Mad Method
I began my career in the rough-and-tumble world of a large
Chicago advertising agency. There, when asked to develop an advertising
campaign, we usually divided the planning process into
three distinct phases.
The first phase was characterized by the large amount of time
(months, in many cases) everyone spent preparing situational
analyses across the many different disciplines and departments
within the agency. The competitive landscape was considered,
previous introductions were compared and contrasted, focus
groups were conducted, and client directives were discussed (and
regularly discarded, I might add).
This culminated in the preparation of the permission to believe
(PTB) statement. The PTB gave everyone in the organization
an idea of what this product/service was and how it was
uniquely positioned in the marketO’Grady’s Potato Chips are cut
thicker for more potato taste. That one sentence took away a few
months of my life one year. We also tested “for better dipping”
and “for a heartier snacking experience.”
The second phase began with the meeting held a few weeks before
the final client presentation. Participants representing the
various departments came to the meeting armed with their PTB
statements and some loose ideas generated by their various departments.
A brainstorming session ensued, whereby a wide variety
of creative/media directions were discussed. Ultimately, a
few specific directions were agreed to by the various departments,
and everyone went away to create magic.
The third phase usually started at around 10 P.M. the night before
the final client presentation, when it became clear that little had been done and what had been done didn’t really work very
well.
That’s when this same representative group of people from
the second phase simply threw something together that had little
to do with logic or the PTB statement. Adrenaline and fear become
your ally; the ticking clock and four-hour-old pizza, your
enemy. In this foxhole, junior research staffers are just as likely to
come up with the perfect treatment as the most seasoned creative
director. Sleep-deprived suits (the derogatory but ubiquitous
term for account executives) suddenly become jingle writers.
And here’s the amazing thing: This system worked pretty darn
well! I personally observed how this antisystem usually generated
outstanding solutions to some pretty vexing problems. I’m not
suggesting it was the perfect system. However, I did learn something
about the method in this madness.
I learned that when you put a bunch of smart people in a
room who (1) possess specific knowledge on a subject, (2) represent
a wide variety of skill sets, and (3) are scared to death, the
results are often surprisingly positive.
(I was going to say “synergistic,”
but that sounds too Dilbertesque.) I also learned that
good ideas can come from the most unlikely of sources, especially
when you have surrounded yourself with smart people at
all levels (see 8). Finally, I learned that having all the departments
involved fostered a pride of ownership that was carried
throughout the organization. People could get behind a plan
that they had a hand in creating..
When I left the advertising business, I took the reins of a small
uniform apparel company. I literally went from Michigan Avenue
to Main Street, U.S.A., and I carried my small bag of tricks with
me. You can probably imagine the looks on the faces of my veteran
crew of sewing machine operators when I...
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