Pointing toward strategy
Back when we were lugging folios around Soho, we were all searching for a foot in the door; a way of getting into a good agency with our ideas. We were looking to impress with surprising solutions, big thinking, and unique strategies - ways to entertain creative directors with our work.
A few years into my first job, I dared to dream of working at an agency that put strategy on its head. It turned chip shop fizzy orange into a face-slapping phenomenon. It created the phrase ‘does what it says on the tin’ for a pot of varnish. And it turned a roadside tow truck company into the fourth emergency service. This wasn’t just great creative. This was strategy. This was positioning. These were big ideas. And thanks to people like Axel, my vaguely worthy portfolio gained me a place within HHCL+P.
Many of my former peers are still working with strategy as our way of coming up with unique creative. We’re in a very different time now, where the words social, digital and asset creation seem front of mind for many. But I promise myself this every day. That I will only be happy if I put positioning above polishing turds. And I hope in finding the integrity of your idea/strategy/positioning, that you will find your happy place too.