Jon Steel - some words of wisdom

Jon was my Planning Director for a while when I was at Berlin Cameron/Red Cell in New York in 2003-04. We didn't work together for too long as he and his family moved back to the UK, but he was without doubt the best boss that I have had and the best Planner that I have had the opportunity of working with. If you haven't read his two books, Truth, Lies & Advertising or Perfect Pitch get yourself on Amazon and order them both. They are down to earth, humorous and intelligent reads.

Jon came in to chat with the Planners at VCCP last week.

I wanted to share some of his thoughts and also some of my recollections from my time working with him.

INSIGHTS: Get out face to face with your consumers, not behind a mirror.

We talk a lot in advertising and Planning about the importance of Insights, but ask people what exactly they mean by an "insight" and where exactly you find them and often you get a lot of waffle. Jon places a huge amount of importance on uncovering insights and doesn't think that a focus group in a typical research facility complete with fake mirrors etc is the way to go. Jon's planning department would always be out and about with a video camera doing primary research with consumers. I remember for a Pfizer pitch talking with migraine sufferers and getting them to show us the places that they went to hide from the world when their migraines came on. There was a Middle School teacher in Manhattan who used to lock herself in the stationary cupboard, a mom in Brooklyn who showed us the nest that she made out of towels on the floor of her bathroom - genuine insights, captured on film that all made their way into the pitch winning presentation.
We did similar work also for Pfizer but this time we spent time with allergy sufferers and their families. This led us to the insight that most allergy sufferers are content to battle through on their current meds. The only reason that people would stop and think about their meds and switch was when they realised the impact that their allergies were having on their loved ones - this led to our creative thought "Others Suffer" which won us that pitch too.

PITCHING: Collect "evidence" on your pitch journey

When you pitch with Jon there comes a point in the pitch process when you stop trying to find a better creative idea. You stick with what you have and then you work out how to sell it, how to bring it to life, how to make it inspiring. He often says that out of a a 3 week pitch, a full week should be spent focusing on the pitch presentation. Better to have a 70% idea that is sold brilliantly, than a 90% idea that no time has been given to the actual pitch. We used a lot of Planner-shot video, photos that respondents were asked to take, respondents drawings and images. As we were doing our research we were always thinking, how can I use this in the pitch.

THINKING: The best place to think is never at your desk

When you ask people the question, where do you do your best thinking - the answer is never "at my desk." With that in mind its critical to build in time and space to actually think. One Jon technique is to get a team together outside of the agency when they are working on a pitch or a new assignment. He gets each person to talk to the others for 5-10 minutes about their thoughts and observations about the issue at hand. Every-time that you hear something that interests you, you write it on a Post-It. At the end of the session you have a wall of interesting stuff that you as a team have uncovered. From there it's not that hard to start clustering them and determining what the story is out of them all.

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Russell Davies did an interview with Jon a while back. He writes that "Jon is the model of what a Planner should be." Here is a link to the file, so have a cup of tea, put your feet up and listen to two of the UK's most seminal Planners having a chat about advertising, planning and other such nonsense.

Comments

[David Brain]

Very interesting. I think study of the whole pitch process is woefully underdone and these are great tips. I remember being told the same thing about getting out from behind the glass by the great Iain Batey of singapore's Batey Ads (inventor of the Singapore Girl amongst other things). Working on an arthritis pitch once we got people to share with us the things they could no longer do because of the disease and how it made their lives smaller. Reseach became therapy and boy, did those of us who were there have the insight to spare.

[Lee]

good stuff, amelia.

thanks...