Author: Joshua Orie

Following our recent rebrand, we thought we would catch up with the architect behind it, BIG’s creative director, Steve Hill.

As we pursue our careers, we invariably learn what works and what doesn’t. Through trial and error we can often fall into the trap of habit; what worked before will work again, so let’s just stick with that. We apply mental shortcuts* – a path of least resistance if you like. This is particularly likely when you are under pressure and time is tight (and when isn’t it?).

As a creative agency, we recognise there are times when we need to be a little more child-like in our work. I don’t mean having a temper tantrum and throwing yourself to the office floor (not in front of clients anyway), but having the wonderful curiosity that children have – that we all once had. The desire to know how everything works, why the grass is green and the sky blue, and what happens if I…?!

For grown-ups, it’s difficult to unlearn learned habits. In our case, as creatives, it might be how we look at our clients’ challenges in different ways. That could be as simple as remembering to consider if the brief is asking the right questions.

Being curious is rarely the easy path. It’s not following our “route one thinking”* but means applying cognitive load to our already-busy brains. It can be a lot of fun though! Learning something new is said to help confidence and our ability to tackle all sorts of new tasks. The sense of achievement from learning something new has a positive impact on our mental wellbeing and, after the last few months, who couldn’t do with a little positive impact on their mental wellbeing? So, while we all have tried and trusted techniques and methodologies we know work, there’s always room for adding a little ‘Creative Curiosity’ to our thinking.

Steve Hill – Creative Director

**Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman – if you want to know why we have two modes of thought and what system 1 and system 2 are, then get this book.

After more than five years at BIG, I’m leaving. It’s the longest I’ve ever spent in any job, and that’s because it’s the best job I’ve ever had.

There’s some unfinished business, because there always is when working at an agency. Your work is never done. As one client takes a breather, another picks up the phone in a breathless panic. There’s a new packet of business cards under my desk that will never be used and a whole host of strange and wonderful (more of the former than the latter) ideas from brainstorms that have yet to become a reality.

Life is all about finding out who you are, and for people in the marketing industry, an agency is the perfect place to do it.

BIG was my first move into the wide world of marketing. I joined as a senior account executive in what was then BIG’s sports PR team. I said to myself I could always go back to scratch my journalistic itch, but for the time, a glamorous career in the world of sports marketing was worth a punt (I was hired mainly for my puns).

I leave, more than five years later, as an account director in a team which looks after two major sporting bodies, but mainly plies its trade outside the world of sport. I’ve worked on schools, gyms, accountancy firms, restaurants, hotels, energy drinks, architects, property developers, charities, manufacturing firms, food producers and more.

Pretty quickly I realised that although I loved sport, I didn’t want to be defined by it. I didn’t want to be a one-trick pony, or for fans of niche NFL references from the mid-noughties, I didn’t want to be a Wildcat QB. What I love about sport far more than the action on the pitch is the stories. I’m probably far more likely to read a book by David Halbestam about basketball than I am to watch an NBA game and after retiring from rugby, my tales of a legendary career are more indicative of my skills as a storyteller than a rugby player.

While this seems like a bit of a ragtag roster of clients, viewers of any good sports movie will tell you that often that approach can work better than a sleek, clearly defined group which makes sense on paper.

What remains constant with every client I’ve worked on is a willingness to tell stories, and that’s what I found I love to do more than anything else. What I enjoyed most about this job was getting to know clients and unearthing the little gems which best communicated their point of difference.

Starting with next to no experience in PR, I had the chance to learn at the feet of BIG’s founders Alex Barr and Neil Gibson, work on integrated campaigns with experts in design, creative, digital advertising and search marketing, and I was given the opportunity to lead a team for the first time in my career.

And that’s the beauty of an agency, this agency. You have the opportunity to work on a diverse range of clients, pick up skills from each sector and provide solutions by working together with experts in every area across the marketing mix, and you get to throw your own unique strengths into the melting pot.

I would have felt very guilty about the constant phone calls with pleas for help to specialists in PPC, SEO, social media, corporate communications, crisis management and public affairs if I wasn’t called upon every time rugby was within a grubber kick from a campaign, or any time a daft wildcard idea was needed to put the finishing touch on a proposal.

As I wind down from a very fun but hectic, demanding but rewarding five years on the job, my compulsive checking of email is slowly beginning to subside. I might use this time to build a fort or attempt a modern art project with my unused business cards. I might finally engage my colleagues with conversations about the weather (it is quite cold, in Scotland, in October, isn’t it?). I might sift through my 36,000 emails and compile a revenge list of all the people who called me Gregory or didn’t start an email by hoping I was well.

Or I might attach this emotional letter to an email as a way of trying to sum up my gratitude to an agency which gave a fairly rudderless former journalist freedom and guidance to develop his skills, learn how to build relationships with clients, manage people, and discover what he wanted to do in his career.

I arrived in 2014 clean shaven, wearing a suit, tie and shiny shoes, ready to get to work on PR and crisis management for sports clients and a few select others. I leave still clean shaven, mainly because despite five years having passed, I still can’t grow a beard, wearing jeans, trainers and a t-shirt, finishing up with a wide variety of brilliant, disruptive clients who I’ve helped across the marketing mix.

Big companies can take time to evolve, but in the reflective closing moments of my BIG career, I’ve been glad to work for a company that, despite its name, was never too big to change and never too big to take on board any ideas or suggestions from me, or any other member of the team.

When I left journalism, I was told over and over again that I was leaving to join “the dark side”. I can confirm, despite the fearmongering, the lights are on in here. And as I leave to join DARING Foods, a Scottish startup specialising in plant-based chicken as Chief Brand Officer, I’m very lucky to have the experience and lessons gained from five years at BIG in my locker.

Goodbye Gregor and best of luck in the future!

Language is evolving; there’s no question of that. New words are regularly added to the Oxford English Dictionary and all manner of colloquialisms continue to creep into common usage. But when it comes to workplace communications—both internal and external—being clear and correct is of utmost importance.

Whether you’re writing everyday correspondence like emails and staff notices, or important documents such as business plans, press releases and company training manuals, it’s imperative your final draft is not only informative, but clear, accurate and consistent.

I say final draft because it’s virtually impossible that any piece of writing will be perfect without some form of editing. I know of a few ex-journalists who can fire off an excellent press release in a matter of minutes, but it’ll still need a good going over to check for errors and repetition at the very least.

Writing is a creative process and as we mull over words and clauses in our heads, sentences can become confused or words end up being misspelled—or, missed out altogether. We all do it (even me!) and sometimes it just takes a pair of fresh eyes to pick up your slack.

However, when the editing buck stops with you, these top tips should help:

1. Make a consistent style list

If you’re proof-reading a document of 500 words or more, write a list of all the words and phrases that may trip you up. e.g. If you’re checking a training document that uses the phrase ‘member log-in details’, the first time you come across it, make a note that you’ve decided to spell log-in with a hyphen so you avoid an embarrassing mixture of log in, log-in, and login.

And it’s not just words. If there are amounts or measurements in your document, make sure they’re presented in a consistent manner throughout. Think of your reader – it’s not helpful for them to read about some of your firm’s financials in sterling and others in dollars. Keep everything consistent, and if you must mention different currencies or units of measurement, it’s worth referring back to one consistently in brackets after each mention.

2. If you don’t know, check!

Everyone’s brain has an off-day from time to time and sometimes we just don’t know the correct spelling of a word or phrase. I only found out ‘under way’ (as in, ‘the lecture is under way’) should be two separate words relatively recently, purely because I bothered to check. Unfortunately, I seem to be firmly in the fact-checking minority, hence ‘£50m project underway’ is an all-too-familiar (and incorrect) headline.

The same goes for brand names: if you don’t know, check.

Scotland’s railway provider is not Scotrail or Scot Rail—it’s ScotRail—no space. Your spell checker won’t like it, but we all know the red squiggly line isn’t always correct. That’s why it’s always worth taking a few extra moments to grab a copy of the dictionary or grammar guide, or at the very least do a quick Google search.

3. Go and have a cup of tea

Those who know me well will appreciate that this advice would likely feature on any top tip list I’m ever asked to write, since I am a firm believer that tea solves most problems. However, here there is another reason for it. Regardless of your tipple of choice, getting away from your desk—and your document—will do wonders for your ability to proof your own work.

Ideally, someone else will proof-read your writing for you, but you should at least give it a first check and the value of fresh eyes cannot be underestimated.

Once you’ve finished your tea, you’ll see errors and inconsistencies you couldn’t hope to notice before you boiled the kettle.

4. No errors aloud

For those of you who got excited and thought I’d made a mistake in this heading, get down off your seat and stop punching the air. My last piece of advice purely relates to reading aloud.

Once you’re confident you’ve spelled everything correctly and consistently and all the information you’re presenting is accurate, all you need worry about is clarity and flow. Read aloud any sections of the document you feel might be misleading or unclear and you’ll soon know if they need to be altered for your reader.

Regardless of whom your reader/s will be, don’t let them be distracted by sloppy or inaccurate writing—it’ll only detract from your point and undermine the authority of your message.

As writers, we must guard the usefulness of English. Yes, I understand our language is evolving, but some things are just plain wrong. Plenty people assume the word definitely has an “a” in it… does that mean we should just allow an alternative spelling with no relation to the word finite?

Accuracy is imperative and as professionals, what we write should reflect a duty of care to our most precious tool—language. Very few journalists will use my press releases word-for-word, but I strive to make sure the content is accurate and compelling enough that if they wanted to, they could.