Seeing how my children are taught now at primary school definitely makes me question the quality of my own education! This week they bought home their school reports which my wife and I were very impressed with. Not just behaviorally but also with regards to how their academic progress is being monitored. For every subject they have a complex set of targets and objectives that they are already expected to be hitting. It was particularly interesting to read these in the context of my own performance review this week!

Recently, whilst chatting to my eldest, she took a liking to a word which I used in our conversation and asked "Can I 'magpie' that?" This wasn't a phrase I'd heard used before? Essentially it means stealing a word from somewhere else to enhance her writing. When the class hear or read a word that appeals to them they tell the teacher who adds it to the 'magpie words' board. With the whole class doing the same it means there's always a fresh display of words to 'magpie' into their own writing.

This is an interesting way to encourage taking the best ideas from a variety of sources to pull together and create something new. It also enhances the poor reputation of the magpie who, despite their dashing looks and mischievous demeanour, are often seen as the dandy highwayman of British birds. There's a reason they're currently a winner in the bird race. Numbers are up, and from having been persecuted in Victorian times, they are now a common sight in our gardens, cities and on busy roads.

So what's the lesson here for digital? Well, for me it's about being always inquisitive and able to pull together to collect and share the best ideas. This is particularly demonstrated when working client-side with agencies. I've seen lots of examples of in-house marketing teams sticking with a good agency and continuing to innovate and progress together. When done well this suits both parties.

However, I've also seen examples of where agencies on retainers impress in the initial pitch but then get increasingly lazy once they're not challenged. New ideas dry up or are only shared with the more reckless clients who are willing to take risks. This client and agency dynamic is like the common sight of a magpie on the M25. Having spotted a bit of roadkill, they hop and fuss about it, pecking away, whilst certain death is only a couple of feet away. A high risk strategy indeed but with excellent potential ROI!

This ability to 'magpie' has been a particularly useful technique for me is when working on larger projects. I am yet to find an agency that offers the total package. Some 'full-service agencies' excel at strategy and stakeholder management, some at design, and some at just getting the final product over the line. It's definitely time consuming but for me the ability to identify the best attributes of each, and fuse them together, is very important. The knowledge transfer it requires helps bring fresh thinking to the internal team and the end product. I certainly learn more working with a number of individuals with different skill sets and project management techniques than being stuck with just one way of doing things.

This is why for our website project we split it into three distinct work streams - Discovery, design and development. So that we could pull on the best agency skill set for each. Our team project room (or 'war room') has walls covered in design ideas, examples of copy and imagery we like and anything else we've gained from our agency discussions (and beyond) to help enhance what we eventually deliver.

Essentially it's about always learning from external sources and sharing ideas with a close-knit team who look out for each other in the way magpies do. As an extreme example of their high risk lifestyle they sometimes even hold 'funerals' for a dead companion. If a bird is killed on the road, one will start to squawk, attracting more magpies, and some of them will actually lay blades of grass next to the body, stand quietly as if 'paying their respects', then fly off.

If we don't hit the pre-agreed deadline I have no doubt that this would be something we would do for each other given what we have been through to get this far!
By now I'm a bit of a veteran at awards events. I started getting shortlisted for them ten years ago and have bought home sixteen individual trophies. That's a lot of wear for the trusty old dinner suit (although this only equates to 16+ x 3 hour stints!)

With a few exceptions, these have been industry specific awards for websites, social media and digital strategy. In fact, only when I have won for this blog has it been against those in different sectors to myself.

The success we saw for our 'Shaping Your World' campaign late last year spurred us on to look at mixing it up with the big boys! We felt it was time to put together some impressive entries to evidence our credentials at the CIPR Excellence Awards 2018. Now in their 34th consecutive year, these are the PR industry's most prestigious celebration of creativity and professionalism.

We spent a lot of time deliberating over which categories to enter. 'Best Construction, Property or Infrastructure Campaign' seemed an easy fit but we also liked the look of the new category for 2018 'Best Use of Content'.

Given that we're a small in house team it took a while to compile these submissions. We needed all our skills from writing, to data analysis, to design. After entering we watched the shortlist announcement closely and were extremely excited to have been listed for both. What followed was two panel interviews to complete a rigorous selection process. It's a good job we didn't have to feign any enthusiasm - and being involved in every aspect of the campaign meant we could also answer every question...

The second of our trips to the stage
So, last Wednesday, we headed into London (with no help from the recently 'revised' train timetable) to attend the ceremony. This was held at the The Artillery Garden at the HAC. A very impressive venue indeed with a funfair, drinks reception, photo booth, candy floss machine and unlimited pick and mix. The night had started well!

We took our seats and started biting our nails in anticipation. The upbeat atmosphere was enough to keep us entertained until our categories were announced. And then we won. In BOTH categories for which we were shortlisted! The only drawback was that we were immediately thrust into the limelight (literally) to be video interviewed. After two hours in a darkened room it's quite disconcerting to suddenly have a camera light shined into your face!
Of course, this was an absolutely brilliant night of celebration and the culmination of nine months of intense work in getting 'Shaping Your World' launched.

Proud winners
This campaign, as I've mentioned before, was so complex to devise and put in place. We continue to hold regular meetings to assess where we can grow it further and to assess performance. The key element to it's success is the collaboration we've had across the business and beyond. There have been so many positive client conversations that I've lost count! Also, seeing the amount of times it pops up on social media at a school careers fair means we owe a debt to colleagues in continuing to spread the word.

Being awarded best in class against our peers gives us fresh impetus to bring them on board to share the campaign far and wide. Only by working together can we make this a bigger success outside of the world of awards nights. There's a reason it wasn't heavily branded as Kier at the beginning!

With every day at work being an unrelenting amount of work on our new website it's nice to take some time to focus on what we have delivered. Receiving our two shiny trophies definitely helps give me the fresh energy to see our latest project over the line.
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