Just a wee note to those who end up here that the party has moved on from Ideavault. Am using different web ways to archive and share ideas. The frontier has pushed forward. Do contact me through linked-in you'd like to get in touch for any reason. Bye for now. Adam

Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but ‘once upon a time’ will last forever.
Philip Pullman

"We would have to invent a new category, and exercise the ultimate right of the last born. To be first in what you decide to be, rather than last in what others have decided for you. Everyone knows the name of the first man to fly the Atlantic, no-one remembers the second guy (Bert Hinkler). However, they do remember the name of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly the Atlantic. What Amelia had succeeded in doing was inventing a new category."

Charles Vallance (Orange IPA paper) via Lee McEwan

"It is amazing how much you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit"
Harry Truman, US President (1945-53)

Q. Should planners be content to be the cheery midwives to brand ideas and let creative teams bask in the flashbulbs ? (Russell Davies School) ? Or can planners take active pride in their intellectual offsprings (Richard Huntington school) without isolating the creative team relationships needed to spin them into gold?

Peel your average brand onion and you'll find tears of joy. Brands traits tend to be described in seventeen shades of positive: Upbeat. Cheery. Optimistic. And becuase nuance is so easily overlooked (so the theory goes) best not make any bones about it : Up for anything. Glass half full.

Truth is the the negative emotions are perhaps the richest. Think of the most memorable film you ever saw, chances are it wasn't simply happy ever after. And with so many happy-clappy brands around could yours find a bit of original traction by admitting a darker side? Impossible ? Not really, how about the 'No mercy' Weedol campaign or the digust driven underside of Marmite's 'You either love it or hate it' proposition. (Just don't do a Strand...)

Planners are almost always the third most important people in any agency, which means we have to know how to collaborate.

Russell Davies

A growing vault of communication research podcasts can be found here.

(Loved the forthright crystal-ballisms of Ian Pearson, BT Futurologist)

Here are 12 Steps to use metrics to get to the heart of your business, in a Ready, Aim Fire approach:

Ready

1. Democratize – standardize the data and give open access to the data or reports to the masses.
2. Focus – what are the killer metrics / levers in the business? Does everyone know what these key metrics are?
3. Own – give people ownership for key metrics. Someone who pulls together the team to drive the metric, educate, evangelize, report.
4. Partner – put goals in performance plans of cross-functional partners.

Aim

5. Define – Define your metrics in ways people can understand. Use industry standards. Describe definitions in laymen’s terms, and educate the masses.
6. Report – Create an easy to read, regularly updated, consistent report that is distributed widely.
7. Co-habitate – Merge your analytics with standard business reporting. Where are the eyes on the business? Put your metrics there. Put them at the top. Don’t reinvent reports and channels.
8. Visualize – Show some meaning behind the numbers. Connect emotionally, create internal buzz and sound bytes.

Fire

9. Causate – Show the connections of what causes what: Y=f(x). This is a Six sigma methodology. Do A/B testing and pilots to show what moves these metrics people are now paying attention to.
10. Extrapolate – Show what if scenarios. If we do this, this lever changes, makes this customer or P&L impact. Then extrapolate to larger number (a quarter of a year of impact) to get a lot of attention.
11. Compete – Create internal competitions to improve metrics. Inspire people with stretch goals with a “Results Rabbit” for people to go after.
12. Share – Present results of business impact related to web metrics. Show the impact to the business.

Via here