1. Sharing - The basics

So moving forward I am going to use this blog more as a platform to share my thoughts on communication, feel free to contribute, borrow etc but please take note to the licensing conditions, many thanks.

Lets start with some basic background info that sets up the framwork of the debate. Yes digital is a factor but no TV and other media for that matter is not going to suddenly disappear as a relevant factor in communication. To me this is common sense but I have read enough to know others believe different so I just wanted to set my stall out. By the way after going from Keynote to PowerPoint to GoogleDocs some of my lovely slides look a little ropey, sorry for that.



The one thing to note here is that the medium is increasingly going to become an irrelevant tag when creating content, today often we say "TV" when we mean "Film" and "online" when we mean "websites". Already digital media is actually a medium for any form of content and over the coming couple of years the TV will catch up and be an interactive shell for digital content. Moving forward content will become independent of the medium to deliver it. What will become important is how we construct experiences and ongoing dialogues across the different media so people get the right content and interactivity in the context of what they are doing and what their needs are at a specific point in their brand interaction.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Moving On...

So from that situation comes a crossroads...what to do? 3 years of running my own agency, then a supposed stable period turns sour. What to do?

Battled but unbowed by the Look experience, more certain than ever that effective use of digital in a variable media mix is without a doubt the way to develop effective lasting profitable consumer brand relationships but without a vehicle to express this belief.

After seriously considering a move away from all forms of marketing comes a bolt from the blue that reaffirms my faith!

Drafted in (via fairy godmother Pasquelina Petruccio) to work with 180 / TBWA on a global digital pitch for one of the worlds best known sports goods brands. Working with Omnicom/TBWA CDO Colleen Decourcy and a team of brilliant, lovely people in 2-3 weeks of very long and stimulating work we deliver a pitch to be proud of.

Up against, Droga5, Aegis Isobar and AvenueA Razorfish the result is due today...watch this space...

So from the worst to the best experience of my career...ain't life funny.

OK so enough of the personal emotional posts, now back to the fun of communications and how we need to react to the changing world of consumer brand relationships to successfully deliver value to client organisations...

cherish is dead, long live cherish

So what an interesting few months that has been. It's my blog so I can be honest, and here goes honesty....albeit in short.

November 2007...time to wrap up cherish...why?

1. cherish was doing small work with big brands. This was not going to change in the short term and was frustrating.
2. As a self financed venture cherish never had the money to hire the very best people, with all respect to those that worked with cherish in its 3 years. This was hurting our work and the business.
3. I was increasingly failing as a manager, partly because of the above points it was becoming clear the business, which successful compared to many small agencies, was not living up to my expectations and aims...so before it died or I died it was time to close.
4. There was an offer of something interesting that would allow me to leverage the cherish model but in a larger better financed environment. More of that below.

Feb 2008...new challenges and little bit of stability, or so I thought...!

Over the course of 2007 a friend at the time Hans Howarth, CEO of Amsterdam based web agency MediaCatalyst, had approached me to help head up a new joint venture between his company and Cayenne, the traditional agency of Canon in Europe. The new company, Look, was to be the integrated agency of the group. My role was to be Strategy Director, determining the offering of the business and help solidify a very shaky client relationship between Canon and Cayenne.

Public blogs are not for details so I will leave it by saying it was not what it was meant to be, politics and in fighting resulted in stagnation and impotence, someone I considered a friend turned out to be quite the opposite in their expectation setting and more disappointingly in their financial commitment so after 4 months it was time to leave what in fact turned into the worst experience of my career.

You always learn from these things, they make you stronger, but it is still not pleasant to experience.

The biggest disappointment of all is that the small number of Look employees brought in to start the business were very able, very admirable people. MediaCatalyst is a company with a strong culture and great team. It is an example of how one person's ambition can be blind to what could be lost in order to reach a financial goal. A lesson in business for us all. But, onwards and upwards.

cherish lives on, but now as a vehicle for me to engage agencies and brands to deliver on the opportunity that exists in communications without the baggage of overheads and the necessity to sell campaigns or production.

Me bad...cherish good

I am becoming increasingly shocking at regular posts...that's the bad. The good was the results of the Van Dobben campaign mentioned below.

From a zero media budget cherish managed to get the Dutch nation croquet crazy. By spanning the campaign over a month with the interactive engagement (vote for the filling in the croquet, cherish invented 4 new flavours to represent Holland - Erwtensoep, Bier, Haring and Appeltaart) it allowed time for the buzz and word of mouth to generate, and once the ball started rolling with local Amsterdam paper Echo we never looked back.



Further newspaper coverage from, to name but 2, Het Parool (Amsterdams largest daily) and then a front page on De Telegraaf (the Netherlands biggest selling newspaper - see image) really helped generate energy prior to the event (yes I know I look an idiot but I'll take whatever publicity I can get in the spirit of Richard Branson).

All of the build up culminated in an appearance on De Wereld Draait Door, recently voted Hollands most popular TV show, a daily look at the world of current affairs and culture where croquet maker and campaign front man Piet Brink explained the theory. This then led to national TV news picking up the story with NOS, RTL and SBS (see attached film) all featuring items on the day on the event with over 2000 people turning out to see the grand unveiling. I must admit it was a bit surreal, at the point of the unveiling it went mental, a real scrum of people and press, crazy...but good.

SBS6 - Hart van Nederland


Bottom line is that we attracted over 15,000 unique visitors to the campaign site in a week. It generated hundreds of thousands of Euro of PR Value from nothing and also as we encouraged Van Dobben to actually make the 4 new flavours they proved so popular that Appeltaart is now going into production in 2008...deriving a new revenue stream for the business. Sales figures for Q4 are expected Q1 08. You can see more of the coverage on the website www.cherish-amsterdam.com

Swing Low...

OK I know I am a bad blogger. The last month has been dominated by a giant croquet (www.grootstecroquet.nl) and the small matter of the Rugby World cup....and tomorrow I head to Paris for the England - South Africa final. I make no bones about it, today marketing takes a back seat to nervous excitement for my beloved game and my inspiring English hero's....no idea what I am on about? Ah well sorry, your missing out. Go to Coco's on Rembrandtplein tomorrow Sat 20th around 8pm and you'll soon underatand. As for me, miracles do happen and I have a ticket and will be in the Stadium....don't call me on Monday.

Sneak Peak / Oh Dear!

In a little preview of what we are up to with Dutch snack food legend Van Dobben here I am pictured last week in their factory with the latest incarnation of the worlds biggest croquet...to also illustrate how comfortable I am in myself I include the worst picture of me ever taken...but it is funny, the combination of the hairnet, ill fitting coat (or actually ill fitting belly) and crouching position really does do me a lot of favours... but enough of me, check out the size of the croquet!!!

Some Stats...

- Current Length: 1,5 meter (normal croquet 9 cm)
- Weight: 168 kilo = 1,680 times that of a normal Van Dobben croquet (100 g)
- 28 kilo flour
- 28 kilo beef = 190 steaks
- 70 liters stock
- Custom made fryer is 2m x 1,5m x 1,5m
- ± 1200 litres frying oil = 600 bottles (sshh don't tell the nutritionist)
- 16 hours to make the croquet

Media Independence!!

A few posts ago I was talking about not being comfortable with cross-media integrated agency as a description of cherish, and after much thought I think the concept of true media independance is really what captures the essence of what I am trying to achieve with the business.

I have been speaking to clients and contacts about what it really means to be “cross-media” and that the benefit cherish has is true “media independence”. To recap an earlier point, what I mean by this is that a lot of agencies preach cross-media but in reality they have one dominant media that they have to have as a cornerstone of a campaign to make their business model work. I have not yet seen traditional agencies constructing cross media without TV and/or print. I am less likely to see interactive agencies producing cross-media campaigns without an online/digital element. This is naturally because of their skills base in house and the fact they need to keep them utilised to stay profitable and pay salaries. cherish was founded on a different business model that will still facilitate financial and headcount growth but in a scalable and truly media-independent manner. If, together with our client, we feel that a TV and print campaign is correct we can deliver this. If an interactive campaign combined with events is required we can do that. It is about what media is right for the consumer and the campaign and not what media is right for the agencies margins. This is an interesting and relevant topic as a number of traditional, PR and interactive agencies are all trying to jump onto the cross-media bandwagon at present but there business models constrict their flexibility.

So there we have it, cherish is a media-independent cross-media agency...hmmm, maybe to many "medias" for one sentance but it makes the point.

Henry's birthday!

Moving onto what's important. Henry is 2 today, hurrah. Let's celebrate with him by calling cherish and giving us lots of new campaigns, you know it's what he would want...and if we don't get campaigns it makes me angry and frustrated and taking it out on Henry today would be such a shame...

Reclameweek Interview

Look out in next weeks Reclameweek for an interview with my good self . Bart Remmers came over for a chat this week and has done a very kind job of writing an article which I think really reflects some of the key thoughts of myself and cherish...also as we finally start the PR machine rolling with press releases in Adformatie and Reclameweek

Van Dobben

It's all about the English and Dutch getting together today...cherish has had the green light on a campaign with legendary Dutch brand Van Dobben. We approached them with a specific idea to help promote them but also to illustrate cherish's abilities to it's home market. Our campaigns are all over Europe but I wanted more visibility in The Netherlands. As part of the deal cherish will be visible on all of the collateral in the campaign...and actually I have really high hopes for the campaign itself...very funny and very visible...watch this space. From a PR angle the idea of an Englishmans company promoting the essence of Holland is already starting to bite...lovely...

It's not cross media...but what?

So for the time being I have settled on cherish being an "integrated, cross media" agency...but I am not happy...integrated:, well yes we do bring together different aspects of agency life, PR, media, creativity...but only because it makes sense and only then if a campaign needs it, not just for the sake of it...cross media: it is true our campaigns span several media, but cross media tends to bring up images of one concept pushed through differing channels, and always the same channels...cherish is focussed on campaigns that use any media that is relevant and necessary to pull the consumer into an engagement. Our business model, now and for the future, does not look to recruit large elements of a single skill set into the business...thus meaning cherish never NEEDS to sell a campaign of a certain type for the sake of the business, as out traditional and interactive colleagues do.

Without TV as part if the campaign the traditional agencies are really struggling to justify the budgets they need to match their costs, the interactive agencies have to keep the developers working so the campaigns must be interactive in nature. I don't have a problem with TV and interactive always being there if they are needed...but ONLY if they are needed...

What I am talking about is media neutrality, a media neutral agency...hmmm not sure neutral is a good way of describing an agency with a strong opinion. It's not about a new description for the sake of it, it's because there IS a new way of looking at things...media agnostic...nope...consumer led...naah...media independent...maybe? Suggestions on a postcard please...

Will it ever stop raining...

PLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEEE

The new cherish website...

Is live!! Rejoice! It's taken some time, as anyone in a busy agency will know, but it is live. A combination of living elements (like, photos, this blog etc) and a creative explanation of who cherish and what cherish is. It has been really well received so far which is nice, but it has only just begun, it will evolve and grow...watch this space...well not this space, that space...

Imitation is sincerest form of flattery

There seems to be a new, highly contagious disease in the ad/pr and media industries at present. Case's of NeedToSurvivitis (otherwise known as BandWaggoning) are increasingly common with more agencies are trying to re-invent themselves as integrated/cross media blah di blah companies.

The thing is, when I set cherish up it was specifically because I could not see any existing agency capable or even willing to change sufficiently to address the needs of the marketplace...cherish was established 2 years ago solely to deliver effective campaigns across any media and using and technique necessary to connect brands and consumers, irrespective of buzz words or convenient industry categorisations. What this means for our clients is that our business model is such that we don’t have large numbers of people in a specific skills area sat around not working if one campaign has no interactive or no TV - this means we don't have to find a way to price campaigns to pay their salaries. We have no pre-conceptions of the advertising industry, no minds needing changing, no egos damping.

So...don't accept substitutes....a pig in a woolly jumper is not a sheep...a transvestite is not a woman (no offence!)...a rebranded/repositioned agency is not..well...cherish.

Why will traditional agencies struggle?

Because there is s battle for hearts and minds of traditional creatives more difficult to win than that the Americans are fighting in Baghdad. The belief that an industry is changing incorporating media that they do not understand means they are frightened and defensive. Buying in interactive talent helps but as I know from people fighting the fight in Amsterdams 2 most famous agencies the politics and egos are making change slow and inefficient, and who is losing out whilst people are rutting like stags internally? Clients and consumers. As always.

Why will PR agencies struggle?

I'm afraid the shock of the complexity of devising, creating and producing campaigns including interactive media is simply not understood by much of the PR industry. The process and structure you need in an organisation is central to the culture of the company and will create conflict and failure before it creates results.

Why will interactive agencies struggle?

Mainly because they struggle to have the gravitas and strategic thinking to engage with a brand on a truly conceptual and strategic level, and even if they have are 'C' level clients ready to engage an interactive agency as a strategic brand partner? Also whilst some interactive shops are trying to break into TV this is a tough leap to make. I do think if they bring in the right skills and have the right culture to adapt they will find it easier than the traditional agencies to morph but to be honest I respect the agencies in this space that are focussing on increasing their depth of skill and expertise and creativity digitally and ignoring the lure of the integrated world and sticking to what they are good at

UPC Shoot...

Another week another eventful few days in the life of myself and cherish. Thursday was the first TV shoot for cherish, a big day in proving that we have credibility in "traditional media" as well as the many other forms of media we are already leveraging in our campaigns. The shoot is for UPC in The Netherlands and is a concept we created to promote safe use of the internet for teens in Holland. It integrates with an online resource to advise teens on how they can avoid getting in trouble.

We are working as a partner to Solid Ground in this campaign, a significant player in the PR world in Amsterdam and thanks have to go to CEO Peggy de Lange for having the faith in cherish to get us involved.

The shoot itself went very smoothly, other than the inevitable clashes between large ego's and creative minds (erm...that would be me and the director then!) but the result is going to be great and that's the most important thing. The biggest achievement of the day was getting good weather to shoot at all, the only sunny day in weeks of absolute crap in The Netherlands...Budapest feels a long time ago!

Also we saw the launch of Niels Broekhof's career as the Stunt Pervert, fantastic effort Niels!

The spot will be on TMF in The Netherlands (a youth focussed Dutch MTV) 4 times a day for at least a month and you can see further pics of the day by clicking the link to cherish photo's on the right of this page.