1. In your opinion, was Kangaroo really such a bad thing for 'competition'?
2. What do you think will happen next to Channel 4 and why should we care?
3. With a multitude of choice available through on demand services and the internet, is there still a need for public service broadcasting?
4. Is the Government (with the Digital Britain Report, the OFT veto-ing Kangaroo, etc.) generally a help or hindrance to the industry at the moment?
5. What do you believe is the role of the press in the current banking crisis? How can they form a balance between a good story and panic tactics?
6. With the rapid growth of catch up TV and video on demand services, do you think there will come a time in the near future when TV channel scheduling will become irrelevant? If so, what effect will this freedom to view have on the way we watch TV?
7. Cadbury has launched a follow-on to their extremely successful ad campaigns 'Gorilla' and 'Airport Trucks.' This time, instead of a gorilla playing drums or airport diesels dancing to Queen, viewers get to witness "eyebrow dancing." Can you give us some ‘things to remember’ when we are trying to design campaigns which encourage involvement and imitation?
8. Linked to the above questions about public service broadcasting and the move from 'push' to 'pull' forms of media, do you think this consumer power and freedom will lead to a dumbing down of TV content overall? Surely it's tougher to get audiences to 'demand' a documentary over a soap or episode of Xfactor?
9. Is media killing itself? Legislation such as PSB brings with it the responsibility to report the facts to the public, but should there be a concerted effort to be more positive where possible? With falling consumer confidence over most sectors (employment, finance, retail, housing etc) continued negativity in the media will only fuel the recession…won’t it?
Editor's Notes
Framework – not the ROI blueprint, nor BBC, nor pathways, but a planning approach that we can all work to. One that doesn’t restrict us but helps us with the structure of our planning output. Structure is the most important part – how we tell the story of what we’re going to do. And every story – well, every planning story at least - contains certain markers, certain points that we have to tell people. Each story has a problem, an issue, a point of conflict; it has a leap of inspiration that leads to a decisive plan of action; the action unfolding; and an ending – what happened as a result of all that action. And that should be our simple path for our story. The problem we face, the inspiration or insight that leads us to a solution, the solution we choose, and the things that happen as a consequence. Pretty simple and able to be conveyed in the space of a few minutes. Tools – every planning document will be different. They should be different. But we have to equip you with techniques that help you get there. Somebody spoke to me about the tyranny of a blank piece of paper after a brief – our job is to get you started, get you to know there are a whole host of things that you can do at each stage of the planning story to help you frame your challenge, to uncover great insights, to produce even better ideas etc. Togetherness – the most important point of the lot. Some of you wanted good examples of what other clients had been given, or good pitch work that had gone out. Some wanted to properly get to know the rest of planning, see what they’d been up to in their groups. Some were keen on a drink…But this is the biggest issue I’ve seen since joining – there is a hell of a lot of great work going on in each of the business groups but very little sharing been done. Imagine, if we just managed to lift our collaborative spirit by 20-30% this year – we started showing off our campaigns a bit more, started helping other groups out when they need extra planning, started competing and helping in equal measure. That is the spirit I’d like for us because I believe the work will get even more impressive as a result.
