The Sorry State of Now.

I didn't turn your Fortune 100 brand around in a day.

I'm not sorry.

I gave you a soup-to-nuts campaign, including TV, print, digital and brand activation units in 24 hours, but it wasn't on strategy.

I'm not sorry.

I wrote an anthem, actually I wrote five anthems, in that Apple Think Different voice we talked about yesterday, but it just wasn't right.

I'm not sorry.

I am sorry that you don't know or are willing to ignore the fact that quality thinking requires a quality time allotment.

This major gripe of mine isn't aimed at a particular client or an agency or any production houses.

This is aimed at an industry. An industry that has somehow grown accustomed to the notion that all marketing problems can be solved in less time than it takes for the Earth to complete one rotation. An industry that believes the best way to get creative work from creative people is to hold a gun to their creative minds.

I hate to be that old 44 year old guy in the corner, shouting at the plastic fern, "that's not the way it's done and things were better in my day." 

But you know what?

"That's not the way it's done and things were better in my day." 

I know I've said this before before but Great takes time.
Time to stew.
Time to talk with your partner.
Time to sleep on ideas to see if they're worth nurturing.
Time to experiment.
Time to shoot the shit.
Time to go back and forth.
Time to page through the annuals to see if it has been done before.
Time to build.
Time to shift perspective and deconstruct an idea.
Time to tear down and build again.
Time to craft.
Time to polish.
Time to polish some more.
Time to make a good idea a great one.

Rome was not built in a day.

And neither was the Chamber of Commerce marketing campaign for it.