Advertising? A piece of cake

There are a few things that unite us in the whirlwind world of agency life: the prospect of a new business win, an opportunity to band together and impress a client, the free bar at the Christmas party … and now it seems that delicious baked goods in the name of a worthy cause can be added to that list. This week saw Publicis Life Brands Resolute take part in Macmillan Cancer’s World’s Largest Coffee Morning, with the team donning their pinnies and reaching for those cookbooks that have sat on the shelf since last Christmas when we had finished looking at the pictures of Nigella and sighing wistfully.

Running for two decades now, the Macmillan Coffee Morning is a charitable event whereby companies bake up a storm and sell the fruits (and nuts, and sprinkles) of their labour – almost £6,000,000 has been raised at the time of writing. Drawing in crowds from as far and wide as the third floor of our building, the PLBR event proved a roaring success – cakes were consumed, sugar rushes were endured, emergency gym appointments were frantically arranged and a substantial amount was raised for Macmillan. With a second event taking place the next day at our ‘other home’ in Tower Bridge, the charitable juggernaut of good taste and good deeds shows no sign slowing down just yet – which is more than can be said for your humble scribe, who won’t be running any marathons in the near future after a hefty slice of chocolate indulgence.

Keeping ourselves organised.

Nick Bartlett
Digital Strategy Director

This week, I’ve gone against all of my principles and actually organised what my family and I are doing for Christmas. I’ve eased my conscience a bit by thinking that it is only 12 weeks away, but even so it seems unnecessarily diligent. We normally just wait around, safe in the knowledge that the big day will always come and we’ll have a great time whatever. But having this year’s already in the bag, we’re already seemingly enjoying it. We’re planning and scheming behind the kids’ backs, talking in excited whispers and counting down the days.

The joys of planning are much maligned, often pushed aside for the immediate, the needy and the demanding shouts of today. Yet time invested in thinking about tomorrow helps to set expectations, understand what’s needed, and, when tomorrow finally arrives, the results are evident in a calm, well-prepared team who deliver the goods.

The complex and curious sign-off procedure within pharma marketing means that digital projects are all too often the victim of a lack of future-proofing. Initiatives take longer than anticipated to get finished, with worn-down stakeholders dragged away to long lists of other initiatives that have had to be ignored until now. Once a back is turned, we enter the vicious circle of reactive rather than pre-emptive planning, and as a result the project’s business objectives get blurred and it lacks the inertia needed to capitalise on any potential.

Planning for digital success is crucial. Website communities, social media groups, bloggers and individuals engage with us online on the basis that we promise to deliver every time. A digital strategy that doesn’t take into account the months following phase one delivery is not a strategy for success. As 2011 approaches, now is the time to start thinking about next October. What will we have achieved? How will we have done it? Who do we need to include to make it happen? And how much money do I need to retain my digital relationship with my customer?

For me, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to hold out much longer before blurting out to the kids the adventures planned for them; the trouble is 12 weeks could become a very long, noisy and exciting time!