Ford

Yeah, it's going well, you know? I find that all the projects ... as long as you ... The previous two projects, I think clearly illustrate what is ... like, I have very specific ideas about the environment and processes and situations and how those create good advertising. And JWT is not about that. So I'm at odds about that. But I know I'm right. And I've proven that time and again. So my successful projects and the ones that rule well, I find, are when you keep your eye on that, and you don't let the external pressures force you to compromise. You know what I mean? [7299],[7298]
When you get to positions with jobs where the guys say, "Ah, fuck, let's just give the client what they want." Sometimes you have to, but that's not when the best shit happens. The best shit happens when you go, "No, we need to do it right." So yeah. That's what I'm always trying to do, is do it like ... make stuff that I'm gonna be happy with after the fact. [7321],[7320],[7308]
Yeah, it's going well. It's a retail project, and we always really ... you know, the motor industry is very retail driven, and there's never enough time. It's like the whole cliché of, "There's never enough time to do it properly, but there's always enough time to fix it." So what I'm doing now, at the moment, is taking time. I'm just taking it. Saying, "Well, no, that's not what ..." And it'll be better. Because there'll be a little bit of stuff that I've stolen time, but they'll be happy with the end result. Whereas if I didn't steal the time and fucked it up, they'd never forgive me. So I'm stealing time, I dunno, that's what I do now. [7300],[7309]
But I've got a woman in the client side who's really cool, and she gets it, and she defends our ideas. [7322]
Yeah, I've got a client on that side who ... you know, retail is the dealers, and dealers are notoriously conservative. But I've got a woman in the client side who's really cool, and she gets it, and she defends our ideas. [7306]
Tight. [7317]
No, tight, but again, I make sure that I've got enough time to do something properly, you know what I mean? [7307],[7301]
It'll be good until we make a mistake, then it'll be bad. [7315]
Cause if you present three and you like one of them and two of them are shit, I guarantee you the client will buy one of the bad ones. [7323],[7302]
I think enthusiasm is the most important thing. I've had really clever people, and I've had people who aren't that bright, but the one thing that makes someone valuable in my opinion is enthusiasm and passion for ideas. You don't have to be a genius often to have funny, great, engaging ideas. It's not rocket science. But you do have to be excited about it and have energy. [7311],[7312]
Yeah, I've been through lots of periods where I'm very unhappy with the two people I'm working with, or I like one or two, but not others. I've had very few periods where I'm really chuffed with the whole mix of the team. And it makes a huge difference as well. [7310]
Thought. Some people think that they don't even have to think, they just have to deliver papers and stuff, just like a ... You know, thought, and excitement for advertising. You know what I mean? If they don't like what we're trying to do, then we don't have the same agenda. So someone who thinks about what they do, uses their initiative, and somebody who likes advertising and wants to help us make good stuff. [7318]
Just as a point on that, I think part of the problem with JWT, certainly in this country, is that it is seen as an attractive place for a suit to work, but it's not seen as a very attractive place for a creative person to work. [7303]
So you tend to attract, generally, and I generalize horribly here, higher quality of suit than you do of creative person. [7304]
No, just guts. I mean, I hate people who are scared to take responsibility for ideas. You know what I mean? I just had that. I just worked for the regional creative director in Bangkok and his complete lack of balls and ability to actually defend an idea. Again, case, he has to take responsibility for it. Well, you're the fucking creative director, it is your responsibility. And if you haven't got the guts to support your ideas and take ... then you don't belong in the job. There's no way. [7319]
Client, like 100%, the main thing they need is balls. Again. A little bit of trust in the agency, and the guts to take responsibility for an idea. That's all they need. [7316]
Yeah, someone who just understands that we ... again, that there's jobs that can be rushed, because they're just about bread and butter, and there's jobs that you need to create space for. 'Cause they may have the potential to be great creative pieces, which is worth than they just are financially worth doing. Do you know what I mean? You can't just say, "Hey, this job has 100,000 budget, therefore it gets five hours of your time." If you say, "Yeah, it does only cost a thousand, but it could be a Cannes winner," it needs more time. So it's understanding that sort of flexibility. [7313]
Just an agency where they all work to a single agenda. I.e., we are about making great advertising for great brands, not suits have got one mission, accountants have got another mission, creatives ... Do you know what I mean? There's this kind of feeling of, "Hey, we're trying to do one thing, and the creatives are trying to do another." Or the creatives think, "Well, we're trying to make great ads, and everyone else is trying to do some other shit." And the agencies that I respect and that really make it are where you've got a business guy and a creative guy who understand that they're not trying to do different things. That if they make great advertising, business success will follow. Do you know what I mean? And there's a single agenda, and that's ... any business needs a single agenda. And for some reason in advertising, every department seems to think its agenda is different. It's not. But they continue to think that it is. [7314]
I would write a book about all this stuff that I'm saying. Nah, not a book, I just want to write it all down. Because I'll spend a lot of time thinking about what we do, and I think so few agencies actually think about it. They're so busy dealing with the minutiae of their daily experience that they forget that what we're trying to do is just create great advertising, and it's as simple as that, you know. [7305]
Reference Tags
[7299] Declinism,[7298] Overconfidence bias,[7321] Believes one has a hopeful path,[7320] Optimism,[7308] Win-win conflict about ideas,[7300] Planning fallacy,[7309] Win-win conflict about ideas,[7322] Organizational encouragement,[7306] Trust,[7317] Unbalanced workload,[7307] Organizing effectively,[7301] Planning fallacy,[7315] Trust,[7323] Pessimism bias,[7302] Pessimism bias,[7311] Balance of challenging work,[7312] Organizational encouragement,[7310] Unresolved relationship conflict,[7318] Lack of organizational encouragement,[7303] Declinism,[7304] Declinism,[7319] Lack of organizational encouragement,[7316] Trust,[7313] Organizational encouragement,[7314] Organizational encouragement,[7305] Overconfidence bias