The Importance of Making Mistakes

The event held on 1st of May 2012 with the title: ''The Importance of Making Mistakes'' opened my eyes to the common mistakes that people make through their lifes and how similar these same mistakes are when we talk about the adland and brands.

Too often we see things just through our eyes and do not put ourselves in the skin of the other person. We take a superficial interest in the others and say we know them by meeting them once or just because we know their name. Knowing somebody's name is just the first step after which we have to take personal interest that is genuine.

Why, do I make this statement? Because, Rob Campbell helped me to understand my mistake and take a new approach. I abandoned a strategy that worked in the past because I wanted to look more professional and in the end borring. One more among the crowd.

Here is the issue I had to deal with: How to reach effectively strategy directors across advertising agencies in Melbourne? Having the goal to become a strategic planner, I applied a marketing technique learned in the UK while I was working for Lighthouse UK. It consists of knowing your target audience that goes in line with what brands have to achieve as well. After narrowing down my target audience I found the name of 27 strategy directors and I sent them a formal letter that looked professional.

The structure was simple and straight to the point: I explained that I would like to apply for a planning position. I made a general statement about the agency. After, I explained the benefits I could bring for the agency. The befnefits were way to general and focus more on my habilities than on what the agency needs. They looked very cool on the paper and displayed a global attitude. Obviously, I was looking at the agency through my own eyes without fully understanding their concerns. To mention a few: International flexibility, Strategic and Creative Thinking: things that most of the people could claim.

From this attempt, I got 4 replies saying that they do not have any positions available. One planner agreed to meet me for a chat. One week later, I called all the remaining directors from the list and got a negative response in all instances.

Applying a general marketing strategy is old fashioned and may achieve some small results but we are into the era of individualization. Moreover, advertising is a relationship based industry and ironically enough is tuff to get in unless you know somebody, they know somebody else and so on.

Through several conversations with Rob, he displayed genuine interest in my goals and what I want to achieve. His questions went deep to the core of my intentions and I considered them as a creative brief. They made me step backwards and evaluate my goals and realize what I want.

One of the questions he made is:

Why did you do a 'blanket' approach to talking to the planning directors rather than demonstrate a more inventive approach to understanding them as individuals?

 

I understood straight away where he was coming from and the desire humans have to be treated as indivuduals and not like another number on the list. So, I applied this new understanding and got excellent results.

 

 By having made these mistakes I gained a new understanding of how to reach other effectively. My mistakes are part of the learning process. I realized that if you do not achieve results I have to change the strategy. This is a call to all the brands out there: ''If you are doing the same thing over and over again, do not expect to get different results''.