Well! That was a treat!

The title of Trevor’s talk for the evening as “What is the Big Idea?”. His answer? In advertising there is no big idea, just lots of little ideas that can contribute to a big idea.

It was a talk full of laughs and interesting takes on the advertising industry. It felt like a collection of some of his favourite pictures and videos that he had put together into a presentation while on the train up from London (which he claimed it was).

I’d been warned that he might be a difficult person to interview, but he was warm, lively, open and unprententious. I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a fiery Irish temper under it all somewhere, but I saw none of it.

I’ve got to save the bulk of what he said for a article for The Post next week. But Stef (who seems to be in a pre-emptive mood) has posted a summary of the answer to his question here and below are answers to the other questions.

But first, a special mention for Jon Bounds and Birmingham: It’s Not Shit, which – unprompted – Trevor bought up during the interview.

He got introduced to the site by another guy from Birmingham who works at his agency BMB and he thinks it’s a great site! He knows all about why it was set up (failed Capital of Culture bid which Trevor worked on). He is a regular reader and a very proud Brummie.

Bounder’s Answer:

“Of course you can advertise a city, don’t be daft. That’s a silly thing to say. Next question!

“But seriously, you can, but its not up to me to do it – it’s up to everyone and we have to be more arrogant about Birmingham. I can keep shouting the message, but everyone else needs to be doing it too.”

Prem1um’s Answer: I’m afraid I got your question a bit mixed up and asked for the first four, which were: balti, race, humour and Balsall Heath (where he was born).

“I am very proud of Balsall Heath – 56 Brighton Road was where I grew up. Everyone in my business knows where I come from.

“All these cities that talk about multiculturalism. Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool – they’re not multicultural. London is now, but Birmingham invented it.

“When I was growing up in Balsall Heath in the 1970s it was just the way it was. On my road there was my family of Irish Brummies, then next door there was Halal butcher Brummie, across the road there were Jamaican Brummies and a bit further down there was some Pakistani Brummies. That’s how I grew up.”

[Answers are here]

Date: Friday, November 9

I am resisting the temptation to add FCUK to a sentence for a cheap smirk.

So, sticking with the unadorned facts, Trevor Beattie is back in his home town on Friday.

The controversial advertising “guru” known for the above French Connection slogan and Wonderbra’s unforgettable “Hello Boys”, will be speak at The Orange Studio on Friday for an event organised by PACE (Publicity Association of Central England).

Tickets cost £40, but if you’re feeling a bit light of pocket then I’m very happy to quiz him on your behalf.

Of course, now I’m running with a theme, I think it would be fun to ask what he thinks of Birmingham’s advertising strategy. What should the city do to pack a punch at home and abroad?

PACE mention he is also booked to go on one of Virgin Galactic’s space flights.

Media Guardian writes that Trinity Mirror has announced plans for a single, multimedia newsroom at its regional papers in Wales:

Under the new plan, each print title will retain an editor, who will be responsible for all electronic and print channels carrying his title’s brand.

Deputy editors – re-styled as executive editors – will oversee the hour-by-hour operation of the newsroom, working across all media.

I’ve also heard ten jobs will be lost as part of the changes, but I can’t find confirmation of this at the moment. Thoughts?

[Edit - here is a Press Gazette story about the redundancies. Thanks Martin.]

For anyone who didn’t attend Project X Presents at the Rainbow Warehouse, well… I’m sorry, but you really missed out.

It was part of the feast of events on offer as part of Gigbeth and I don’t think I’ve been to anything quite like it before. It mixed so many styles and performances and in a way that just worked really well.

Highlights included comedian Reginald D Hunter, Qawwal singers Aashiq al-Rasul and pianist Rich Batsford with accompanying strings battling it out with the amazing wall of sound created by krautrock group Einstellung. My ears are still ringing!

In fact, the night summed up what Birmingham is capable of when it pulls its cultures and its talent together. It’s something we need to do much more of and it’s great to see people in the city trying to make it happen.

The picture above by Marc Reck is from the dress rehearsal on Friday. There were a lot of pictures being taken on the night. I’ll link to them when I find them.

Here’s looking forward to the next performance!

Here we go. It looks like the news the strike is off has found its way into the Press Gazette.

I hear that staff at  The Coventry Telegraph have resolved their dispute with management.

I can’t find a link that confirms this yet, but I’m sure one will appear soon.

Well! I didn’t get an interview with Her Slyness after all.

But we were introduced and I did have a short chat with her (without my notebook).

We chatted about Web 2.0 and my recent rant about Roy Greenslade’s departure from the NUJ.

She said that she realised that there was a desperate need to invest in new technology because without it (nodding her head towards my iMac running OS 9) young journalists will just leave the business and find somewhere else to work.

She was keen to stress she was excited by the explosion of the web but was, of course, keen to find a way to generate the same revenues online as generated from print.

Then she said her plan was that the Post & Mail was going to have a new IT system and websites that would “blow the competition out of the water” and we would soon be far ahead of what any other newspaper group was doing.

I asked her if she thought Trinity Mirror would be able to create sites to rival The Guardian. She said yes, and The Telegraph too.

She said she had been doing a lot of research on what made a good news website. She said she recognised the good stuff that had been done by competitors but that there had been “dead ends” that they had gone up too, that she would like to avoid.

But, she said, the good thing about the web was that there was an opportunity to experiment with new ideas in a way that wouldn’t financially impact in the same way as doing it in print.

Her parting words were that she would “watch my career with interest”, which was unnerving.

As one colleague suggested, perhaps in the current climate the best I can do is to return the favour.

Finally, we’ve used the Michael Wolff interview in The Post today.

I liked Michael. We disappeared off to the pub together for half an hour before he did his Q&A session at the Plus International Design Festival.

He was very likeable, easy-going, perceptive and well-versed in giving a journalist something to chew on – hence the story hitting the front page!

I got the feeling that his criticism of Birmingham’s council was something he had been storing up. [Edit 17/11/07: I now have it on good authority - i.e. from Michael - that he had done no so thing. His comments were spontaneous and inspired by what he had seen at PLUS. I stand corrected!]

In reponse the questions posed here:

In answer to prem1um:

All my clients have been challenging. Do you know why? Because it is very hard to explain to the money man at the top of a big business that design is important. Most of them just do not get it, their brains work in a different way. It’s very rare you find a chief executive or director who can also think creatively.

In answer to Nick Sims:

I defend the 2012 logo because I think it is a very brave and very good piece of work. Do I think it’s the best example of design ever? Probably not. But, it does do what it was supposed to do. And it has come from an agency that doesn’t really make mistakes.

The logo moves away from the static emblemic style of past Olympic logos and adds movement and a flexibility to it. Unlike most people I’ve had the opportunity to see what it looks like in motion and, I have to say, I rather like it.

The negative reaction has come from the fact it is so different. When you are faced with something you haven’t seen before, most people struggle to find something to say. If they don’t know if they like it, then they say they don’t like it. Or, they look around at what other people are saying and if they hear someone else saying they don’t like it, they’ll adopt that opinion.

I don’t think Wolff Olins designed it to cause controversy – that would just be a nonsense. Brands are not supposed to be connected with negative ideas – they are supposed to inspire and evoke the positive aspects of the thing they represent.

I hope that’s answered your questions!

[Answers are here]

Ok, this one is a HUGE longshot and I probably shouldn’t be blogging about it. But… what the hell! I’m excited!

It appears that Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror will be in the Post & Mail house tomorrow (Monday)… and The Birmingham Post has requested an interview with her for the Media & Marketing page. That means I’ll be doing the interview! Cripes!

We’ve not had any confirmation yet on whether or not she’ll do it (I’m not even sure how long she’s going to be in the building). But, if this actually comes to pass, I think I’ll be asking her to outline her digital strategy for the Trinity Mirror Midlands division, now she’s decided not to sell it.

If you have got any others, let me know ASAP!!!

I’m still ferverish and grumpy so if this turns into a rant you’ll know why!

The Guardian columnist and former Daily Mirror editor Roy Greenslade is leaving the National Union of Journalists because he disagrees with its stance on Web 2.0*.

His reasons for doing so, outlined in his blog, are interesting and I have to say that, on the whole, I agree with him.

Greenslade basically takes the NUJ to task for trying to protect traditional newspaper jobs in a world that is rapidly moving online.

I cannot, in conscience, go on supporting this crucial plank of NUJ policy when it is so obvious that online media outlets will require fewer staff. We are surely moving towards a situation in which relatively small “core” staffs will process material from freelances and/or citizen journalists, bloggers, whatever (and there are many who think this business of “processing” will itself gradually disappear too in an era of what we might call an unmediated media).

But that’s only part of the problem. It is also clear that media outlets will never generate the kind of income enjoyed by printed newspapers: circulation revenue will vanish and advertising revenue will be much smaller than today. There just won’t be the money to afford a large staff.

The NUJ argues that it sees Web 2.0 as an opportunity, but that it does not want large corporate media groups to use this as a cost-saving opportunity to cut jobs, thereby lowering journalistic standards.

But frankly most large corporations in any industry will seize upon an opportunity to save money.

If you’re a chief executive it’s all about the shareholder value: look at Heinz, Peugeot and Lil-lets moving out of the West Midlands. Protests by unions made little difference to their decisions to close factories in the region and cut jobs.

Until journalistic standards start to directly effect revenue (which comes mainly from advertising), then what economic reason is there to retain journalists? Especially if you are finding it increasingly hard to attract advertising.

So yes, I imagine Web 2.0 will  change the face of journalism within large media organisations. I think small teams aggregating and checking the facts of blog posts and forums may well be something we see in the future.

But does that signal the death of a trade?

I don’t think so. I suspect that journalism will diversify and take on new forms, rather than follow the old structures of the past.

The established brands will remain in this cut down form, but advertising is a devious and capricious bedfellow. Some of it will follow its target audience online to specialist news sites run by smaller, leaner, news teams. Some journalism will probably move into the third-sector and operate not-for-profit.

I think there will be an increase in mercenary journalism, where interested parties pay to have a story written and published. I also imagine we will lose some of our best talent to the comfort and security of PR – but this was already happening prior to Web 2.0.

As for other possible models for journalism of the future, I do not have the foresight nor the intelligence to dream them up. This is where I think the NUJ should really be picking up the mantle.

I have had only one exprience of an NUJ debate on new media, at a breakfast meeting during the annual conference in Birmingham. The general theme was regressive and fearful – a lot of old hacks worried about how it may effect their jobs.

I do sympathise to some extent, but only, I think, as far as any person with no prospect of a final salary pension can. Mostly I found it alienating.

For me Web 2.0 is an exciting prospect for journalists to intermingle with readers in a way never seen before. It’s an opportunity to use our collective knowledge to produce more in-depth and searching articles.

All this blabbing on about current journalism being a skill that must be preserved and pickled in aspic is annoying and a waste of time.

I want to be excited by the future of my industry, not fearful and I want my union to help shape it, not bury its head in the sand and hope it never comes.

*thanks bounder