Influx Insights Tag Feed: aaaa

aaaa's digital conference- twentysomethings panel

Influx Insights — 2008-05-30T21:56:56Z

On Wednesday, I ran a panel of twentysomethings at the AAAA's Digital Conference.

Anyone who was there will hopefully echo my views- they were a great bunch.
Creative, inspiring and full of love for the possibilities of the digital world.

They had no time for brands pretending to be their friends, but plenty of time for
brands who helped make them cool.

At one point the session turned into an Apple commercial, nearly all the panelists owned an Apple laptop.

The idea of reading a newspaper in the conventional sense was beyond them, they were somewhat divided on the issue of pirating and intellectual property rights, they hated pop up ads, didn't much like banners on Facebook, but couldn't live without it unless they had to pay a subscription to use it.

According to these guys, we are already in the post-TV age, they were consuming loads of video content from the internet and directly onto their laptops that it had rendered the television irrelevant. They like the idea of watching stuff in their time and without those pesky ads.

Most of them created content in some form, many of them had blogs to share their viewpoints, experiences and to promote themselves and their friends. One of the panelists had even created his own social network.

There were numerous mentions of sustainability and social responsibility and an expectation that corporations should be doing more than grab money.

A big thank you to my amazing panelists; Jessica, Pia, Nick, Chris and James, a huge shout out to Jo and her team at Flamingo who hand picked them, to Jerry McGee at the AAAAs for having the idea and to Paul and Kate at N aked Communications for letting me use their offices for the rehearsal.

Posted by Ed Cotton

in the age of collaboration- planners need to build toolboxes

Influx Insights — 2007-08-10T10:23:50Z

I decided not to post details on the second and third day’s sessions at the AAAAs Planning Conference (I wasn’t there for Bruce Mau and Day 3!) and instead reflect on my overall experiences of the event.

As usual, it was a great with lots of interesting stimuli and conversation, congrats to the organizers, especially the co-chairs Catrina McAuliffe and Suzanne Powers.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge a couple of observations and glaring omissions from the presentation on blogging that Aki and I made on Tuesday.

1.   We shouldn’t have had blogging in our title- it was a turn off- I heard that some people decided not attend because they thought it would be too technical.

2.   We failed to acknowledge one huge problem that our research didn’t uncover and only dawned on me during the conversations that happened after the presentation. For many planners, it’s not that they aren’t motivated and ready to blog; it’s their agency systems that conspire against it. Bureaucracy appears to be holding back many voices. One big system agency has taken 9 months to write a brief for its blogging initiative.

3.   Toolset- We gave a good roadmap for people for those who already have a blog and want to make it better, but we didn’t do it for people who want to get started. They are similar, but have subtle differences. I want to work on that, so stay tuned.

My big take away from the conference was the critical importance of toolsets and/or having strong philosophy about the world and our world because you can shape your agency around it.

It was in Stephen Walker of Headmint’s presentation, it was all over Eat Big Fish’s and expressed as suggested by Zeus Jones, who shared a philosophy, this is something that most agencies don’t have, it describes, not just how they see the world, but also what they plan to do about it.

All the great thinking in the world counts for nothing unless you have platform that can help generate and use it.

The “toolset” is the pathway that helps generate thinking and turns thinking into something. Adam Morgan’s all seeing Third Eye would be meaningless without a pathway that can help you mine, extract and use observation and ideas.

This is critical because today the chances of the “Lone Wolf Guru” identifying and implementing a brilliant idea on his or her own inside an organization are less than zero.

It was clear from the conference that we’ve entered the age of collaboration, both inside clients and agencies, something that can only succeed with new sharing and learning tools.

It’s clearly incumbent on all planners to develop toolsets beyond the creative brief that help them work with others to generate powerful insight to create new ideas to transform a client’s business.

The more structured the process, the better the results will be.

Finally, back to the subject of the conference, here are 5 pieces of advice for next year’s conference committee, if they choose to listen.

1.   Get more people up onto stages- shorter sessions and more of them- think Barcamp and snack-sized 10 minute shows

2.   More diversity- Fewer white male ad planners with British accents and more planner practioners from new worlds like usability, connections planning and design

3.   Keep bringing in the inspiring showmen-as long as they have a great and relevant story to tell- more Sir Kens and more Eric Ryans

4.   Bring some diverse thinkers into the breakouts –writers, photographers, designers, architects, artists and people from the non profit world- this new planning generation wants to do good

5. Add workshops where planners get to do something as giant teams- attack a problem- like how to make the conference better!

Posted by Ed Cotton

blogging the agency- aaaa's planning conference presentation

Influx Insights — 2007-08-08T13:42:52Z

Yesterday, Aki Spicer of Fallon and I presented this at the AAAA's Planning Conference.

The great news is we are already getting hate mail on Adpulp, from people who suggest they never surf the web for inspiration, then what the %^^& are they doing on Adpulp?

"Yes, while the creatives are busy working and MAKING sh*t happen...these 'cultural anthropologists' will be surfing the web and reposting what they find as 'insights' that try to validate their usefulness.

Give me a break."

Posted by Ed Cotton

aaaa's planning conference- day one- sir ken robinson

Influx Insights — 2007-08-06T22:14:55Z

The first day at the AAAAs Account Planning conference in San Diego started with a bang, straight out of the gate, Sir Ken Robinson set the stage with an inspiring address about the human resource crisis and suggested building and nurturing creative cultures as the only way out.

Sir Ken suggested, as many others have done before, that we are entering a period of perpetual change, where creativity and innovation are the only solutions to gain competitive advantage.

He also noted some other problems:

1. Our perception of creativity and intelligence

There is little recognition that the two are linked. You can’t be creative and intelligent and visa versa. In fact, it seems that planning thrives on this perceptual division.

2. Our narrow definition of creativity.

It’s not just art, design and communication. There can be creative approaches to process- he cited Wal-Mart or adding a culture around coffee like Starbucks has done.

3. The creative ghetto

Putting the responsibility for all things creative in the hands of one department negates the creative capacity of the whole organization.

4. Our education system

A system that beats creativity out of kids.

Sir Ken noted that being creative requires people to DO something- people have to make something, they can’t just think about it. So the secret is to help people find their outlets- the best medium for their expression.

Creativity, like intelligence comes in different flavors.

He challenged the audience to consider the questions:

How are you intelligent?

How are you creative?

Sir Ken’s secrets for creative success were all about having teams of people who were multi-disciplinary and had the power to take ideas upwards. He also mentioned the importance of creative workspaces as they are both reflections of the corporate culture and play a vital role in stimulate employees imagination. Companies need to strive to create the ideal conditions where creativity can blossom.

Finally, he challenged everyone too aim high and succeed because too often we aim low and succeed.

Posted by Ed Cotton

alive from san diego- 800 planners gather for their annual fest

Influx Insights — 2007-08-05T19:11:03Z

I am now here in the surprisingly humid San Diego for the AAAA's annual planning smoozefest with 800 planners- including 11 from Google and 29 from TBWA Chiat Day LA.

There were things to look forward to today, like the baseball game I was supposed to attend with Gareth Kay, Mark Lewis, Mark Earls and others, but I am sure they told me it was Wednesday.

Here’s what I am looking forward to over the next few days.

Sir Ken Robinson – If anyone saw him at TED or at least the film on the TED website- he is spectacular

Mark Barden and Adam Morgan’s- Third Eye- Perhaps a preview of Adam’s new book?

Adrian Ho and Rob White’s new vision for Planning

Eric Ryan- Planning and San Francisco’s hero of lateral thinking. Eric had the good sense not to give his insights away. Instead, he kept them to himself and built a multi-million dollar business called Method

Bruce Mau- Looking forward to hearing his version of Massive Change and how his thinking has shifted in the last 18 months

I plan to post on the above and more.

Posted by Ed Cotton