Leith is who we are.
Leith is where we are.
The Leith Agency's weblog.

The night that John McCarthy was freed in Beirut, Les, Gerry and Guy Gumm (the grand masters of Leith) found themselves in a pocket-sized restaurant in Bath. The proprietor shared the news with them.

They promptly ordered a couple of bottles of Chateau Musar. According to Mr Farrell, the best Lebanese red in the world (and better yet, only a fiver a bottle at the time). The owner and his missis plonked themselves down with them and they toasted John McCarthy`s release. Until four in the morning.

Waking up this morning to hear that Alan Johnston had at last been given his get-out-of-jail card, Gerry drove with purpose to Sainsburys and bought handfuls of Celebrations for the agency. Almost as good as a few bottles of Chateau Musar.

He proceeded to scatter them throughout the building with little notes on the boxes entreating passers-by to liberate a chocolate. A lovely and honourable intention.

Thwarted only by the fact that he didn’t sign any of the notes so visitors to reception spent the day thanking the glamourous Shayne for her gift.

We were talking with a client the other day about what makes for cool work.

As good a definition as I’ve ever heard, especially when applied to what we do, is “EFFORTLESS ORIGINALITY”. Trying to be cool never seems to work.

The coolest work tends to come from confident brands that have a strong sense of what they’re about, and which strut that what-they’re-about stuff in their ideas. The least cool work tends to come from briefs that are rooted not in a strong sense of the brand, but in a desire to reflect the interests and lifestyle of the target audience.

We’ve worked on beer here for donkey’s years and done some reasonably cool work. However, in every campaign, from Tennent’s Lager to Grolsch, there have come times when we’ve found ourselves trying to “inject more sociability” into the brand imagery. Invariably this has meant some kind of suitably “cool” on-trade setting. Invariably it has led to an unsuitably uncool dip in campaign quality.

On the subject of cool, there’s some interesting stuff on wikipedia. The entry covers concepts of cool, theories of cool, cool as an elusive essence and cool as a marketing device.

It also includes this conversation on cool from The Simpsons.

Homer: So, I realized that being with my family is more important
than being cool.
Bart: Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool.
Homer: You know what the song says: “It’s hip to be square”.
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it’s… cool?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I’m glad. And that’s what makes me cool, not caring,
right?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we’ve tried
everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you’re truly cool, you don’t need to
be told you’re cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?

That’s the coolness thing sorted then.

Last night I learnt the secret that Ian White and the rest of our direct team have been occupied with seeking for some good years hence.

I was watching some creative testing research. The moderator moved onto the mock-up direct mail packs and one of the respondents spoke the immortal words:

“Is there a pen in it? I always open stuff with a pen in it.”

Sorted.