Popular mechanics
When I was 21, I used to get around in an illegally low jet black ‘67 Falcon. It ran 10 inch rims on the back, had a chrome scoop sticking out the hole in the bonnet and gear drive which combined with a straight through exhaust made it sound like the test lab at Boeing. Neither my parents, my neighbours or the cops were impressed.

Me and my mates thought it was the bomb.

I used to spend as much money on tyres as I earned, I was a regular at the Calder Park street drags, at the Sandown Park V8 touring car races and the NASCAR events at the Thunderdome. My Dad would probably tell you no good came of this misspent youth. I beg to differ.

At the time I thought it was both big AND clever to go as fast as I could whenever and wherever I could. To me a red light was just another invitation to drop a burnout soon as it went green again, in fact I have a nasty feeling there’s a hole in the ozone layer that can be directly attributed to me and that car.

But one day my mechanic set me straight. He ran his own sprint car team, just country speedway sort of stuff, but a race team all the same – so I listened to him.

Anyway after one of my somewhat regular visits to fix something I’d broken he told me about the 90% for 90% rule.

It applied to his team then, and it applies to all of us now.

The 90% for 90% is as obvious as it sounds, you go fast, you stay on top of your game, close to the leaders, but you don’t give it 100% until you can see the finish, you keep that 10% in reserve until you really need it.

Whether you’re pushing yourself, or whether you’re pushing your people, expecting to get 100% for an extended length of time isn’t thinking long term. Run anything at 100% from the get go and it will fail before you’re halfway done. Trust me on this.

So if you’re on the ragged edge right now, ease back, focus on what’s important, get it done and get it done well, but hold that bit back for the final lap, because when you need it you’ll be glad you did.

Like I said, obvious really, but sometimes we just need a reminder.

d

P.S. Fletch, tell your parents I’m sorry it was me doing donuts in your court that night.

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The Tipping Point in action

One of the most fascinating videos I have ever seen has hideous camera work and a God-awful soundtrack.

You’ll be tempted to turn if off after 2 or 3 seconds, but this one rewards you for sticking with it for the full 3 minutes and 6 seconds, because it shows something we mostly only ever read about.

A tipping point.

For those who haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, the tipping point is the moment where a product, service or an idea suddenly becomes  popular. It’s described as ‘the level where the momentum for change becomes unstoppable’. It’s the brand that was unknown yesterday and is now on everyone’s lips.

Like Twitter.

It tipped after being featured at the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive Conference. Before the conference, the number of tweets a day was 20,000. During the conference, it jumped to 60,000, and now it’s up around 3 million tweets a day.

Or the ‘Twilight’ series, which was first published in 2005 to the delight of teenage girls, but now seems to be on everyone’s bookshelf and, with the movie release, has entered popular culture and spawned terms such as ‘Twilight Moms‘.

But back to the video (below), taken at the Sasquatch Music Festival in 2009.

While everyone sits and chats on picnic blankets, a lone man (very possibly under the influence of something illegal) starts a crazy little dance and is quickly joined by his mate. At that point their idea – ‘let’s dance’ – is not something anyone else wants buy into. Most ignore them, some look a little embarrassed for them. But these two are having a grand old time while the crowd just sits and stares.

Now it’s gotta take guts – or hard drugs – to swim against the current like these guys are.

In front of hundreds of people they’re flying in the face of the status quo. They’ve just launched a new idea and nobody is quite sure what to make of it. And we humans tend to prefer the safety of numbers. Socially, it’s much safer to do what the majority of the crowd is doing.

But look at what happens at the 1:20 mark.

Another 8 people join the group.

This idea just tipped.

Now in that group of 8, there was very likely one brave (and popular) soul who not only decided to get up and dance, but convinced 7 of his closest friends to do so too. No longer are we watching a couple of weirdos dancing in a field, we’re at a small dance party. And that clearly makes all the difference.

At 1:30,  people are running – literally running – to join in.

At 1:50, the dancers have taken over from the picnic blanketers. Get up and dance, little fellas, or you’re gonna get trod on.

At the end of the video, at least 100 people are on their feet, waving their arms in the air. We’ve gone from a few picnickers on blankets to a swarming, dancing crowd.

New ideas work this way too. They don’t necessarily take off immediately.

We have a quote on the wall here, readying: “Don’t worry about people stealing your idea. If it’s truly original you’ll have to ram it down their throats”.

But if you get the right few people behind it, it’ll take off faster than you can believe.

xk

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Last year, singer songwriter Regina Spektor released a song that became an instant favourite of mine.

You see, I’m a big fan of good word-play or a clever turn of phase, this time it’s just a lyric got straight to the heart of something.

Musically it might not be your cup of tea, it’s not all that different from the sort of thing Alanis Morissette puts out. But unlike Ms Morissette who once released a song called “Ironic” wherein she proved that she didn’t actually understand what irony was at  all, (which is itself is quite ironic), Ms Spektor knows her  subject matter.

“Laughing With” is a song that at its core is one of ad-land’s  holiest of grails, an insight.

She’s just making an observation about society’s views on religion and faith. And the human condition. That it’s ok to take the piss when everything is going well, but placed into a situation that’s gone seriously pear-shaped our attitude changes somewhat.

Ok, it’s not rocket science, and she’s not going to trouble the Pulitzer board with this, but is that the purpose of a pop song anyway?

If this were a bit of advertising and if it got peoples’ attention, made them take a second look and sold lots of product I’d say it’s more than done its job. Look, I know music is subjective, but then so is art, and design, and advertising, but if we could build all our creative around an insight, how much greater the chance we’d connect with our audience.

“Laughing With” ended up going to a very respectable number 14 in the US singles chart, which might suggest I’m not the only one who heard it and thought “yeah that’s what I think too”.

d

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It’s the standard smart-arse response when you ask for a ballpark quote or a budget or a rough idea of head hours or any question where the details haven’t yet been nutted out.

How long’s a piece of string?

It’s a cop out.

Because you’re not being asked for a precise figure. You’re being asked to guesstimate and you probably have enough information to do that. If not, ask a few questions. Figure out your parameters.

All you really need to know is what the string is for:

For tying up my tomatoes? Anywhere between 10cm and 20cm per tomato plant.

For wrapping a toy? Probably somewhere between 30cm and 3m.

For stringing up Christmas decorations in the agency. Hmmmm, around 30m should do the trick

Rough, ballpark figures to give someone a better idea of what they’re dealing with.

That’s all we ask.

You’d be mad to give a creative team a brief without a budget – it’s like throwing down a challenge to any creative worth their salt. You’re telling them the sky’s the limit. And you’ll never be able to afford what they come up with.

My rough guess is that most people have a half-decent idea of their budget. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: What’s the budget?

Them: Client didn’t give us one

Me: Just a rough, ballpark cost. Doesn’t have to be exact.

Them: Sorry, I really couldn’t say.

Me: OK. So a hundred dollars a pack sound OK?

Them: God no, more like 2 bucks.

So next time your request is met with ‘how long’s a piece of string?’, ask ‘what’s the string for?’.

Or just answer ‘twice as long as half the length’.

That ought to shut ‘em up.

xk

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