Thursday, 1 May 2008

Stephen King - JWT

Have you ever wondered what the father of 'Account Planning' looked and behaved like? I first heard of the existence of this video in JWT London's weekly meeting and recall Guy Murhpy's (JWT Global Planning Director) face lighting up at the description of 'hammers' as examples of product parity in utility.

I then saw it for the first time at the launch of
'A Master Class in Brand Planning' with Merry Baskin and Judith Lannon back in November, and was taken aback at how plannery Stephen King was. Which of course makes complete sense. Here we can see the enthusiasm for the abstract from way back in this marvelous clip that Guy has released and which also includes the remarkable Jeremy Bullmore who shared with me the inside story on that JWT clothing allowance that John Grant talked about over on Brand Tarot here. Jeremy told me in London before I came to Beijing that the allowance was a tax break and that it was a choice between a lawn mower or a clothing allowance and not as suspected an elitist perk for the Toffs. I think this is as good an example as it gets of confirmation bias, narrative fallacy, silent evidence, and epistemic arrogance which are all weaknesses that planners should be conscious of struggling against when forming conclusions.



The Economist

I need to call The Economist in London or Singapore by June 9th in preparation for a subsequent telephone call with the brilliant 'Nonsense'. I've found a little countdown widget from a really good new Web 2.0 site for the Lynx Effect that will help me remember (and you too if you need a widget to remember something).

The Forbidden City


I've yet to actually venture inside the Forbidden City despite living next door. I'm waiting for a crystal clear day and some swotting up on the history first I keep saying. However earlier this evening I was reading Rachel Clarke's excellent blog which I follow because she is doing grown up stuff on social media metrics as well as gaming and advertising too. Rachel posted about a Canon Eos/Rebel XT competition which is a camera I bought recently, and that I'm having a lot of enjoyment with. Anything that makes me look vaguely proficient is always welcome and this sucka sure takes care of me. Here's a little run round the Forbidden City walls on my lekky bike which I have reason to believe may resemble the Hoffmeister bear on a girly bike when I'm riding it!