I saw this headline on B&T.com recently (full article here) and was struck by an uncanny sense of deja vu.

Call me a little old fashioned, but surely an agency not focused on delivering results shouldn’t still be in business. They should be parked alongside the dinosaur or sitting at the bottom of the sea next to the Titanic.

All clients are measured on results so why aren’t all agencies focused on results?

If I wanted a mug for my coffee, I wouldn’t use one made out of chocolate! I’d use one fit for purpose. So why do clients still use agencies that aren’t focused on results?

What I find most shocking is that it isn’t just comments from a minority. The article quotes that 67% of Australian marketers say ad agencies are still not results focused.  That’s over two thirds of the market.  Wow…and they’re happy with their existing agency?

When we set CUBED up 5 years ago, we said our raison d’etre was to deliver results to our clients.  The formula we live by – the one that appears on all our agency materials – is ‘Data x Targeting x Creative = Results’.

Now, I never thought of myself as a rocket scientist but it strikes me that 5 years ago this was revolutionary and even now, it seems that it’s a visionary approach.

And as much as I’d like to see the advertising industry pull its socks up and focus on what’s right for clients, the selfish part of me hopes the secret stays amongst us few and our results continue to speak for themselves.

Cheers,

Mike

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Hot on the heels of Ellie’s post about sustainable design, here’s some design work we’ve been toying with over the past few months.

It’s for our own brand – six CUBED greeting cards that can be sent to clients and friends when they have a birthday, have a baby, accept a marriage proposal, walk down the aisle, change jobs or go on holiday.

Being fans of beautiful typography, we wanted to create something special and give ourselves an opportunity to take our corporate typeface for a spin. It’s not often that we have the luxury of crafting type like this, so Dave was more than happy to spend his nights in front of the Mac, kerning, tracking and hunting down appropriate icons.

Anyone have Hallmark’s number?

The fun theory – Designing for social change.

In the first of many posts that I will write about designing for social change, I thought I’d show you the fun theory.

This is just one of the theories that is not only aimed towards promoting change, but one that highlights how simple and fun change can be.

Humans are, by nature, scared of change or find it too hard to bother. But what happens when you get creative about ways to influence people? What’s the best way to infiltrate society to become motivated to change? Can we design a strategy to promote change?

Introducing the fun theory.

This is a campaign and website supported by VolksWagon that is dedicated to the idea that something simple and fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

If you wanted to inspire people to use the stairs instead of the escalator what sort of a strategy could you come up with?

Can you make people use the stairs by making it fun?

Here’s one such example that uses the fun theory and gets great results.

And watch how the fun theory can give parents some peace.

So the next time you want to influence change, whether it’s getting someone to switch to your product or service or simply just convincing a child to keep their room tidy, think about how you can make it fun and simple.

Ellie

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When some people take a sabbatical, they leave one type of work in search of an alternative lifestyle. Others leave study to go travelling and get real world experience. Then there are those who leave responsibility behind to go bowling.

And get good at it.

Really, really, really good at it.

You should never go bowling with those people.

Sadly when ten of us went out for a pizza and a social bowl this week we didn’t realise we had amongst us a bowling ninja. On Troy’s team, the sledging and baracking started early, while on Dave’s team, Nik was just offering team mates the occasional helping hint. Then he stepped up to bowl.

BAM! You know what that is? That’s the sound of Nik getting strike after strike (while Dave and Kate sent bowling ball after bowling ball down into the gutters). To be fair, in the second game Brendan showed his sporting prowess to record a very respectable 186, Steph, Sina, Big Dave and Elise all scored over 100, but at the end of it all, Nik’s 221 was by far the stand out score of the night.

Next time we do this, I dibs being on Nik’s team.

If he’ll have me.

Some jobs call for all the bells and whistles – an all-singing, all-dancing pack that demands attention like a two-year old having a rolling-on-the-floor, ear-piercing hissy-fit at Safeway.

Others require a more subtle touch.

Like the simple, well-crafted letter above.

It was written when TRUenergy asked us to create a piece to let their customers know how much they’re valued. We had no offer and no real call to action. But with so much door-to-door activity among energy companies these days, we needed to convince customers to stay with TRUenergy.

So we crafted a letter and gave it a twist.

Instead of the traditional format – a long letter with a single signature – we wrote a short letter with nine signatures. One for each of the business heads who are committed to looking after TRUenergy customers.

And the response?

The mailer only went out a couple of weeks ago, but within a day, TRUenergy’s switchboard was already receiving calls from customers who’d been approached by other energy companies, giving TRUenergy the opportunity to retain these people.

Exactly the response we were hoping for.

And not a bell or whistle in sight.

We’ve just added a stack of new CUBISMS to our Flickr album. These two seemed appropriate for Easter:

Happy Easter, kids.

See you after the break!