Fight, fight, fight

Our Same to Fame event was awesome. Our first live gig in two years. People filled the room (in real-life!) at the Tanner Warehouse, and, thanks to the pandemic, the new normal meant that we had a shedload of people watching live from their sofas too. And what had they come out (or stayed in) to see and hear?

Some of the UK’s best marketing brains, all spitballing in one place. Giving the audience an inside track on how they work, how they find game-changing ideas and crucially how they fight for the best work. Belter.

Image credit: Maximus the invincible.

And I wasn’t going to waste those fiery nuggets, oh no no no. Because at Mellor&Smith mega-globo headquarters we shout about fame. Getting fame, finding fame, building fame. And here were some of the best in the biz, echoing our very thoughts, our raison d’être.

Fighting for the best ideas.

Brands don’t just land on an idea, a concept, a campaign that tickles the double chin of their desired audience. These brilliant, sometimes mind-blowing ideas often take a gaggle of clever creative folk months to find and create. It takes a team of creative directors, copywriters, art directors, artworkers and a smattering of client services people, plenty of sleepless nights and lots of pizza takeaways to refine these game-changer moments.

And the clients who ‘get’ this way of working, well they love it. They’ll foot the bill at Domino’s if it means their product gets top billing… top billing could be Ant&Dec talking about it on Saturday Night Takeaway, or when a campaign is debated in Parliament, or even better, when Piers Morgan rants about it for 5 mins on Good Morning Britain.

Lovely jubbly.

Most of the time, for an idea to break into the public consciousness it's going to make the clients board of directors clench their buttocks so hard they could un-shell pistachios.

Image credit: Maximus the totes invincible.

And the head of marketing for that brand has to fight for what they know will work, a campaign they'd bet their career will make a brand famous. They’re risk takers, gut feelers and flamin' well good fighters.

We had these people in the same room that night. Here are some of their titbits.

The best ideas fit on a text.

Lee Price (Allbirds, ex-Paddy Power, head of mischief) spoke about his rule that the best ideas fit on a text. When he was at Paddy Power and I was pitching ideas at him, he told me: “don’t send me big PowerPoint decks, don’t set up a Zoom meeting – just send me an idea on a text. Write it down. If it takes more than a text, then don’t bother. If it needs too much explaining, it’s not going to work as an idea”. It’s a wonderfully brutal way of getting people to boil their ideas to the most significant points. I nearly kissed him, it was perfect.

That’s how Lee fights for the best ideas. It forces agencies to really think about their ideas, rather than hide behind complicated presentations.

And Lee knows about killer ideas. He launched the Save our Shirts campaign in 2019. Tired of seeing crazy numbers of football kits being plastered with gambling logos (the irony was not lost on them). Paddy Power un-sponsored Huddersfield Town FC in 2019.

Imagine spending some serious dosh to sponsor a football team, only to then shine a light on the proliferation of your own industry into football clubs, by putting a huge sash across the top and then removing the logo all together for the rest of the season.

Image credit. Paddy Power.

It was a massive success, debated in Parliament and the BBC breakfast sofa, for a few days it was everywhere. And then as Lee said; “not only did it make a big initial splash, but every time Huddersfield played or gambling within football was mentioned, so was our campaign”.

But getting it approved by the senior peeps at Paddy wasn't easy. Lee had to fight hard. But he knew deep down, it was a great idea. It was worth fighting for.

Beanz on Bix.

Gareth Turner, Head of Brand at Weetabix spoke about his 70/20/10 rule. This only really works for established brands, rather than start-ups. 70% of their marketing budget is spent on stuff that works, has worked, and will work again. This stuff is the foundation of their marketing. It doesn’t move, doesn’t change a great deal, it’s tried and tested – basically ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. Think along the lines of He’s had his Weetabix, that insight is bulletproof. They know it works. They keep using it.

Then that important 20%. They'd spent a little on some experimental marketing ideas, campaigns, general stuff that proved successful in the previous year. It worked. So they then invest a little more on those good, but not so tried-and-tested ideas.

Then the 10% is the mad stuff, the experimentation, the kind of activity that might work but equally it could bomb. And he’s looking for that one bright light in there. That one risk taking idea that surprises everyone. And that then gets moved into the 20% of the budget the following year.

Gareth’s budget at Weetabix is pretty hefty, but he has to push, to fight ideas in that 10%. He knows that the board will feel far more comfortable spending their huge budget on the tried and tested methods, but he knows that if he carves out a 10% chunk, he’ll get some mad ideas, the best ideas. And they’ll then get moved up to the 20%. All while still spending on the bigger, safer ideas that pay the bills and keep the lights on.

A fantastic example of Gareth’s 70/20/10 rule, is the Beanz on Bix idea that went absolutely berserk in March 2021. On of the ideas Gareth’s team had been cooking up, was a cookery book using Weetabix (totally intended).

Image credit: Weetabix, eeeesh.

They tweeted showing Baked Beans on Weetabix, it quickly went viral. And I mean properly viral, 1.2bn views later and it was being debated in parliament. Eeeeesh.

It's bigger than hip hop.

Vicky Stephenson (ex-BBC) was walking through the park with her son in the pram, listening to old school hip hop in her iPod. The idea came to her like a light bulb moment – Vicky knew she wanted some of the Planet Earth footage, lined up nicely with old school hip hop. That would be the trailer for the next series of Planet Earth. The powers that be weren’t so sure. A lot of “Are you insane?” and “not on your nelly!” (totally underused phrase BTW) were heard in the BBC boardroom.

I always imagine the boardrooms at the Beeb are oak panelled, perhaps with the whiff of cigar smoke. Ahhhh, nice.

Image credit: BBC One Facebook page, innit

The BBC topdogs thought it would never work, would alienate their core audience (the average 60-year old who loves David Attenborough) and they definitely wouldn’t like hip hop. Vicky fought back, dug her heels in and got her idea to go ahead. It was incredibly successful, in fact one of the most successful trailers that the BBC has ever run in the almost 100 years* of BBC programming. All because Vicky stuck to her guns, fighting for the best ideas, knowing what would work – that those two genres that had never been put together would capture the viewers’ attention and be well, ground-breaking.

Not content with creating one of the most successful BBC trailers of all time, Vicky was part of the team behind that Dracula billboard. Ooooffff, getting wooden stakes banged into a billboard to cast a Dracula shadow. It said everything about the new series and notably, won a bazillion awards.

Image credit: Modern Met.

Skater hater.

Abba Newbury, CMO of online mortgage broker Habito, loves skateboarding. She realised she could easily show people the areas in a city where the next up and coming area to buy hot properties was. It was where the skateboarders were. Wherever the skateboarders are right now, is going to be worth a fortune in 5 years’ time. Why? Skateboarders are there because it is deserted and probably close to amenities.

Linking skateboarders to a mortgage company had never been done before, it wasn’t very mainstream. It was a mad idea for a mortgage company to partner up with a skateboarding company.

She fought tooth and nail to see through her idea. She convinced her board it was a good idea, because the 'typical' sponsorship route for a mortgage company would be sponsoring GB sailing, perhaps rowing, and almost certainly England rugby. Something mainstream, where the money and the poshos are. But Abba convinced them otherwise.

Skateboard GB unveiled Habito as its Principal Partner in what it said was the largest sponsorship deal in UK skateboarding history.

Skateboarding debuted at the Olympics in 2021. And 13-year-old Sky Brown became GB’s youngest ever medal winner. Her Bronze medal in Tokyo made sure it was the sport on everybody’s lips. Even the directors were boarding into work (I actually hear they roller-bladed, but skateboarding is waaaay cooler).

Image credit: iNews

Fight, fight, fight.

All these senior marketers have fought, debated and sometimes bulldozed their way through the boardroom to ensure the best ideas get made. Deep-down they knew their ideas would work, and the campaign would be a success.

Image credit: James 'sexiest man in London' Smith.

So keep on fighting, debate the c-suite in the oak-panelled boardroom and jump over those barriers. Fighting for the best ideas and aiming for fame. It’ll be worth it in the end.

Pinky promise.

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Want to watch the whole Same to Fame event from March? It's 2 hours of golden nuggets. Watch it here.

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