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.
Thanks. Ah yes, reminds me of the time I was at one of the midget’s agencies. The CD accused me of ‘not hearing what other people (meaning suits) had to say’. My much-younger-then reply was, “Yeah, but if I listened to every voice, what happens to mine?’.
If YouTube existed then, I would have sent the link to the scene where Dirty Harry’s desk-bound, zero-experience says, ‘Callaghan, in my opinion …’
At this point, Harry cuts him off and says, ‘opinions are like ass-holes. Everyone’s got one.’
Quite sure planners would have the figures to prove Harry wrong.
well Robin, if people in advertising don’t have enough humility to learn from the richest, most glamorous business on the planet, then we’re in a very sorry state indeed…
True, Grubbie. Maybe it’s just in Asia? But so many agency management here encourage that kind of ‘collaboration’.
So suits who have never read a book in the last 3 years and can’t speak proper English are allowed to comment on copy. Why? Because, well, consumers are also in the fool multitude.
Such spontaneous and unsolicited comments are seen as being ‘team players’.
And worse, they are often rewarded for their ‘contributions’
We once pitched for Lexus and the only reason someone from the agency was invited to comment on the work was ‘her husband drove one’. Didn’t matter one iota that her husband wasn’t your typical Lexus driver.
A painfully accurate analogy
@robin nah that happens in usa and uk too be real about these issues – infact that is humans, someone with a loud voice or power play kicks up a fuss teh whole world caves in
You’re right Ralph, and the best work always comes when people let good people do their jobs, but it’s a lack of trust I guess
Somebody, somewhere is eating a Toffee Crisp.
Sorry that was meant to read ‘Somebody, somewhere is having a Toffee Crisp’ which I always took to mean ‘Somebody, somewhere is having a laugh/taking the piss’.
Happy New Year.
Grubby, somebody’s gotta say this, so I will:
It’s high time you told your readers something they don’t know already. It’s time to move on, past the I-used-to-own-my-agency rant,
and onto: I-am-one-bad-mother-fucker-on-my-own-and-I-ain’t-toe-up-down-wit-no-collabo-unless-it’s-a-hip-hop-video-featuring-Snoop-and-Fat Joe.
(Cheers G for letting me post this. You know I love you.)
Er…yeah…Patrick
Also mention how you thought WE ARE THE WORLD was the gayest collaboration. Not cool Gay like Freddie Mercury or Rob Halford or George Michaels, but bad, brown line in the middle of your fruit-o-loom kind of gay.
x
PS To all da Yanks in this mother fucker; Vote for Ron Paul in ’12