Tony Murray gets (very) personal with Creative Concern's Steve Connor - North West Media Features

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Tony Murray gets (very) personal with Creative Concern's Steve Connor

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Friday, 11 December 2009

The ethical champions meet the ethically challenged as Steve Connor, chief executive of Creative Concern, chats to Tony Murray (and Jennifer O’Grady). It’s also your chance to join in with the brand new word game everyone will be playing this Christmas – “Connor cheer or Gonorrhoea”….

Okay. Your avowed positioning - sustainable, ethical, let's you sleep at night... Surely that's just your gimmick?

Connor: no gimmicks

No gimmick – it's what we've always done. I've spent the last 20 years as a campaigner on a host of issues and Creative Concern is a culmination of much of that. My co-director Chris has the same background. We basically love creative communications, always have, but have wanted from the outset to apply them to the issues we care about.

How deep down the food chain does this policy go? What would happen if you saw a junior member of the studio flicking through the Daily Sport wearing a Jim Davidson tee-shirt and eating a tuna sandwich?

Have you got a webcam trained on our office? Actually that's a really important one for us - we've got a team of 23 now and clearly they're not all vegan socialist greens. There is plenty of diversity of opinion within the team, but the really obvious thing is that we attract talented people who share a lot of the same ideas... we hardly hide what we're about.

So they wouldn't be expected to undergo a period of self-criticism and re-education?

[Laughs] No. One thing I would say is that I don't want our positioning in the Manchester/Northwest creative sector to be seen as a 'holier than thou' or to critically comment on other agencies. This is what we choose to do and I know, from the How-Do comment boards, that it winds some people up, but I very much respect the work that a number of other agencies do, particularly here in Manchester.

Anyone in particular?

Absolutely. We have worked with Startdotstar, SKV and, many moons ago, with Hemisphere. I think Modern Designers are fab. True North are great. I could go on... there is a shedload of talent in this city. Makes me proud to be part of it

You mentioned the How-Do comment boards, one thing guaranteed to light them up is destination marketing/regional branding. Just why does this attract such flak?

CC's Wythenshawe work

I wrote about this a couple of years ago. Too often when a town or locale creates a new logo or strapline, it comes across like a cry for help - a 'civic flare gun fired into murky international skies' - and I can totally understand a certain level of cynicism IF it's done badly. However, image is a critical part of making a place or a community competitive and attractive.

So this doesn't mean taking a trip to the 'logo shop' but should be about a thorough review of perceptions, and, where necessary, weaknesses. If a place is under-performing it could be just as critical to address the public realm, clean streets, public services as it is to come up with a creative solution or campaign.

And of course I could go on about this for some time...

Your work for Wythenshawe attracted particular ire...

No it didn't. It's been a major success and I'm really proud of it. It is not a brand but a grassroots image campaign based around the voices and opinions of the community itself. It doesn't really sit alongside 'place branding' and is more about ambassadors, myth-busting and pro-active PR. The Real Lives campaign was particularly helpful when the Duchess arrived to do her two-part documentary.

The arrival of Fergie and its coverage was widely seen as negative for Wythenshawe, merely reinforcing a lot of pre-conceptions. Would you agree?

Locals not fans of the duchess

Not really. There was a large group of local residents who took part in national radio phone-ins and there was a rally in Wythenshawe Park which was covered extensively in the national press - we got a full page in the Daily Mail for example. The local community, with a very small bit of help from us, moved fast to counteract the negative coverage, and it was judged by most to be a success.

There was no reference to your campaign in the programme...were you a bit miffed about that?

No. The thing about our Real Lives campaign is that it is a long term project. The external image of the area is years out of date. Great strides are being taken but this won't be solved overnight. That's another reason why this is not a straight 'branding' campaign but something deeply embedded in the local community.

Aside from the guy who got paid to put up the new signage, can you honestly say, hand on heart and swearing on the future wellbeing of your firstborn, that your Wythenshawe campaign has improved the life of even one Wythenshawe resident by so much as half a jot?

Yes.

Who?

We had a 'one year on' event a couple of weeks ago, where a number of the ambassadors from the local community - who are a critical part of the campaign - stood up and said how much it mattered to them that they were getting the chance to speak up for Wythenshawe. This is not 'our' campaign, it is theirs. It's a crucial distinction. That's why it is based almost entirely around their own words and images.

Would you be happy if said first-born had to go to school in Wythenshawe?

Yes... but we've just finished renovating a house so my partner would kill me if we had to move. On a serious note, the rebuilding of each and every secondary school in Wythenshawe has been one thread of the campaign.

There was one NW re-branding campaign that inspired even more comment than Wythenshawe...not one of yours...

I know... but that would possibly draw me into criticism of other agencies and I don't want to get into it.

Come on you must admit, the Burnley logo had all the charm and eloquence of a Tourette's sufferer with his hand wedged in a blender...

No comments from Connor

I'm not going there…

Would you have presented it?

Ok. And this is all I will say. If anyone ignored the crunchy jpeg that featured on How-Do and went to the online campaign site they'd created, I thought it had merit and, alongside the image bank they'd put together, it was a perfectly good piece of work. I wouldn't like to use it in print, but haven't seen their full campaign book, so don't know what else is in the toolkit. Right. Subject closed.

Fair enough. Moving on slightly, do you ever see work - none agency specific - in the regional branding sector and think 'Oh shit, that's going to come back and bite us all on the arse?'

Yes. I'd refer to my flare gun comment above! I don't know if you've read Simon Anholt's stuff on city & nation branding but it is absolutely critical that this area of work is not seen as a bolt-on, but as a fundamental part of the development of a city, town or community. It needs to reflect both reality and aspiration. You need to work with planners, architects, local authorities and business to get it right, and sometimes it may nor result in a logo or branded campaign – hence Peter Saville's Original Modern construct for Manchester.

Is there any community branding work you’d decline?

Yes. And we have. For example if it's overly focused on what we'd see as 'old school' economic development, then it's really not for us. It wouldn't play to our strengths and there probably wouldn't be a meeting of minds, creatively, so best avoided.

Could you give us more of an example?

Nope. That would be unprofessional.

So there would be no problem with Hale or Bowdon ?

I think they're doing fine by themselves, to be honest!

Is there any community branding work you’d geld a randy panda to get?

Sorry. Distracted by the Panda. Personally I'd always be interested in more work along the lines of Wythenshawe, where we're helping to give communities a voice as they turn themselves around and take control of their own image. We've done a fair chunk of work with Groundwork, for example, and we really believe in environmental and regeneration projects in areas that are in genuine need.

Manchester a Certain Future –wouldn’t that have been better entitled “Manchester a Certain Chance to Jump On The Sustainably-Fuelled Troupe Truck On The Eve Of The Copenhagen Conference"?

Where are all the ACR fans?

Very funny. Actually I was hoping the older Hacienda crowd would notice the nod to A Certain Ratio! I'm really chuffed that we've had a chance to help write and put online the city's climate change plan. Copenhagen obviously gave the city a deadline and literally hundreds of people have worked on the plan, frenetically, over the last couple of months. Of course I would have liked to have seen this a year ago, or five years ago, but the fact that we have such an ambitious plan – 41% CO2 cuts by 2020 - is something to be very proud of. If Manchester, the first industrial city, can get to grips with climate change, then there's no excuse for any other city, anywhere in the world.

Do you believe it’s a realistic aim?

We have no choice. If you put the naysayers to one side for a moment (and they're getting far too much airtime at the moment) then we have to achieve very radical cuts, starting now. It will be far from easy, however. The upside is that if we aggressively tackle this, it will be good for the city and the region, as we create 'greener' jobs and new opportunities for innovation.

This one just twittered in from Jennifer O’Grady, head of Democracy PR and ex- Communiqué (but aren’t they all these days?) – “Do you think the public sector cuts are going to hit you?”

It's a very good question. I actually think that we're highly experienced in some areas - such as climate change - that are not going to diminish, but we are very focused on cutting costs, giving value for money, being more efficient. The next 12 months will be eventful and there will be plenty of challenges along the way. The one thing we're not is complacent.

Okay, let’s imagine, every region of the NW if not the world, now has lovingly-crafted regional branding to the delight of every stakeholder, emissions are in remission and all is right in the world – except at Creative Concern. It’s quarter to midnight on Dec 23rd, the bailiffs are at the door, it looks like non-organic oranges all round for the children off CC’s staff this Christmas, prior to them starting at their new school, Benchill High, in January. Then the marketing director of General Motors appears with a big bag of cash and a brief to launch their new 4WD model into the school run market. Do you accept the gig?

[Laughs] Absolutely not. Two critical things here - actually three. One, if there were no problems left in the world that had a communications or behavioural change dimension to them, I would be a very, very happy man. Two, that is a uniquely unlikely scenario, sadly, so I think I will be at this until they shuffle me off for a green funeral. Three, I personally (not my team) would be crap at commercial marcomms.

Okay, this next bit is a bit mad, but it's nearly Xmas and How-do has been a little dour of late...

Gulp.

Okay, as the marketing communications industry is obviously in need of a moral compass in these difficult times, let’s try and give them a little steer. I’m going to say ten different names or phrases....

Cheers from Connor

Go on...

If you reckon they deserve the ethical thumbs up I want you to give them a “Connor Cheer” if they are loathsome, unpleasant and a complete pain in the nads, I want you to give them a little “gonorrhoea”.

I'll try - but can't promise if it involves dissing other agencies in Manchester…

Okay, if you’re ready we’re going to play a special yuletide game of “Connor cheer“ or “Gonorrhoea”....

Fire away.

Boris Johnson

Gonorrhoea

David Cameron

Gonorrhoea with knobs on.

Reality TV

Oh come on. GONORRHOEA!!!

Social Media

Great big Connor cheer

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