Stardate January 5th 2555 *
(*it really IS 2555 according to the Thai calendar)
Did you see that amazing pit stop by Sebastian Vettel last year? The one where he was leading the race with 10 laps to go…?
He came in, stopped perfectly on his spot, surrounded by his seventeen (yes, seventeen) pit-crew team, and they went to work.
Except that the lollipop “brake” board holder at the front dropped the lollipop and grabbed the wheel-nut gun from one of front-wheel guys and shouted “nah mate, you wanna hold it like this, much more efficient”
At the same time, one of the rear-wheel guys dropped his spare wheel and took the refueling rig from the refueler, telling him where he was going wrong, just as the guy holding the rear jack let the car back down so he could explain to one of the other rear-wheel guys how best to prepare the wheel to attach.
Meanwhile, Vettel decided he didn’t like how the front-jack was holding up the car so he unbuckled his seatbelt, detached his steering wheel and got out to put him right. Just as…
…just as his Crew Chief Adrian Newey ran up, throwing his Red Bull headphones to the floor, pulling a helmet on and leaping in the cockpit, telling Vettel how he should be driving.
Eventually, Newey got all four tyres changed, and refueled, in 5 minutes and 37 seconds, joining the race they were previously leading, at the back of the field. He came last and was lapped by all but two tail enders.
Madness.
But this is how advertising seems to view collaboration.
Collaboration is good, make no mistake. When a team of people work together, each one doing their job to the best of their abilities and trusting everyone else to do theirs.
In fact, genuine collaboration is SO good, that actual pit-stop to refuel and change all four of Vettel’s tyres in reality took a mere 3.1 seconds, and of course he won the race.
But the comedic version is fairly typical of how many advertising campaigns are created.
Everyone seems to know how to do everyone else’s job better than they do.
Of course everyone has an opinion (just like Vettel’s rear-wheel guy will have an opinion on his driving). But true, real, harmonious collaboration is when you respect the other people enough to let them do their jobs, EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE WITH HOW THEY’RE DOING IT.
That’s tough. I didn’t like everything that came out of my own agency – it wasn’t all designed for me, I wasn’t the target market every time. But I respected everything we did. Because I trusted the people we had, to make the correct decisions about any particular campaign.
Of course I could have done it all myself. But it really would’ve been the pits.
Blog off.
grubbythirteen 