El Gaffney

Work and The Work

I’ve pretty much been ignoring this blog save a few running for charity and starting a non-profit posts.

What a good guy!

But truth is, most of my time has been spent trying to get you people (especially the sports fans among ya) to feel a deeper, stronger connection to ESPN. I do this primarily, as many of you know, by developing interesting strategies for their variety of properties. These ideas serve as platforms for our creative work.

That’s what we call what you call “ads” here at W+K, the “work.” I wanted to use this post not only to make an excuse about being super busy with work but also to show you the most recent work I have been a part of bringing to life (in my own small way).

When most sports fans think of ESPN’s advertising, they think “those SportsCenter commercials.” And that’s a good thing because most of them ‘em. I do too (even if they don’t require a “planner” and brief). When we set out to announce the start of SportsCenter going live in the morning, however, some strategic thinking was essential. Planning’s role (my role) was as much about tonal approach as it was about message. The news itself was not wildly important news to sports fans nor would it have a huge impact on the show, so we had to be honest, transparent even, and make the campaign the news/entertainment. The tagline (as it often does) encapsulated our strategy “More work for us. More better for you.” You seen it (and my handwriting) here already.

In addition, I am particularly jazzed (yeah, I said it) about latest work we did right after the Olympics. Our clients smartly wanted to be proactive about making a statement that celebrated this global event (which of course ran on NBC, not ESPN). We framed the challenge to figure out a way to be true to our personality without being self-serving. We turned the work around within a week and the response to our ad in the Sunday New York Times has been great.

Also very recently, we launched our campaign for Monday Night Football on ESPN. The idea is simple, Monday Night Football helps you get through Monday. Was this a planning breakthrough? Hells no. But it’s the truth, and in my career as a planner, I’ve found some of the campaigns I’m most proud of working on have started with identifying a clear truth like Mondays suck or You need a vacation (Bahamavention). Back to the MNF campaign, I’m really happy with how it turned out…and only partly because MC Hammer is in one TV spot. (Whose beeper keep beepin’ and beepin’!?) Check out Creativity’s nice write-up.

Other than that, I’ve been working to get our office’s blog in full swing, updating my Tumblr, and of course wishing I was responsible for the brief that led to this work.

Tags: espn, mnf, olympics, wk

The Doctor Is In The Middle

The original title was “Just What the Pretend Dr. Horrible Ordered. Pepper.” Yes, it was even more obviously a way for me to connect three related pieces of content (four if you count the content link) and serve them to you with very little (read as: no) added value. Hopefully, one or two of you haven’t seen one or two of these things and find them entertaining.

First, our Portland office created a new site for Old Spice Pro-Strength Antiperspirant. It allows you to get your TV Medical Doctor certification. Here’s mine:

You may have seen the commercials which feature Neil Patrick Harris. They’re pretty good too but couldn’t hold the stethoscope of (NPH as) Dr. Horrible. Greg March put me onto it with these two posts. Give it a watch:

And finally, Leland recently posted an interview of Stephen Colbert with the guy who wrote OBD (Obsessive Branding Disorder)…brought to you by Dr. Pepper. Check it out:

Tags: comedy, doctor, wk

ESPN Will Make My Penmanship Famous

First, I’d like to thank all of my teachers from pre-school through fourth grade, my parents, G-d and the guy that made banana-grip for pencils and pens. While I’m at it I’d also like to thank the guy, who invented the piano key necktie. He didn’t help me develop my handwriting per se, but he inspired a bit of this drive for perfection. And that perfectionism (word check? - yes, others have called it being anal), may have led to me needing an extra 30 minutes for all written homework and test including essays, it also led me here. To becoming the hand behind the man.

The man is Steve Braband. He is the face, body, voice, feet and everything else but the mind (not entirely at least) of our new campaign for ESPN’s SportsCenter. A quick history: ESPN came to us wanting to know how to communicate the news that SportsCenter is going live from 9AM-3PM weekdays. We worked with them to create a brief and most importantly figure out the right personality, attitude and tone to bring to this simple message. Our creative team’s idea wowed everyone. It was literally a personality…Steve.

They wanted to find and follow an ESPN employee just about 24/7 for two weeks leading up to SportsCenter going live and broadcast this employee live on ESPN during commercial breaks. It (IMHO) is less commercials or ads than it is content. This is quite possibly the work I’m most proud of being a part of (in crafting strategy more than copyhandwriting, believe it or not!) Here’s one of my favorites so far from Day 2 of following Steve. Gotta love the running clock he has to keep with him at all times. Sports version of Flava Flav!

So where does my talent come in? Come on - don’t tell me you missed it! Go back and peep that card at the end of the video. “More work for us. More better for you.” Yeah, more work for me, writing that and everything on the site, Steveislive.com, (going live tomorrow - sneak peek for my readers) and banners driving to it. And that tagline, “Live” and “9AM-3PM” is shown at the close of each spot we do!

Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m about to get a hyperbaric chamber to keep this hand in tact. Next up, making my sunglasses famous like the Aussie Spicoli’s.

Tags: creative, espn, sportscenter, wk

So What, Wieden+Kennedy New York?

So what goes on at Wieden+Kennedy New York? I’ve heard this question numerous times since working here. In fact, one of my highly viewed posts is the one announcing my start. I know I asked Whudafxup with W+KNY way before I ever interviewed at this place. Sure, we get that one line in the AdAge Agency Report Card every year that reads something like “Lastly, the NY office continues to pump out entertaining work for ESPN.” Which, of course, is better than nothing or hate-hate-hating. But when you’ve got your one other U.S. office, the global HQ in Portland, doing its thing for years and for clients like Nike, Coke, Old Spice, Heineken, Target, CareerBuilder, EA Sports, Starbucks and who knows what else; and you’ve got London winning Nokia, bringing it for Honda and killing it with their blog; and other global offices opening or coming strong, to put it simply: Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy.

So what did I do when I got here? Nothing at first, except absorb and understand the culture of this office. I identified a couple of opportunities to better our internal collaboration and our external brand. I set objectives, I drew on past experiences, and I started experimenting with solutions. Along the way, I certainly faced some challenges…and I know I’d be a fool to believe it’s smooth sailing from here.

So what am I actually talking about? The creation of Wieden+Kennedy New York’s blog.

I guess the idea was considered way back when I was a prospective employee, working out at Fallon Minneapolis and ready to move back to my home, NYC. The agencies on my radar were the ones people were talking about. They were the ones getting written up. They were part of the conversation, and thus, my consideration set. Wieden was always a favorite agency…too bad they were in Portland.

Yet it wasn’t until shortly after I arrived that John Jay came through our office on his “we’re AdWeek’s Global Agency of the Year” tour that I totally believed in the importance of developing our office’s unique culture and voice. The benefits that could be gained from sharing within our walls, across our network, within the industry and international creative community far outweighed the risks. I really believe this. And I have already seen how much more involved people become once someone takes the very little time to teach them (about the platform or a post).

So, I got people smarter than me to help create it. I enlisted people more interesting than me to populate it with content.

Now doesn’t come the statement, “This is not an agency blog!” Of course, it is. Are we going to be different that some of the others? I sure hope so. And that’s not a comment on agency blogs stinking - there are some fantastic ones that serve as inspiration to me at the very least. We obviously hope to be different because there’s no need for the same content to be regurgitated.

On a related note, while it is an agency blog, it is not a planning blog. Nothing against them. I still read a bunch and enjoy each! But as of now, I’m the only person with that title with a login. We have a design, media director, copywriter, cultural curator (yes, sick title), search director and project manager all set up with logins (though not all have posted). And yes, past experience has shown the heavy lifting will likely be done by me and a couple of others.

So what do we hope to bring to the blogosphere? A window into the world of Wieden+Kennedy New York and New York culture through the lens of our people. So you won’t get someone like me who’s still listening to FutureSex/LoveSounds hollering about the underground music scene. You’ll get a music-junkie. You won’t have me and my Johnston & Murphy zip-up boots poppin’ off about the latest kicks. You’ll get a sneaker-head. And so on. Plus, you’ll get way less alliteration and rhyming!)

This blog is supposed to interesting. It is supposed to be fun. It is only supposed to be self-serving in that we benefit the same way that any blogger does - from engaging in the conversation, learning by doing and learning from others. Hopefully you’ll find it entertaining and every once in a while inspiring. As you’ll see from the archives, we’ve been working on being interesting and honing our collective voice since February - and we’re still a work in progress. (Yes, always in beta - but I’m sick of that phrase.)

So that’s all for now. Come visit and say hi. But don’t leave me…I couldn’t bear it.

Tags: blogging, nyc, wk

You So Want My Job

Well, besides for mom and dad and Noah (who has got a cool new gig) and my rich private equity friends - oh wait, blogs and YouTube get blocked at your company. So when I print out this post and bring it to you at dinner tonight - oh wait, you work a 120 hours/week, so you won’t be there. So check your mailbox at your ridiculous, modern doorman building and then be jealous of my hours and freedom for about 3 seconds until you take the elevator up and turn on your 60″ plasma.

Anyway, Heather LeFevre conducted and finished putting together the results of the fourth annual Account Planning Survey into a sweet PowerPoint, which she then made available to all on SlideShare. With just under 800 completed surveys (up from 466 a year ago - congrats, Heather!) and questions ranging from salary to experience to blogging to schooling and even negotiating, it provides a global (US-centric though just to manage expectations) and detailed snapshot of the planning world.

This included the answers to one question I couldn’t help but notice…and be proud of:

To be clear, I was in the stay “where I am” majority (just in case my boss or head of HR is reading this and is thinking of an upgrade - it would not be an upgrade of an ingrate). I know why I’m a fan of this place but would still love to know what the outsiders think led to this lead.

Tags: jobs, planning, wk