Corporate Anti Hero

35 out of 50

2009-12-29T14:34:47Z

Not bad, especially since I don't like in the UK anymore.

Year in review : Career

2009-12-29T09:45:45Z

This isn't a post about work in the broad sense I usually write about it. It's about work in the sense of skills learned, things achieved and so on. Because it's good to look back.

I think the theme for this year has been that, in my second year in the job, I've actually started to be able to do some of the stuff I want to. In the first year the volume of work and the 'drinking from a firehose' introduction to communications meant there wasn't much I could do but deal with what was in front of me and cling on. Aside from the fact that all the work did indeed get done there wasn't much I could point to and say 'that was me, and wouldn't have happened without me.' This year things were a little different, and I actually managed to iniate and see through a few projects. In this respect three things stand out.

One The support we provided to Age of Stupid was a result of my lobbying, and I was delighted with how it turned out. In a rare piece of Greenpeace glamour I met the director and producer at a film festival in Amsterdam, whisked them off to a party on the Rainbow Warrior, and there we concocted our plans for global notoriety. Remarkably, many of those plans actually happened. This chimney, for instance, may not have been much in the grand scheme of things, but I know it made the Stupid people very happy, and with eight chimneys to label we needed good slogan ideas.

Two A smaller project that turned out big was the Copenhagen advertising. I believe Greenpeace makes far too little use of traditional communications tools, and sticking a well designed set of posters in exactly the right place is about as traditional as it gets. I can't take credit for the concept, but I did write the copy. Literally dozens of front pages and hundreds of press stories later the adverts were the kind of success that means I'll get to do this again next year. Indeed with campaigns being somewhat fascinated by success I suspect we'll get a lot of requests for similar things next year.

An addded highlight was getting rung up by my better two thirds to be told the ads were front page on our own paper - the NRC Handlesblad, which is the second biggest paper in Holland.

Three More traditional work came with our TV advertising. At the start of the year I speculated that the advertising recession should mean there was a massive supply of pro-bono advertising to be had. Shortly afterward this idea collided with our video department being inspired by the example of (I think) Christian Aid UK, who had worked wonders on a zero budget to secure TV broadcast of their commercials. The eventual result was these three videos which look set to enjoy a six month run on channels ranging from MTV to FOX News (in Latin America). Possibly the biggest advertising campaign in Greenpeace history, all achieved for peanuts. It helps to have a massively talented video unit to draw on, and indeed my colleague Lucy who came up with the concept, directed, produced and in one case filmed the material takes the lions share of the credit.

One project I certainly didn't initiate, but learned huge amounts from was our Arctic Expedition. Again I wrote a communications strategy with an eye to reaching big media, and it paid off. Our web videos recieving runs on sites like CNN.com, and our media team rounding up a who's who of international media to join us in Kulusuk (or Clusterfuck as we were calling it as we waited nervously for them to arrive). Delivery though was all down to the magnificent on board team and some great hustle in the office. One of the great things about working at Greenpeace is the calibre of people you get to work with. Dave Walsh (press officer), Nick Cobbing (photographer) and Stephen Nugent (video) were superb, while media rockstar find of the year was explorer Eric Philips. It was the first Greenpeace expedition I'd worked on, and the first time Dave had led an on board media team without backup, so both of us were delighted that a) nothing went wrong and b) so very many things went so very well.

Just as the year was ending we heard that one of Nick's photo's made it to Time Magazine's images of the year selection.

Management I don't think I've ever done a better job as a manager than I did a few years ago in the IT department. All sorts of things conspired to make that easier, I hired most of the team myself, the work was consistent and to a large extent we could set the pace ourselves. Things have been different this year, a communications manager doesn't have a regular team, but a shifting array of staff based on the project(s) in hand. The pace is set by the campaigns and the outside world, and is almost invariably fast. All of which meant that when it came to things like project management and team leadership this year can be filed under 'could do better'. Where I could provide people with stability and consistent work things went well, but I didn't have time to provide much additional support. For the rest it mostly felt like hustle and firefighting, which isn't how you build great teams in the long term.

Other stuff to work on is mostly long term, strategic planning, and, surprisingly perhaps, the interactive digital work. Big picture planning was subject to all kinds of internal stresses and strains this year, largely as a response to the exceptional nature of Copenhagen. While the end results were OK, I felt that we took on far too much work - and I think the year bore me out. Hopefully this year I'm in a position to have more influence, which is also, of course, a position of huge responsibility. If next year is better than this year it'll be because we get the planning right.

The digital stuff is just an ongoing frustration. Greenpeace has an enviable track record for online campaigning, but so far we haven't been able to translate that to the climate campaign. I'm not sure what's behind that, but it's definitely something to work on as we go into planning 2010.

Objective resolution

2009-12-28T08:49:15Z

Following up on bateleur 's post on objectives, this Guardian piece looks at why people do so badly with new years resolutions. Not surprising perhaps, but useful advice for anyone thinking of making a change next year.

Update : Sorry, the article is here http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/28/new-years-resolutions-doomed-failure

The year in review - Sports

2009-12-28T08:23:49Z

According to the fingerprint scanner that regulates my access to the gym I have made 33 visits this year. I may make it to 34 before new year. That's probably down on last year, and certainly down on two years ago when I (twice!) managed 40 visits in four weeks. I think I played football twice this year, as a combination of Lisa's arrival and work overload conspired to keep me from the Thursday night five a sides. My own personal sporting achievements have been, well, minimal would be a generous word.

Footie
It's been a dramatic year on the football front. Years of mismanagement and fiscal insanity finally doomed Newcastle United to the oblivion of Championship football. So bad had things got that there was some kind of relief at relegation. Finally we could look forward to a season that wouldn't be based on false hope, desperate big money signings and a search for another new messiah.

Once down in the Championship things turned out to be far more enjoyable. It's clear that we're still far from a Premiership quality side, but we're top of the league and ten points clear of the playoff places. It's a shame that of all the teams in English football I support the one most likely to blow it from that kind of position, but I suppose it will keep things interesting.

The new look team is remarkably similar to the old one, just shorn of some of the big egos and wage packets, with a number of overpaid old stagers finally relegated to the dressing room or bench. Joey Barton has had the good grace to get injured, and if we're lucky some panicking Premier side will take him off our hands in January.

In a perfect world not only does promotion lie ahead, but some kind of workmanlike first season back in the Premiership where hard graft and talent conspire to keep us up. I'd certainly rather that than see us immediately lash out on ten million pound strikers who are past their sell by date. But that would be boring, wouldn't it.

Elsewhere the Premiership has actually become interesting to watch. It's a shame Liverpool look like being the first members of the big 4 to fall from grace, but things are tight and it's just possible Chelsea might continue to slide. Arsenal, Man Utd, Tottenham and Villa for the Champions League is the kind of power shift I'd like to see.

Cricket
One of the things about living in Holland is that it's virtually impossible to watch cricket beyond the occassional 20/20 game on Eurosport (Which looked like a lot of fun). Instead cricket is something you consume via the Guardian's superb over by over updates and the occassional IM to Australian colleagues. My summer holidays though coincided with the Ashes series, meaning I got to confuse my much better two thirds by insisting on listening to Test Match Special as we drove about the countryside.

And the Ashes turned out to be worth paying attention to. Fantastic, dramatic stuff. A demonstration of why a game that takes five days - and a series that takes 25 - can actually be worth playing. I'm not just saying this because we won. It was genuinely exciting stuff, showcasing everything from nailbiting draws as England clung on, to one sided demolitions (of England) and some hard fought, see-saw victories. More than any other sport I think Cricket allows for the creation of heroes, whether with ball, or bat, or in the case of Swann, both.

Rugby
Six nations rugby is available on the BBC and so can be had in Holland. Which is great. Like cricket, I don't play Rugby but can appreciate it. So, rather oddly, can my better two thirds who has already worked out that the best way to predict the outcome of a close game is to ask which team is fitter, or failing that, Australian. Still, watching Wales beat Australia for the first time in who knows how many years (the commentator did, it was a lot) was cracking stuff. A week later order was restored as we watched them demolish Scotland. Sadly, we somehow missed all the New Zealand games.

And that seems to be about it for my sporting memories of 2009. I'm vaguely aware that the UK has become a dominant force in Formula 1, that Andy Murray played well at Wimbledon (in fact I watched it), and seems to be developing the kind of on field arrogance that seems to be required in successful tennis players. Henman just never seemed to believe he was better than the guy he was playing the way Murray does. I'm sure there was swimming, and running and Usain Bolt is really quite fast but that was about it.

The oil bet

2009-12-27T15:12:22Z

Looks like oil prices will start the year somewhere around $80. Well below the $100 I need to break even with condign this year, but all is not lost.

As you can see over here, opinions about where the oil markets going vary *a lot*. Merril Lynch expects prices to average $85 next year, Goldman Sachs, $90. Morgan Stanley are predicting $105 by 2012, which would put my side of the twenty year bet into positive territory by year three.

On the other hand, Deutsche Bank, and the Mexican government are both bearish, expecting drops to something around $60, which would see me owing serious money.

Barring further economic dislocations, I'd expect Goldman Sachs to have it about right, with the price ending the year somewhere around $100.

When history turns out to be right

2009-12-24T09:26:47Z

Physical evidence supports Plutarch's account of the end of Anthony and Cleopatra. Which is the account Shakespeare used. Which is quite nice really.

40k blather

2009-12-22T09:55:15Z

Only of interest to anyone familiar with 40k rules, this adaption for 'movie marines'. I like this, since it makes the marines so awesomely hard, and so utterly outnumbered that your game may actually start to resemble some of the supporting literature.

Free the Copenhagen 4

2009-12-21T16:48:40Z

Tell the Danish Ambassador that detaining peaceful activists for three weeks is a bad plan. Right here.

Lisa

2009-12-21T12:13:16Z

Time for a quick update on Lisa I feel.

Since learning to tiger crawl she's had a great time. What began as a slow, but exciting means of locomotion has become speedy and mundane. Unless, of course, you're the cats, in which case a small person is now pursuing you across the floor at any opportunity. She is, of course, far too slow to catch the cats - but she doesn't understand that and it seems to be a fantastic source of motivation to go *even faster*.

As well as speeding up there is sitting up. Lisa has been able to sit by herself for a bit more than a month now, provided someone placed her in a sitting position. Now, after a lot of practice, she can get there herself. This is brilliant, she rolls and crawls about the floor, and then pops herself upright whenever she finds something of interest. Or at least, something that would be of more interest if she was vertical. Like the bookshelves, which she is currently reorganising.

She's been doing this for about three days, and is already working on the next stage of baby development. That's pulling yourself up. I've just realised that I need to lower the floor in her playpen, because soon she'll be capable of dragging herself out of it (which would lead to a 3' plummet straight down). It also means that *everything* on the coffee table is now fair game, not just the stuff on the edges.

The only downpoint in the last week is that she's contracted laryngitis. It's been no fun at all for her, but in the last couple of days she seems to be past the worst of it. So onwards! Next, rather excitingly, will be (supported) standing.

Denmark's shame

2009-12-20T12:31:47Z

Not the disastrous meeting. The shame for that deserves to be widely spread. But the detention of four activists, in isolation, for three weeks for their part in a peaceful protest. The detentions are 'pre-trial' which presumably means the Danes think these four pose such a threat that they couldn't be bailed to walk the streets. Their crime? Walking down the red carpet and asking our world leaders to, well, lead.

The reason they're in jail - the embarrasment they caused the Danish authorities, who were so frustrated that the next morning they arrested eleven Greenpeace volunteers who were serving coffee to delegates. They at least were released soon afterward, although the police failed to explain what the arrests were for.

The arm twisting has begun

2009-12-17T14:30:11Z

Australia tries to convince small island states that their continued existence should be negotiable.

I'm going hungry

2009-12-16T22:00:37Z

Some folks have been doing this for coming up to 40 days now. Seems the least I can do is chip in a day of solidarity to get them over the line.

Update No food for 16 hours and I'm doing fine. Usually feel much more hungry round about this time of day.

Update 2 Coming up to 20 hours and starting to feel a bit hungry. Given my ability to become ravenous between breakfast and elevenses this is all rather anti-climatic.

Update 3 23 hours and I'm feeling slightly dizzy. Like I've been staring at a computer screen for too long. Of course that could be because I have been staring at a computer screen for too long. Mostly I think what I've learned today is that if someone comes up with a brilliant protest idea that requires me to go several days without food I'll be happy to volunteer.

The guys who've done six weeks though - well, that's a hell of a commitment.

Oh, and water is surprisingly filling, even in small quantities.

The view from India

2009-12-15T09:18:57Z

Running in the Times of India.

It's a conspiracy! (2)

2009-12-15T09:11:48Z

AP reads all the emails, gets expert review where needed and discover that when it comes to discrediting the science, climate gate is complete bollocks (shock! horror!).

It's a conspiracy!

2009-12-14T08:54:55Z

From Potholer 54, I haven't watched the rest of his stuff yet. But I plan to take a look.

Around the world

2009-12-08T08:46:06Z

Nice slideshow here, giving a taste of what's going on around the world.

Mice

2009-12-08T08:42:07Z

We have mice. Food in the cupboard under the stairs has been chewed upon. Said cupboard has now been emptied, and the food replaced with poison.

It may not be needed though, since the twin ferocious guardians of the living room have now racked up three kills. Tom and Jerry it isn't.

Forwards!

2009-12-08T08:39:11Z

Lisa 'four tooth' Lloyd can now do that combat crawl thing babies do. The Dutch call it tijgeren (tiger crawling). I'm not sure there's a word for it in English.

Anyhow - she's tiger crawling, and it's getting faster by the day.

Save the covered market?

2009-12-06T08:52:06Z

There's a facebook campaign to save the covered market. However apart from 'The liberals' and 'rising overheads' it's not very clear what it needs saving from.

Links from the facebook page suggest the council is about to sink 100k into doing the market up, which is an odd way to destroy something. Can someone enlighten me?

Update - Ah, it's the Tories. And it's about rent, rather than say, demolition. Much more information needed I think.

Copenhagen is here!

2009-12-06T08:38:03Z

Well, it starts tomorrow anyway. After a year of pessimism and the gradual lowering of expectations I actually feel more optimistic about these talks than I have for months. Possibly all year.

Greenpeace works with three rough scenarios about likely outcomes, and within these there are three things that really matter. a) emission cuts b) ending deforestation and c) money to help the developing world. So - how are our scenarios looking...

1. Breakthrough deal - the one that could save the world. Unfortunately, the US position pretty much takes this off the table, so I'll still be working on climate change next year. Obama's offer is basically to get US emissions back to where they were in 1990 - when we really should be aiming for about 40% below. Realistically* the US could make an offer of around 25%. The rest would then have to be made up elsewhere - perhaps by taking on a larger burden of the financing.

But we could get elements of a breakthrough deal. On saving the forests or financing there's a chance that we could get a deal that makes a real impact. There are plenty of ways to get a deal on forestry wrong though.

2. Foundation deal - not enough, but something to work with. This is looking increasingly likely. The offers on the table from Brazil, India, China and Indonesia to reduce the carbon intensity of their economies are pretty much in line with what both civil society and the developed world negotiators have been asking for. Essentially in the last two weeks nations like the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia have been called out on their 'we'll move when China moves' position.

3. Greenwash - this is the one to worry about. A piece of paper, trumpeted as the one that will save the world, but essentially worthless. Either because of what's written on it, or because it has no legal standing. About a month ago this was looking like the odds on favourite, but since then a few things have shifted. The G77 group of developing countries made it very clear they wouldn't sign on to a bad deal when they walked out of negotiations in Barcelona, and 100 or so heads of state have committed to attending, which pretty much guarantees they won't leave with nothing.

The other big question is what the legal standing of the final outcome will be. The options are...

1. A new, shiny legal treaty which needs ratification domestically by all participants.

2. A series of amendments to the Kyoto protocol, with the USA signing on

3. A series of amendments to the Kyoto protocol, *and* a new deal between the USA and everyone else

4. An amendment to the Kyoto protocol spelling out the outline of a deal and mandating the parties to fill in the detail by a given date

5. A political deal, where everyone describes the deal and promises to fill in the detail by a given date

Of these, option 1 is a headache, option 2 would be fantastic, option 3 is the realistically desired outcome, option 4 could be acceptable depending on the details and option 5 is the one that means it's time to move to higher ground. Or at least realise that we need to work harder to create the political conditions for a deal.

So, we're off. Two weeks of intense and impenatrable political wrangling is about to start. See you on the other side.

* Which is to say this could be achieved, with current assumptions of economic growth. Not to say there's the political will to do it.

That ARG I mentioned

2009-12-04T11:48:05Z

It is, of course, us. It's global, with clues hidden right around the world. It's got cutting edge augmented reality technology built into it, and a time capsule that really will last for hundreds of years. The folks we're working with to deliver it won Emmy Awards for their previous efforts.

And I won't have time to play it. If you'd like to though, start with the press release or there's a carefully spoiler free trailhead at the Unfiction site.

The ads keep on rolling

2009-12-04T09:45:48Z

Front page of a big Mexican paper, *everywhere* in Poland, and ...

BoingBoing!

More on the ads

2009-12-03T09:27:38Z

This in from Brazil...

"instead of a major launch, with a pr and all, we decided yesterday to give lula's ad as an exclusive to a a very important columnist of rio's largest daily. he ran it this morning, with a very short caption metioning greenpeace. as the paper hit the streets, our phones started to ring of the hook.

all the major blogs and newswebsites picked up the ads, not only of lula, but of other world leaders. so did the cable news channels. the largest, globonews, did a live interview about the adds with one of our campaigners. the major networks also ran the story on the adds. Globo TV, which has a 75% share of the audience in this country ran it in all regional newscasts of its 80 or so affiliates at noon. at 1 pm, they ran it again in a national broadcast.

even radio stations asked for the pictures of the ads, running stories on them and putting them up on their website. the ads became the most talked about subject on twitter in brazil.

but that's not all. so far, 54 dailies asked for the ads. and the weekly that caters to the largest christian evangelical denomination in brazil (circulation 8 million copies) will also do a story on the ads for their edition that will be distributed in churches accross the country on sunday.

by our calculationa, all this media attention made the ads reach something around 160 million brazilians."

Spain, Portugal and Italy all seem to be loving them. Which is nice.

Update : Spain "In Spain the coverage have been fantastic! The adverts have been published in the homepage of all the national newspaper during all the day (El Pais, El Mundo, ABC...) and all the national tvs show the images (TVE, T5, A3...)"

My first Poster Ads

2009-12-02T09:58:06Z

How have I done the jobs I've done for so long without running a poster campaign? Well here's my first one. Targeted at press, negotiators and politicians arriving at Copenhagen airport it features nine key world leaders as they'll be in 2020. Very, very, sorry.

Press stories already running in Germany, Italy and Switzerland apparently. Which suggests it's working.

The full advertising credit line would be : Concept and design by Toby Cotton, copy and media strategy by me, placement by Christina Koll. Budget - the usual peanuts.

Update : Here they all are on La Republica

Nothing to worry about

2009-12-02T08:33:56Z

One in ten people live within a meter of sea level.