John Winsor

Tim's Right, It is About Relationships

Last Wednesday I had the honor of giving a presentation to the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association. It turned into a lively discussion on the future of advertising. My host, Tim Brunelle did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of the conversation in a recent blog post.

I totally agree with Tim. Advertising is all about relationships. And at the core of the client/agency relationship is trust. These days, that trust is being eroded by a lack of transparency and, oftentimes, resistance to change. Over the past few months, I've spent a lot of time in CMO offices of Fortune 500 companies. The theme is consistent. They tell me stories of being charged $10,000 per second for video editing for videos to go on YouTube, $1,000 for a single foamcore presentation board, $25,000 for event banners, unwillingness to collaborate, not to mention all the indirect charges for world-class parties and A-list travel.

Clients are frustrated.

Somewhere along the way, the big agency business became a lifestyle cultivated by the delusions of a time gone by.

Clients want great creative and strategy that pushes their business forward for an honest and transparent price.

It's pretty simple. The trust needs to be regained.

But lifestyles tend to be a hard thing to give up.

What do you think?

Harry and Boeing: The Final Chapter

As many of you know, I blogged about Harry and Boeing two month ago. The story blew up in the media. As a result, Boeing, The Future of Flight Museum, King County Airport and the Museum of Flight all reached out and invited Harry to them visit. 

Dave Reese and Sandy Cohen receiving a drawing from Harry

So last Thursday Harry lead the Winsor clan to Seattle to meet the Boeing folks and take a VIP tour of the Boeing factory. Todd Blecher, Boeing's Communication Director, flew out from Chicago to tag along with Dave Reese, senior manager of visitor relations for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Aubrey Cohen, from the Seattle PI and Harriett Baskas, a writer for USA Today and MSNBC on tour of the factory. (both wrote articles. Here and here.) We got to see how 747s, 787s and 777s are built. 

It blew Harry's mind. Besides getting to tour the facilities we also met Cam Carnegie, an amazing Boeing aircraft configuration design engineer who had personally connected with Harry and shared his own journey to becoming a designer was there to meet us, as well.

At the Future of Flight Aviation Center

After the tour we spent some time with Sandy Ward at The Future of Flight Aviation Center. Sandy was gracious enough to host The Harry Winsor Design Your Own Aircraft Show. The art show had about 60 entries with drawings that had been sent in from all over the world. The Future of Flight is quite an amazing facility.

Harry as a Firefighter

Friday afternoon we headed down to the King County Airport where Leslie Barstow set us up for a special tour of the airport, driving around the field, with Operations Manager, Chris Hall. Harry even got to check out what it was like to play firefighter.

Harry and Charlie at the Museum of Flight

Saturday, we headed over to the incredible Museum of Flight, where Tara Cashman had connected us with Ted Huetter. The Museum has almost every significant plane in its collection from the Wright Brother's plane to the latest Mars Rover. Seeing how big of an impact flight has had on culture over the last 100 years and what significant technological advances have happened because of flight is a bit mind bending.

I'm actually not sure what this crazy journey means. I was incredibly impressed with Todd Blecher and his ability to see the opportunity to use the power of a story in social media to make Boeing an even greater company. Todd told us that Boeing is even changing the way they handle submissions of ideas, especially from kids. Every company can learn from Boeing on how to improve their listening.

At the end of the day, a good story fueled by the democratization of social media has the power to change the world.

Our family, was incredibly humbled by the experience and by the amount of effort everyone gave to make Harry's dreams come true.

A special thanks also go out to @BoeingCorporate, @Futureofflight, @museumofflight, @airlinereporter, @airlinesangel, and @rupalparekh.

Off to Visit Boeing

Off to Boeing from john winsor on Vimeo.

Trash on the Street

 
I found this today in Washington DC. Sometimes, trash speaks for itself.

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A V&S Update: The Work in The Age of Abundance

Yesterday was a big day for V&S. DISH Network launched the new spots we created for them. A lot of credit goes to Ira Bahr, Bill Landow, Cora Locke and the rest of the DISH team. Thanks. Creating advertising in the age of abundance is fun and challenging. It's about finding the right talent for the right job, then curating all of the amazing ideas that start to flow.

We'd like to celebrate the great creativity from all corners of the globe. It's inspiring to see the radical evolution of an industry and watch individuals take control of a once closed society made up of Mad Men.

I hope you enjoy the work.

Strange Faces

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Getting Out

See and download the full gallery on posterous

When I’m on the road for business, it’s tough to get out and explore. This morning, I was lucky to get up early and head over the Golden Gate Bridge for a good little run in the Marin Headlands. What a beautiful place and incredible view looking back east at the Golden Gate Bridget in the fog. It made day.

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