Ken Segall by Insanely Simple

Author:Insanely Simple
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781101572047
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA

Chapter 7

Think Casual

We were in the agency’s rental car about five minutes after leaving Apple, headed to San Jose Airport for the trip back to LA, when my cell phone rang. It was Steve.

“Look, I don’t know who that guy was or why you brought him, but I’m not paying a cent for anything he just did,” Steve said, “and I never want to see him at Apple again.”

This is what is known in the business as “a bad meeting.” Embarrassingly, it was a meeting the agency had spent two weeks preparing for.

The offending party was a planner. We’ll call him Hank, so as not to damage his career. In the agency world, planners are those who are paid to represent the consumer’s point of view—as opposed to the agency’s or the client’s point of view. They’re the ones who are supposed to figure out what customers are thinking, providing the insights as to what messages might make them more likely to buy.

Planners are supposed to condense all this information into a digestible form that will guide the creative people in developing the most effective work. They are also essential in crafting the marketing strategies that serve as the foundation for the creative work.

Hank was a new hire at the agency. He was a smart guy who had just arrived from one of the most creative agencies in the country, where he worked on the advertising for an account that had achieved iconic status. The aura of his previous job was all over his résumé and he was welcomed with open arms.

It was decided that Hank would get his feet wet by doing a “brand audit” for Apple. He would assess the health of the Apple brand among different demographic groups and ethnicities. His prize was that he’d be able to present his audit to Steve Jobs personally.

Hank had two weeks to do his work, and he dived headfirst into his research. He was eagerly anticipating his meeting with Steve and was determined to do everything in his power to blow him away.

Be careful what you wish for, Hank.

A week before our trip up to Apple, Hank asked if I would take a look at his presentation, since I had a good idea of what type of thing Steve responded to best. I was crammed that day, so we put it off to the next day. Unfortunately, our schedules never got in sync. Day after day, we kept missing each other, and before we knew it, we were flying up to Apple and I had never even seen his presentation. Lee Clow had been working with him, though, so I wasn’t concerned. I would just enjoy it as it unfolded, along with Steve.

We got to the Apple boardroom fifteen minutes before meeting time. Hank was carrying one of those awkwardly large portfolio cases containing his presentation materials, and he immediately started to set up. The fact that he had things to set up was the first indication that something was amiss.

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