people want great ideas. Don’t wait to be asked. Find the champions and support them with all you’ve got. Here are some ways to build a better creative/account relationship, get the chance to work on some projects and make everyone a success.

Don’t wait for a brief. Briefs are attached to ideas that have already hatched. By the time a brief receives approval and funding it’s passed through the risk filters and might lack the breathing room that a great idea needs. Find a collaborator who will help you sell a great idea based on what he or she knows about the client.

Look for legitimate business problems. A great account person understands the client’s business. He or she will help you understand the client’s business problems so you can come up with ideas that have a waiting audience. Working on your own, you might have great ideas but it might be impossible to fund them. In this case, you’ve wasted agency time and money.

Collaborate. There are three reasons why you should always collaborate with your account team. 1) People are more likely to support and sell an idea when they feel a sense of ownership and pride. 2) Account managers bring a marketing perspective to your creative ideas. They can spot roadblocks that you can’t see. 3) Collaboration is the best way to build trust and rapport. See, Agency life: People have to want to work with you.

Get to know each other. If you’re going to take chances and break rules, you have to be partners in crime. You need to have healthy respect and an honest relationship so that you can talk freely. Your great idea might need some tweaking or a reality check. The better you know each other, the easier this will be.

Offer to proofread briefs. Good writers will only share their draft work with someone they trust. If you’ve built a good relationship with an account manager, offer to proof the brief. He or she will appreciate the help and the you’ll have a chance to influence how the opportunity is defined.

The ad world has reinvented itself and the idea of a ‘creative department’ may not survive the evolutionary threat. In today’s agency, everyone is creative. Find an ally in the account management group and trust his or her creative ability to see, polish and sell a great idea.

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Agency life: What do managers do?

On August 5, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis

We are all doers now. Gone are the days when managers only managed and directors only directed. With the exception of the rare visionary, we are all some variation of the player-coach. No one is exempt from the swollen in-box, the impossible deadline or the last-minute PowerPoint presentation.  The modern manager is a senior doer, reporting to more senior doers with just as little time. So what does the senior doer do? More importantly, how does the senior does justify rank and salary if everyone is doing, more or less?

In addition to doing and doing, the senior doer does the following:

  1. Produce work with a deeper understanding of consequences.
  2. Make better decisions about what to delegate and what to do.
  3. Understand that it’s better to keep five other doers doing than to dwell on a personal to-do list.
  4. Align work with the organization, its business goals and its relationship with clients, vendors and partners.
  5. Don’t compete with other doers. Make them great.
  6. Work faster in order to accommodate the needs of those below, beside and above you on the doer chart.
  7. Spot the holes in work before someone else does. 

  Most importantly, the senior doer doesn’t wait to be told what to do.

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Agency life. Lessons from Art & Copy.

On July 27, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis

The documentary Art & Copy should be mandatory viewing at agency lunch-and-learns. For best results, invite the client. A few themes emerge throughout the documentary.

1. Trust matters. In most cases, great creative is the result of senior creative staff having an open relationship with senior marketers. Personal relationships that allow for frank discussion are a must if anyone is going to be convinced to take a chance on a new idea. The sign of a great relationship is the ability to disagree (maybe even fight) without fear.

2. Opinion are essential. Behind great work is an agency with an opinion. Most great work happens when the agency is invested in the brand and has the time and budget to know it inside and out. It’s a good lesson for the pay-as-you-go hourly clients. Without a docket, even senior creatives find it difficult to invest time learning and exploring on their own.

3. Great ideas take time. Technology has reduced production time to the point where online ads can be made in less time than it takes to get a hair cut. But the creative brain still needs time to formulate great ideas. “One-hour-turnaround” sounds great if you’re buying contact lenses but it’s unlikely to produce the kind of fame and notoriety of the campaigns in this excellent film.

Thanks to Toronto writer Nelson Quintal for recommending Art & Copy almost a year ago. He’s ahead of his time.

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Agency life. People rarely remember what you say.

On June 8, 2010, In Agency life, By John Ellis

People rarely remember what you say but they always remember how you make them feel. This is truth.

Think back to people who made you feel special or stupid. Think about the people who encouraged you and the losers who shot you down. Think about the comic who made you laugh. Now try to remember everything they said.

Before your next rant and before you pounce on some time-starved colleague for not being prepared, ask yourself if it’s worth it. A month from now, no one will be quoting you but everyone will remember that you acted like a jerk and made people feel like crap.  Before you let your ego get the best of you, give some thought to how you want to be remembered.

  1. Make people feel like they matter.
  2. Convince them that they can do anything.
  3. Make them feel like a valued member of the team.
  4. Make them feel safe enough to say anything.

This is a team sport and you don’t win by making people feel like losers.

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