Posted on 

 by 

neilperkin

 in , ,

Ideas That Do

"It's a lot easier to be repeatedly useful than it is to be repeatedly funny or sexy" Rory Sutherland

A good five-minute talk (below), given by Gareth at last month's AAAA's conference in which he talks about 'Ideas That Do': ideas that aren't advertising ideas but instead ideas that can be advertised. For all the talk of being useful, there is scant consideration of the real implications of what that means – a change in philosophy, different working processes and different behaviours. What matters is behaviour – both our own, and those of the people we hope to involve in what we do. Nothing will really change, says Gareth, unless we change the way we think communications work, the way we get paid, how and what we measure, and the way we work day-to-day. Amen to that.

http://www.viddler.com/player/ebf0f855/

6 responses to “Ideas That Do”

  1. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    If Adland thought more like the industrial or manufacturing industries, I swear to god the difference [and benefit] would be vast.
    What upsets me the most is this is what the industry should always have been doing … so to present it as a new concept is horrifying.
    That is not aimed at Gareth – I mean it from the perspective that it has needed a brilliant guy like him to point out the [1] fucking obvious and [2] what we’ve been ‘claiming’ we’ve been doing for clients for years.
    No wonder the industry is in the pits.

    Reply
  2. Rob @ Cynic Avatar
    Rob @ Cynic

    If Adland thought more like the industrial or manufacturing industries, I swear to god the difference [and benefit] would be vast.
    What upsets me the most is this is what the industry should always have been doing … so to present it as a new concept is horrifying.
    That is not aimed at Gareth – I mean it from the perspective that it has needed a brilliant guy like him to point out the [1] fucking obvious and [2] what we’ve been ‘claiming’ we’ve been doing for clients for years.
    No wonder the industry is in the pits.

    Reply
  3. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Yep, you’re right, but it’s become a system. What gets to me is that for all the talk of the need to change, very few people talk about changing the things the make up the fabric of that system – things like processes, how and what we get paid for etc

    Reply
  4. neilperkin Avatar
    neilperkin

    Yep, you’re right, but it’s become a system. What gets to me is that for all the talk of the need to change, very few people talk about changing the things the make up the fabric of that system – things like processes, how and what we get paid for etc

    Reply
  5. Deirdre Avatar
    Deirdre

    The basic ideas and principles he rehearses are fine, but I wonder about the context: “Let’s get out of the business of communicating products and get into the business of communication products”.
    Is he saying ad agencies should build (for their clients) online communtities, networks, listening and engagement strategies, and branded utilties?
    Some may be able to do this, but most simply won’t be best placed to do this surely – skillset upgrade notwithstanding. Marketing and PR agencies seem a better fit agency-side, and ultimately clients (skillset point granted again) are the best people to do this in tandem with customers / users.
    Am I missing something..?

    Reply
  6. Deirdre Avatar
    Deirdre

    The basic ideas and principles he rehearses are fine, but I wonder about the context: “Let’s get out of the business of communicating products and get into the business of communication products”.
    Is he saying ad agencies should build (for their clients) online communtities, networks, listening and engagement strategies, and branded utilties?
    Some may be able to do this, but most simply won’t be best placed to do this surely – skillset upgrade notwithstanding. Marketing and PR agencies seem a better fit agency-side, and ultimately clients (skillset point granted again) are the best people to do this in tandem with customers / users.
    Am I missing something..?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Categories

Archives