Berlin School Diary

A thousand solutions without a problem

Berkeley looks like a great place to study. The town seems to revolve around the university and students. Everybody at the university looks happy, relaxed, busy, studious. They are there to learn, not to party. The bars are pretty quiet on your average Friday night (save for a few visiting executive MBA students). And if you go to any cafeteria in the middle of the day (except for lunch time of course), you will see students sitting there quietly, looking busy and as though they are studying. One person per table, the noise level is almost like in a library.

But then there is the contrast that you see around the city of Berkeley. Students entirely unconcerned with their appearance walk around almost unaware of the homeless people present at each street corner. Some of these homeless people go around on their own, with all of their worldly possessions, rummaging through bins. Some of them seem to be on drugs. Then you see quite a bit of young homeless-looking people congregating on the streets. They sit on sleeping bags, with their faithful pets and smartphones and laptops. I don’t know what their story is, but it seems as though for them, completely different in outlook and disposition from the lonely, living on the street is a lifestyle choice. 

Most people are extremely friendly. Every time I’ve been on BART, someone would speak to me. Asking where I was from, how come I was in the area and even getting me to help them use Instagram (yes, in Silicon Valley!). 

Colourful encounters are endless. I heard a story of someone getting into a political discussion with a taxi driver who wasn’t Obama’s biggest fan:

‘He’s not even born in America, you know.’ - the taxi driver said.

‘No? Well, where was he born?’, the sensible question ensued.

‘Like, Hawaii.’

Enough said.

Still, this area is really the place to be when you think of innovation, start ups, tech and so on. As Amy Errett, one of the best speakers we heard in Berkeley said, there are a thousand solutions without a problem here. There are plenty of ideas, but without a purpose.

This is something that brings back an important point. Einstein is frequently quoted to have said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions”. Dave Trott is known to have rejected briefs if they weren’t clear enough. This is something which is relevant in other industries as well. Unless you figure out correctly and precisely what the problem is, you will not be able to find the best solution for it. 

There are numerous start ups drifting around San Francisco, hoping to be the next Facebook/Twitter/Instagram. They are spending all of their time developing a solution, without knowing what the problem is. They have failed to write their own brief well and just like us sometimes - when they get on the wrong train, all the stops are wrong. 

Agile what?

I don’t really know what agile is. There is one definition of it (from the Agile Manifesto, my guess is) and it is a process initially derived from software development.

It enforces some things that may be obvious: being kind, being present, staying curious. It means letting go: of your position, everything outside of what you are doing, you ego. It values human interaction more than processes and tools.

What it means in practice is something else. When you are working in a group, there are so many things that need to fit together and be in harmony for things to go well. It is not an easy process, but can be taken away from agile is for sure that everyone has the same mindset: being kind, present and remaining curious. Ensuring that if you are down, you know what can make okay, if not completely positive. 

Working through a project in this way makes you realize what your part in a group is. That if everyone is present, with the same end result in mind it will be a whole lot easier to get there.

Alcatraz: so much more than just a prison

It may sound ridiculous to you, but on the ferry that takes you to Alcatraz from San Francisco, that’s exactly what they tell you. That it’s so much more than just a prison. Think about it: so much more than just a prison.

I was not sure what to expect from such a prison but it seemed like a fun destination to visit, with lots of families queuing up, laughing and enjoying the sunny weather. 

When we got there we heard a little about the history of the prison and were excitedly told by the guide that a real former inmate would be around in the gift shop that day, and that we could get his autograph, have his book signed, take photos with him. Wow, I thought, what a treat. But what makes him more special than any other inmate in the world, apart from the fact he server his time at Alcatraz? And why does that make someone a tourist attraction?

This is a thought that would follow me around the audio tour we took. As I walked around different blocks and listened to the stories of prisoners and guards I did feel admiration towards the Americans for being such good entertainers. We actually paid money to go visit a prison, listen to a romanticized story about what a hard time the inmates had (prison’s no cake walk, even if it does serve the best penitentiary food in the country) and then had the chance to spend a little more money on getting some super cool souvenirs such as an inmate’s uniform, tin cups, whistles… You get the picture.

What amazed me is that it almost felt like going to Universal Studios or Disneyland. Everyone was cheerful and it seemed as if we were visiting Hollywood studio, because that is what Alcatraz has really become. The fact that people served time there for actual crimes they committed was somehow omitted in the whole story. The story told is one of hardship (‘in Alcatraz you were just a number’) and nostalgia, but there was no mention whatsoever of the victims of those who served there.

As we left Alcatraz to go back to San Francisco, I almost felt cheated for having bought into this tourist attraction.Yes it was a nice day out, but is there a limit? What’s next - turning Alcatraz into a hotel and paying to get locked up there for a night and enjoy some good old prison time?

Les Ballets de Faile

DDB has done and interesting project for New York City Ballet in collaboration with the artistic duo from Brooklyn - Faile. 

In order to attract a younger audience to the ballet, Faile created a New York City Ballet art series: Les Ballets de Faile. Dubbed as the unexpected way to experience the night at the ballet, this project allows the visitors not only to experience world class ballet at only 29$ but also for each of them to receive a limited-edition work created specially for this event.

The first of the two nights, held on 1 February was a huge success. Thanks to my very kind colleagues from DDB New York - Meike Scharnhorst and Jennifer Novak, I was able to attend this event along with another DDBer and fellow Berliner, Simon Higby. 

This project reminded me of the Casual Concert I went to in Berlin. Another attempt at reaching younger people who are interested in art, dance, theatre and so, but for some reason do not frequent classical concerts, opera or the ballet. Such evenings help towards breaking the myths that surround some old cultural institutions that perhaps put the younger generations off visiting them.

Les Ballets de Faile is a great initiative that gave a lot of people a chance to see some of the best ballet there is in the world for the first time. And, in turn, I am sure it gave some of the ballet regulars a chance to get acquainted with Faile.

Art can move and inspire anyone, whatever age, gender, race, background they are. Anything that goes towards breaking the boundaries that stop people from seeing art should be championed. So, well done DDB New York!  

Safe H(e)aven

Norman Pearlstine is Chief Content Officer at Bloomberg. It’s really hard to tell how old he is, or what he is actually thinking. Google says he is nearly 71, but I couldn’t find out what he was actually thinking on the day he spoke to us.

Norman has had an impressive career as a journalist, then an editor and now a Chief Content Officer, a position which no one could have even imagined (let alone known what it entails) at the time he started out. He speaks well, understands the financial market and Bloomberg’s role within it fully. Coming from my position and background, it’s amazing to see such a career evolution and I always admire people that are able to change with the times, reinvent their skills and keep themselves relevant. I really liked that about Norman, who appears to have understood the change that has happened from having a few newspapers to multiple websites, portals, online papers, specialized blogs, Twitter and so on that people can choose from. People pick their own news nowadays and you have to fight for each and every one of your customers and compete against each and every one of those blogs, portals, websites as well as the big news companies. As Norman put it so well, people these days are promiscuous in terms of information. 

Bloomberg itself, on the other had, appeared to be a rather cold and unfriendly place. Despite the open space, labyrinths that are meant to make people run into each other, abundance of food and drink available (heaven!) I didn’t see many happy faces. As a cleaning lady said to one of my fellow Berliners when he expressed his delight with the coffee machine (“Don’t you like working here?”) - “Well, everybody loves it on their first day” - a rather telling comment, I would say. 

And then there is the obsession with security. Of course you have to check in at the reception, provide ID and have your photo taken so you could get a visitor’s photo ID that you MUST wear at ALL times while at Bloomberg. This makes sense since Micheal Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, is the founder and the owner of the company and from what I understand he’s quite big on security and all. But it sure does not make you feel comfortable. 

Then of course you realize that the food is just sugar and caffeine that is meant to keep you in the building for as long as possible. And that there is a special security system for employees, which measures the time between them getting into the building and actually beginning to work, i.e. starting their laptops. Apparently some light goes on if they are not at work within a certain amount of time. Want to take a photo? Just you try and you will probably get tackled down by one of the many security guards lurking around.

But, this is New York and it is a company that provides news for the financial markets. So it’s no Google or AKQA or some cool start up. It is what it is and a lot can be taken away from it and applied elsewhere. Like the constant strive to be ahead of the competition and provide people with content they cannot get anywhere else. And of course, the understanding that the media and journalism is no longer what it used to be. As with the automotive industry a century ago - we cannot predict what will happen, but it sure is a good time to sell horses.

Win-Win Does Happen

I’ve thought about it and concluded that I am terrible at negotiating. Obviously there are all too many reasons for this as I will show, but I am not open to compromise, it’s normally either my way or the highway and I never even consider the whole picture, the different topics, my own priorities as well as those of the other person.

Largely, all of this is because I don’t tend to listen. All I hear is what I am saying, what I want, what I am not getting. Nothing from the other person. A very bad trait that is, leads to many misunderstandings. Listening is essential when it comes to negotiations. Hearing the other side, what they say as well as what they don’t say, how they say it, their tone, the words they choose… All of this enables you to get a better understanding of what they want to get out of the negotiation, what their main concerns are. A good way to make sure you get all this is also to repeat what the person said to you back to them. It gives everyone a chance to ensure they are on the same page.

I also heard of a completely new concept in our negotiation class by Professor Seth Freeman, which is that both sides can come out of a negotiation satisfied (that’s probably where the compromise bit comes in, right?). Setting topics, allocating priority to them and having a best target and the point at which you walk away in mind – all these are things you can prepare in advance and that help you have a clear idea of what you come out with.

I didn’t know any of this. I guess it is out of the fear of being ripped off, cheated, lack of trust and so on. But if you look at your own goals and what you want to achieve, negotiation can actually be a happy, rather than painful process.

There’s nothing better than a real story

Bill Bernbach talked about the unchanging man and the fact that our needs – to be loved, admired, to survive – have remained. We also still tend to like a real story, the one that likens you to its hero, and makes you see that he or she is after all, just a human being.

David Droga is a modern hero of our industry. Leaving a successful career in a big network to start his own agency, David has gone quite a long way in the past five years in achieving his goal – to create the most influential agency in the world.

The story behind Droga 5 is charming. David grew up in a national park in Australia, as fifth out of six children. With no civilization for miles around, he was sent to a boarding school where his laundry name tag was Droga 5, a natural follow up to Droga 1, 2, 3 and 4. The laundry name tags were sown in by his mother, a passionate charity worker and campaigner, the one to blame for David’s intent to do good, to solve the problems of the world, without clients and without briefs.

He is able to do this because of his incredible work with clients and briefs. Numerous Lions, Clios and other awards confirm the success of Droga 5 as one of the best independent agencies in the world. By being consistent – with clients and colleagues, David Droga has managed to create the ultimate agency everyone wants to work for.

All to often we forget ourselves in our advertising bubbles, thinking everyone will get excited about a great new digital platform or a piece of media. In all that, we fail to ask ourselves: Why would anyone give a shit? That’s why, Droga says, we need to go back to the basics. There is more need for our industry now than ever. Even though no industry has worked harder at being lazy, we are essentially problem solvers that can add something to every issue that exists in the world.

Droga 5 has done this, for example by creating a platform called Thunderclap which enables users to get support for their causes by asking others to sign up and contribute their Twitter and Facebook profiles. This enables each and every one of us to do a little bit of good and help somebody else out there.

While actual clients and brands fund this sort of work, David has clear principles when it comes to money, too. Not doing everything for the sake of money gets the clients to respects you more.  Refusing to pitch has also proved as a good move for Droga 5, as shown by the numbers – 80% of the accounts they did not pitch for were actually won.

It almost sounds too good to be true. But David Droga shows that you can be nice and talented and successful and that we can use our one core strength – creative thinking, to change the world.