Steelso V6.0

You can fake fun. You can fake insight. You cannot fake passion. You can’t. I’ve tried to fake it and failed. You can try for a while but then it’s just an act and it can be seen straight through.

Passion is the fire. It’s the difference between doing something and loving something. It’s the one thing that can make a new client decide to go with you rather than another agency. It should surround the client, it should be in the copy that is written, that artwork that’s presented and in the meetings that you have.

For me this is the most difficult attribute to qualify. You can’t make passion. It really comes from within and as such I don’t think it’s possible for me, or anyone, to tell you how to be passionate about your job. I do know that it makes all the difference in the world.

You can tell a great agency by the passion that the people you come into contact have for you and your work. That passion should exude in designs, in ideas. You’ll feel it when you see it.

Steelso :: Jan.04.2008 :: Good Agency, Uncategorized :: 2 Comments »

Fun. Vital in an agency both for the team and for the clients. I’ll explain why in a minute.

First though a clarification. My old father has a saying. “Fun’s fun but to hell with nonsense”. To be clear we’re talking about fun. Nonsense has its place but for me and for this entry we’re talking about good, wholesome fun.

I’m a great believer on making learning fun. After all during the most intensive learning period of your life, when you’re getting to grips with language and movement and balance we’re presented with a whole regime of fun, amazement and learning. Learning wrapped in play, in fun.

The older we get the more the fun is replaced. Certainly in my childhood anyway and, to a point, understandably so. It was only when I could chose my own path, when I could get involved in things that I wanted to do did I start to see the fun in things again. And that element of fun, especially when working in theatre doing 15 hours days in not the best of working working conditions, is vital to doing the best that you can. No fun means no enjoyment which means no passion which means no point.Any time that I’ve stopped having fun in my place of work I’ve known that it’s time to move on. It’s a great barometer for me and I’ve been right to move on every time I’ve felt the fun fade away.

Why is fun good for an agency? Apart from the benefits of learning through fun I also believe that having fun is the first step to having passion. If you have fun, enjoy what you do then the next step is having passion. I’ll be going into passion a little later but I don’t feel that you can have passion for something that you can’t have fun about.

Fun also makes more a better working environment. If everyone is stressed and miserable then it doesn’t become a fun place to be. And who wants to be in a place that isn’t fun?

For clients the benefits of an agency that embraces fun are huge. Firstly I believe that creativity stems from fun. You can be creative while being serious but never if you’re not enjoying what you do. Also I feel that clients enjoy having fun about their brand. of course their objectives are serious, it can mean heads on the line, but if you can have in coming up with a creative solution to meet those objectives the likelihood is that the client will have more of a buy-in to those solutions.

You can’t have passion without fun which is why fun is so important to the workplace. You having fun? Does your job suffer if you do have fun? Is your job fun and if not, why not?

Steelso :: Dec.24.2007 :: Good Agency :: 3 Comments »

This isn’t coherent. It’s a brain dump. I apologise, I may come and edit it as I go but at the moment… Well you’ll have to read on…

Just to recap recently we had an away day at Equator and James did a bit about the elements that he felt make Equator a great agency. I reflected on this and thought I’d add my thoughts. I’m certainly not saying the Equator are the only agency that have have these elements or that it is just digital agencies. I just want to explore it further and hopefully see if you agree no matter what line of work you do.

In a lot of ways the theme that of ‘Obsessive Insight’ surprised me. Not that I didn’t believe it, more that it was something that I knew but wasn’t aware of. Thinking about it for a couple of days it seems very, very obvious.

To do your best work you have to be curious. And that curiosity has to stretch into a whole range of areas. In a digital agency you have to be curious on technology, on advertising, on people, on clients, on your colleagues, on how your kids use the Internet, how your Gran uses the Intertubes, looking at new things, looking at old things. The list goes on and on. You need to stick your nose in and learn.

In a lot of ways obsessive insight is what makes a comedian great. Any great comedian will use obsessive insight to present something that’s everyday, almost mundane and then make it new, fresh and funny. Billy Connolly is a genius at that, Eddie Izzard is also in that same league.

Those extremely talented guys give us insight into everyday things that make us laugh. An agency’s job is to be as talented in providing insight to their clients. Our job is to show a client that something that seems to them everyday, mundane and give them an insight that makes astonished. And to get that insight you have to be curious, you have to be interested and it certainly helps if you love your job.

An example? Well, one of the most recent examples of great insight comes from the recent Sainsburys campaign (thanks for the great article NP) that focuses on an overall objective, learning about their customers then creating a campaign that would engage them. The beauty of the Sainsburys campaign is that it seems such a simple idea, so obvious. It’s the insight that makes it so.

Working in digital gives you a great opportunity to pour over details. We get so much stats about users, referrals, time on site, CPA, OR, etc, etc, etc. This is all good, it gives an insight. However you have to understand people to make the stats come alive, to give you real insight. Stats tell you what people have done but they tend not to tell you why they did it. For that you need insight.

One of the most exciting parts of my job is that I get to learn about new industries, new approaches in other comapnies. By offering insight we can be part of an overall solution. I’ve got a great opportunity at the moment to learn more and more about our clients. I’m reading blogs about their sector, I’m getting Gogole Alerts about what they’re up to, I’m looking at new thinking. I love it, I’m throwing myself into it becuae the more knowledge I have the more insight I can provide our clients and the greater the chance that I can make them astonished. Great job. Love it.

So. What about you? What you thinking?

Steelso :: Dec.18.2007 :: Good Agency :: 3 Comments »

This really serves as an introduction to a five posts I’m going to write that have been inspired by our away day last week. In a number of ways this probably just isn’t just about what makes a good agency but what makes a good workplace. I’m also not suggesting that you’re going to get any great insights but I really felt energised about the presentation last week and wanted to explore them in a little more detail.

I’d like also to get your views on the points I’m making. Equator listed four things that make a great agency and I’m adding one more. It starts tomorrow!

And Olivia Newton John makes me go funny in my head.

Steelso :: Dec.11.2007 :: Good Agency :: 1 Comment »