In the next 14 days, give or take, we are opening up our service to the public. Nothing up this point in my life has me prepared for these next days.

I am an adman. Started out in publishing and through chance and helping hands, blagged my way into Account Planning. For all my bitching and bridge burning, I really enjoy it. I have a talent for it. Am proud of most works I’ve been a part of.

But launching a proper company, with people depending on you for money, clients across continents, investments, is not like launching a campaign. Not even close. Being a hoe don’t prepare you for pimpin’.

We’ve been working towards this launch for the last 3 months. Progress has been slower than expected. Most people who track our progress, disagree with me.

They tell us there are three criteria to judge progress as a start up:
1) You don’t believe in the idea..
2) You are fearing the end of finance..
3) The market consistently turns down your iterations..

If any of the above are happening, panic and have serious conversations. If not; focus and push forward..Judging by that, we’re good.

And yet here we are, weeks away from public judgement : a million things to do, and even more things slipping past me because of lack of time, hands and sheer inability to do better.

I know some perspective is needed, but in the lonely cool before the launch, this is how I am seeing and feeling things.

Lucky for me Kedar is co-founder. For the life of me I don’t get why he agreed. Good thing he did though. Being better at what I am good at and the opposite of me, has made all the difference.

I can’t imagine it always being easy to work with me: moody, impatient, prone to immaturity and unreasonable expectations. And then there are bad days. Though I’d never say it to his face, I am very thankful for his momentary lapse of judgement when he agreed to all of this.

Like I said, nothing has me prepared for what is next; least of all my time spend in Adland. For all their talk of failing fast and learning, always being in beta and shit; when you’ve invested as much as I have, we have, no way I am objective and rational.

This is personal, fuck business and fuck you.

Time to lift the curtains..

Anyways…as always

NH

“In Chile, everybody thinks they are middle class.”

While this statement is a generalisation, having experienced Chile for a few months now, it is the most accurate 140 character definition of how Chile, its society and people function.

To be explored in a bit more detail at some point, even linking it up to the fact that Chile and hipsters were made for each other due to this “common bond” view point on life..

Anyways…

As Always

NH

If you are here, because of him, then that you should be asking yourself why the fuck you did not come here sooner, because I’ve been at this writing thing for a while now..

Lucky for you, I am shallow enough to take you adoration for whatever reason…

Anyways.. the reason he (yes again the same link) wrote about me, is this..

It is private beta and all that, but if you want to know more, shoot me a mail at info@gapjumpers.me..

As always..

NH

Turns out somebody tried to rob the place. In the end, false alarm. Just the local loco, waving around a toy gun. “he does that all the time” our host said…made me forget to buy Jasmin-scented Nepalese green tea, but that is the start up life: roughing it.

Anyways….as always

NH

pointing at the kitchen, building up suspense, and uttering the immortal words “that is la cochina” only to have the lady of the house look at you like wtf?

Turns out I meant cocina/kitchen. cochina is…not something you say in front of a 50 year old lady..or any lady (unless in very very specific circumstances)

oh well.. fail fast and all that..

Anyways…as always

NH

“Don’t try and write rock songs, write a pop song and then rock it up or whatever else you wanna do, on top..”
Noel Gallagher

This equally applies to our work: First come up with the problem the brand can/wants/should address, that is rooted in actual consumer buying/using behaviour. Trace back to understand what has lead them to behave the way they do (as good as possible).

Figure out what barriers (now you layer it with thinking around tools, digital, npd, attitudes) stand in the way of them showing the future behaviour you need to achieve your goals.

Start making it possible to remove and to get people to move. If they move; spread the word.

Is it really that simple? Yes, but obviously not that easy to execute.

While the first (above) did nothing, but make me resort the semi-intellectual decoding of the strategy behind the ad, 2011 Go Forth comes at me at the right time, with the right tone from the right angle.

And yes, you can use my words about the first one against me (it is important what a brand does after the TVC; most problems won’t be solved through advertising, it could be applied to any brand), but… this moved me, made me feel good about me and about W+K for making the spot that makes me feel good about me.

While I stand by the ideas of our industry doing more than just advertising, I find myself rewinding and watching the ad again, and smiling..again.

Congrats W+K.

enjoy the weekend..

So last week I had the pleasure of meeting up with Neil, who was in the neighbourhood and we got to talking about implementation of ideas, given the fact that is where most of the constrains and thus gains are to be found. Issues like, HR, legal contracts, local interest vs HQ vision.

Both of us were kinda left wondering, why these issues were rarely brought up when talking with clients.

It almost turned into a serious conversation till I blurted out the most obvious of statements “there is no money in talking about it”.

We both laughed at it, perhaps knowing it is truer than we all are comfortable admitting and moved on to more interesting topics like why most planners are so short.

But than I come across the above. A tweet that reads “design for the masses (so far so good)“. Design a chair, a few hundred get produced (IKEA would disagree, but ok…if we are talking designer chairs..sure..i’ll play along). Design in digital and it could be used by millions.

How do you go from talking about designing a chair, to designing in digital? From end-product to production tool/enviroment/culture?

Unless we are talking about the ways in which 3D printing could have a very disruptive effect on many industries, could it be, because that is money is?

Not in actually listening or understanding client issues and creating real and long term value, but in selling their solutions, regardless of the problem.

So dear clients of the world, once and for all: ‘Digital’ is simply the world we live in, as much part of our lives as electricity, running water, tv, politics etc. Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t let ‘experts’ scare you.

So if you are in the chair building business, build chairs for the world you and your customers live in. A world where people still buy and sit on chairs.

Just be aware of new ways technology and other events are shaping the behaviour of the world at large and potentially are impacting your company and the business you find yourself in.

See how you can use these developments to be of better service to your customers, employees and stakeholders.

Dear agencies, I get it: you need to pay bills. You sell a certain product or service. Good for you. People value it, you live of it.

But talking nonsense like the above, especially around clients who have enough boring problems like rising cost of fuel and commodities, that impact their business, production, sales and margin, is malpractice.

Sure, you may sell a bit of ‘digital’ in the short term due to fear or lack of attention.

In the long run it just hurts you and the client and you will again be seen as an expense (much like your old skool advertising forefathers who lost their seat at the table, because they stopped being of business value when they had the attention of clients).

There is this rather known cafe in Rotterdam. Above a picture of their menu taken last friday while catching up with a dear friend. The reason for it, is that it symbolizes the true value of planning that agencies can, should and sometimes still provide.

You see, next to us there was a group of Spanish businessmen. They ordered some beers and as they were drinking, started looking at the menu.

Now the menu is good. It has a lot of great food, from snacks to sandwiches to soups and more. And at 23:10, having just finished your first beer, the menu looks even better..

So they (the businessmen) start looking at it, and each one started pointing to stuff he would like to eat. The waiter comes. Groupleader starts pointing and smiling. They are hungry and ready to spend to have their needs met.

“No, kitchen is closed” was the waiters answer to every item pointed out. Every item. Until they reached the snacks page. Somewhat disappointed they browsed over the page and settled on some bitterballen.

Now to be fair, beer and bitterballen is as good a combination as any in the world when it comes to fingerfood and booze. It’s just that expectations had been raised by the menu, so now they just looked and tasted like a consolation prize.

So what does this have to do with planning? Well it shows the potential of planning done right: coming in from the outside, helping clients get short term results (political reality) while also preparing them for changes on longer terms.

Short term
The Menu. It is a good one. But also one that does not change very often (I would venture every couple of years they overhaul it, every season tweek it).

The Kitchen: It has been closing around 22:30 since I know of the place. And yet even I have experienced what the Armada next to us went through. Hungry, ready to eat, settling for less, or leaving after a beer to eat.

So why not, given the fact that the menu does not change often, have an after-kitchen menu (circumventing the need to keep the kitchen open longer as this obvious solution would be met with financial resistance) ?

Just replace all the menu’s at 21:30 by the right one so expectations are managed (perhaps even add a few things) and patrons aren’t disappointed.

The cost of printing an extra set of menu’s is not that high, yet the financial (including branding) pay-off is potentially significant: happy (hour) customers tend to spend more, more often.

The Armada next to us was also outfitted with smartphones. As a cafe owner you might wonder why the hell this is of importance to you (other than having a Twitter account, because it is the thing to do, or so you’ve heard)?

Well there is the ever growing reality that most business are inflicted with “secret service syndrome” (does not matter how many times you get it right, it is the time you get it wrong that you will make headlines).

Citizen perceptions and reactions to service are changing and becoming more active and demanding.

Longer term
Still, you haven been running this cafe for years, so you might think “whatever, as long as they spend money when they are here“.

Well here is the thing: being at your place might not mean that they are only going to be spending money in your place.

One street down for the cafe there is a chicken take out place. That is open till 01:30 in the morning. So what if, as a citizen, you knew this, or they knew that you were in the market for food? A quick delivery means the Armada is enjoying chicken wings and beer.

Now as a cafe-owner you are fighting for share of wallet with competitors you now think of as being in a different business to yours (fast food vs high end cafe).

So perhaps it is time to start revisiting some assumptions about what business you are in and what business you are going to be in.

“All that from a menu” ? “Yes, dear client, all that from a menu.

“How? Why?” “Well when done right, it is what we do: Account planning is the discipline that brings the consumer into the process of developing (business) solutions. To be truly effective, solutions must be both distinctive and relevant (to clients and customers), and planning helps on both counts.”