We can't decide what to call this.

'There's always one?'  
'A bad day?'   
'Perhaps we should have tried harder?'

We run a number of Panels. We recently changed software supplier which meant we needed to re-invite people from the existing ones and we also had new contacts from clients, and so invited new respondents to join.

One of the Panels is in a high interest category and the incentives are relevant to the category, and so we expected quite good take up amongst the new respondents. As it turned out, the unsubscribe rates are less than half that of an 'average' panel, so that all went well. We understand that some people don't want to do these things though, even in an area of interest, and that is fine.

We felt the invitation to new respondents made the benefits to the respondents and to the clients clear.  We didn't want to 'entrap' people into joining, which would irritate, and so we made the unsubscribe option very clear. We stated how often we would contact people and made it clear the surveys comply with the MRS Code of Conduct.

The invitation went to 33,000 new people. For the majority our invitation was either of interest or they simply unsubscribed.

However one of the 33,000 was unhappy with us. Very unhappy. Very unhappy indeed.

Of the 33,000 he was the only one who used the option to write to us. This is what he said: (We've changed his name and the Panel name to protect confidentiality.)


Subject: GET LOST > Re Introducing Muse Urban Survey THURSDAY 20 AUGUST 2010    |   15:10

Dear Collective Panel of unamed Cowards hiding behind this soporific drivel, allegedly, about "Urban life",

DON'T EVER,  REPEAT,  EVER, SEND ME THIS UNSPEAKABLE GARBAGE AGAIN.

In irritation,

Yours faithfuly

Mr Gordon KARR
15:10


We don't mean him any harm by publishing this, which is why we have kept it anonymous. We understand that some people don't like receiving these things, let alone participating in them, but this seemed unusually extreme. We'll assume that he's a normal well balanced person most of the time but we caught him at bad moment.

(In his rage he forgot to Unsubscribe. We did it for him, and sent him an email of apology.)

If anyone else would like to send abusive emails please feel free to do so at: rickbutler@musestrategy.com

We'll give a prize for the one that causes him the most offense. Criticism of Man Utd should put you in with a chance of winning.

Or if you would like to find out about our Panels you can do so HERE.

We have syndicated Panels on Cultural venues, Books, Premium brands and Investments. We also create bespoke Panels.

Creativity in advertising

                          Picasso at La Colombe D'Or

All of us have been involved in the creation of advertising as clients, in ad agencies and in our current lives.  It is perhaps immodest, but nonetheless true, that we have been associated with a number of the most creatively awarded and commercially successful campaigns that have run in recent years. Whilst we think that great advertising is simple we also think people often fail to realise just how hard it is to create great advertising.

Advertising is an almost uniquely constrained creative process: there are few creative environments where what you have to communicate, to whom it is to be communicated and the tone of voice with which it is to be communicated are so defined. And it is often evaluated by people for whom creative evaluation is not their core strength.

All very difficult.

But on the other hand, despite the desire of creative teams, it is unfortunate that there is very little genuinely innovative advertising being presented to clients, let alone produced and finding it's way to the public. And one of the further difficulties is that often creativity is inspired by what has gone before, or what surrounds the creative mind, but the advertising industry seems reluctant to acknowledge this.

Bob Dylan says he is inspired by Woody Guthrie, Willie McTell and Jack Kerouac.

John Galliano seeks inspiration from stage and cinema, referring to how Brooke Shields looked in Pretty Baby, and the films of Bollywood.

Inigo Jones changed the face of London architecture inspired by the classical styles of the Italian Renaissance.

And Martin Scorsese refers to the influences and inspiration of Caravaggio and The Rolling Stones.

All of these will go down in history for their creativity and all of them acknowledge that their work has been inspired by what has gone before, or what surrounds them.

By contrast, two of us were heavily involved in the Stella Artois 'Reassuringly Expensive' TV campaign. We saw a long lecture from one of it's authors on it's creative originality. You may recall the early executions bore a remarkable similarity to 'Jean de Florette' and one of the the first featured an artist swapping his paintings for a glass of Stella Artois in the South of France. There is a hotel in Saint Paul de Vence, above the Riviera, called La Colombe D'Or. It is a beautiful place and notable because impoverished artists used to swap their art for meals. Some of the artists went on to do rather well and so the restaurants walls are now covered in the early works of Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Miro and Leger, amongst others. The hotel is so well known in the upper echelons of the advertising world that it once had a UK ad agency cricket team. We are sure however that the author of the 'Reassuringly Expensive' TV campaign had never heard of Jean de Florette or La Colombe d'Or, and his work was every bit as original as he said it was.

                       One of the paintings swapped for a meal

We think there is nothing wrong with being inspired by what has gone before, or by what surrounds us, but it should be an inspiration for something new and different, rather than the source of something that goes on to be simply derivative.

In view of all of this we thought we would run an occasional series of entries featuring ads that seem derived, inspired, or genuinely original.

We'll start with this ad.

And here is the video for the OK Go track, 'Here It Goes Again'.

It looks a bit derived to us, but we'll forgive it, for it's undeniable relevance.

More will follow.