Hello

hello – come in and make yourself at home

The Woodies have a blog. It’s a kind of collective. Not sure we’re about to start a revolution baby, but we might kindle a small debate or two and perhaps raise a smile. Anyway, rather than just blogging corporate Woodreed by fielding our top Woodie (as so many other companies seem to do in a thinly veiled attempt at impressing with their profundity), we wanted all our individual voices to be heard. An agency’s most valuable assets are its people after all. Everyone’s got something to say here and with us everyone’s ideas and opinions matter.

Each week someone different will be blogging. It's mostly about stuff that rocks our world as well as the flipside – the things that just don't cut it with us. We'll blog about inside and outside – inside this glorious industry where we work and outside in the real world.
It's a bit of an experiment, so go with us on this one.

Hope you enjoy.
Showing posts with label The Travel Convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Travel Convention. Show all posts

Thursday, 21 October 2010

Notes from a small island

Well what a rollercoaster of a few days we have had; the privilege of being able to share our passion for the joined up brand, the giggliest client dinner probably of our careers and the chance to rub shoulders, share ideas and talk about our business with some really rather influential people.




What inspired us:
The knowledge that standing up on stage and presenting a masterclass is not only not scary, but a fantastic, exhilarating experience. Our audience were really buying into our message and we had tons of positive feedback. We felt especially proud that we could draw on all our examples of what we do at Woodreed to practise what we preach. Bring on the next one.

The presentation style of Leo Johnson (the far less daft, better looking version of Boris and, yes, I did tell him that!) plus his obvious passion and knowledge on the issue of sustainability.

The warmth and hospitality, sense of humour and general all round gorgeousness of our ABTA clients.

The chance to sit in summer clothes for one final day of 2010 while England begins to wrap up in coats and gloves (we’ll be feeling your pain tomorrow!)

Being thanked by Virgin Atlantic who came to our masterclass to tell us to tell us how delighted they were we had featured their brand.

Managing not to have a hangover before our presentation, despite enjoying a 4 course 4 hour dinner the night before (alas, so grown up)

A sense of zeitgeist in our proposition, evidenced by learning that in the travel industry building brand cultures internally is becoming increasingly important, as service becomes the only differentiator.

What we thought was dire:
That gender is STILL an issue in business as evidenced by a panel discussion ironically based on 'Loose Women' comprising 5 men and one token female and the female MD not given the chance to discuss anything much except for what it’s like to be a woman in business. But that's it really, everything else rocked.

Friday, 15 October 2010

The cure for the common blog

So I guess first of all, welcome to our new audience. Up until this week we've blogged for our eyes only. So now it's my turn again - but this time with the eyes of the cyber world upon me. It's the difference between singing your heart out in the shower or behind the wheel in the fast lane and taking centre stage at the karaoke bar.

Now our Woodreed blog is open to the outside world will it change the way we blog and what we blog about?

Can I, for example, talk about the sublime scene in this week's Mad Men where Peggy called the bluff of her abrasive new art director and they found themselves stark naked brainstorming new creative concepts for Vicks? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdKSDqo9FaU Can I ponder whether that approach would ever see the light of day at Woodreed - Jodie and Dave any thoughts? Or would I be venturing perilously close to employee litigation? On second thoughts......

Or could I dare comment upon the wannabee creative from the same episode who'd hopefully recycled one tired and hackneyed line across endless ads in his book: The cure for the common bank, the cure for the common chair, the cure for the common beer ... What agency would ever do such a thing?

Or should I be more business like and simply muse about how I'll be feeling this time next week? Once Charlotte and I have presented our masterclass on the power of brand as a tool for employee engagement to 200 delegates at The Travel Convention in Malta? What's really excited me putting that together with Charlotte has been the power of our presentation. It really is the culmination of so much great insight and experience - so will we inspire or will we be ....?

I'll let you know next week.