Ford

...multiple markets. Specifically, Australia and New Zealand, some of the Asian countries, and South Africa. And first of all, it was sad, there was multiple creative directors involved, and that's ... it's a bad idea. [7289]
And basically what happened is we were all proposing ideas, and no idea ever satisfied everybody. Which is what we were looking for. And again, it's not a democracy. Someone needed to be in charge and make decisions, and no one was. [7290]
And basically what happened is we were all proposing ideas, and no idea ever satisfied everybody. Which is what we were looking for. And again, it's not a democracy. Someone needed to be in charge and make decisions, and no one was. And it went round, it went round, until the only solution that everyone was agreeing on was the one that was just the least offensive to everybody. So we weren't making the right ad. We weren't making the best ad, we were making the ad that offended the least number of people. [7275],[7264],[7269]
And it fell to pieces at the end. We pulled out of the thing because we realized the ad that everyone was agreeing on was not one that we thought was one we should run. And we tried to make our own, then, with like three weeks to go. It failed [inaudible 00:29:48]. Everything was bad. [7291],[7281],[7280],[7270]
And we tried to make our own, then, with like three weeks to go. It failed [inaudible 00:29:48]. Everything was bad. [7273]
It was the ... for the launch of the Ford Focus. It was a big project, and it was a great lesson to me. It taught me so many things that I'll never do again, just that it ... worst to spring from us. You know the best creative ideas are pure and they don't get ... I find the best creative ideas exist, but they come to you as an idea. Very seldom is an idea where it's sort of a bit of this, and then you, "Oh, hang on," and you work at it, and you panel beat it and whatever and it gets better. Do you know what I mean? [7274]
Too many. Also. You know, the two main guys from Australia, the two main guys from New Zealand, the two main guys from South Africa, the two main guys from ... What a nightmare. [7276]
Yeah, the higher the profile of the job, the lower the risk tolerance, because the more people they feel are watching them, you know? [7265]
I'm lucky that I'm a rebellious person, that I've got a problem with authority, because it helps. Because you know, if you're gonna take risks, you're gonna make mistakes. And you have to be prepared to stand up and say, "Yeah, I fucked up." Yeah, but you know, my degree as a creative director hopefully is that I have more successes than failures. But what I don't have is a ton of extremely bland, safe, non-offensive ads. I've had some really good ones and a couple of shit ones. I mean, you talk about those, and you ... [7266]
So again, we ended up with something that was so vague as to be practically useless. [7292]
Yeah. The brief was a problem, because what the selling proposition was defin- you know, people wanted it to be different in every market. So again, we ended up with something that was so vague as to be practically useless. I think their positioning was eventually smooth. Smooth. I don't even know what that means. You know, for ice cream, maybe, I don't know. But for a car? [crosstalk 00:33:42] [7282]
That was a problem. You know, it was a cultural divide. [7283]
And then got fed out, and then compromised by everyone having a dig at it. [7286]
I think it had the most meaning in Australia. They've got, "Oh, smooth, mate." It's almost a slang term that they really identified with, and none of us did. [7293],[7284]
Basically we were ... I'm gonna answer that in a cynical way, in that our inspiration ended up being attempting to create solutions that would be accepted by the process. Which is like, I've just been through the same process in Bangkok now, and it's wrong. You end up saying, "Okay, China? Does this idea work in China? Does this idea work in ..." Instead of saying, "Hey, our job is to make the best advert we can for this product," you end up saying, "We're here to make an advert that can run in ... be understood in eight countries." And that's not the same brief. [7285],[7271]
Which is like, I've just been through the same process in Bangkok now, and it's wrong. You end up saying, "Okay, China? Does this idea work in China? Does this idea work in ..." Instead of saying, "Hey, our job is to make the best advert we can for this product," you end up saying, "We're here to make an advert that can run in ... be understood in eight countries." And that's not the same brief. [7294],[7295]
It was week after week after week. It was horrible. [7287]
In that the process didn't create good advertising. They're perception was, "Hey, we're gonna put the best the global markets have to offer in a room, and come up with the best type of advertising. And save money." And it didn't save any money, didn't create good advertising, didn't make anyone happy. [7267]
Strained. Always, failure strains relationships. And I think those teams like success, and I think [inaudible 00:36:56]. [7277]
I'm lucky, I've got a really good guy who heads the team, and he's very supportive. Win or die, he understands the risk / reward equation, and he'll defend our rights to make mistakes as well as he will to have great successes. So I'm lucky, but generally in JWT I think it's a huge problem. [7268],[7296],[7279]
Yeah, in that project not so good, 'cause I felt the strategy was at odds with ... was not helping us make good advertising. [7297]
Yeah, in that project not so good, 'cause I felt the strategy was at odds with ... was not helping us make good advertising. It got to a stage where you feel like all strat are trying to do is write the strategy the client will sign off. You know what I mean? And the purpose of the strategy is not to be sign-off-able. The purpose of the strategy is to help us create compelling campaign. So agendas get messed up, and then that leads to conflict. [7288],[7278],[7272]
Reference Tags
[7289] Cultural differences,[7290] Indecisive leadership,[7275] Indecisive leadership,[7264] Risk compensation,[7269] Yielding conflict about ideas,[7291] Alignment,[7281] Communication issues,[7280] Irreconcilable differences,[7270] Yielding conflict about ideas,[7273] Resilience,[7274] Great example - Individual & Team outcomes for future efforts,[7276] Indecisive leadership,[7265] Risk compensation,[7266] Overconfidence bias,[7292] Vague goals,[7282] Vague goals,[7283] Cultural differences,[7286] Micromanaging,[7293] Cultural differences,[7284] Cultural differences,[7285] Vague goals,[7271] Yielding conflict about ideas,[7294] Alignment,[7295] Cultural differences,[7287] Unbalanced workload,[7267] Confirmation bias,[7277] Lack of trust,[7268] Declinism,[7296] Organizational encouragement,[7279] Organizational encouragement,[7297] Alignment,[7288] Lack of challenging work,[7278] Lack of trust,[7272] Yielding conflict about ideas