#golley

I’ve just had a coffee with a colleague. Nice to catch up and have a chat: the usual stuff – the state of the industry, the nature of our clients, where the award-winning work is coming from and going to, what is advertising anyway and when are consumers going to tell us what we're supposed to be doing next. 

At the same time that the democratisation of advertising has put the real power in the hands of the consumer, our clients have lost budgets and gained the fear factor. As platforms and channels blend, our clients have less money than ever to explore them. Culturally, we’re at the mercy of consumers’ fickle relationship with brands, the speed of change in technology, an increasing need – and, as importantly, the technological ability – for us to cast collective social judgment. It's a strange blend of technology, a pack mentality and social behaviour that put Obama in power and brought Murdoch to account. 

Which makes this simultaneously the scariest and the most exciting moment in our industry’s history.

Scary because we’re at the mercy of all of those often opposing and creatively oppressive forces. Scary because our clients have less money and need to do more and their KPIs make them nervous and there are so many unknowns. Scary because all that makes advertising a very serious business.

Or the most exciting because we don’t know what will happen next. Where will our consumers gather next? What will they want to share? What will technology enable us to do next week that we haven’t thought of yet? What can we invent that’s useful and interesting, entertaining or educational, surprising and delightful? And what the fuck is that dog singing about on that app that sends me a cuddly toy of it when I click through to find out something about a pension… maybe?

Feels like we’re at a junction that could redefine the nature of and purpose for creative advertising. And a lot of what happens will depend on our attitude.

It’s a pivotal moment in our agency’s history. In the face of all this flux, we’re rebranding to become the agency of the future. As mentioned, we’ve done all the hard work in terms of repositioning and rewiring the agency from within. So when it came to renaming the agency, we wanted to go on a bit of an adventure. Which is why we’ve given the naming of the agency away – to anyone who wants to play.

Going on this adventure is our way of communicating that we’re an agency that has the right attitude, that we explore without the fear of failure. Basically we’ve chosen to be excited over being scared.

So we’re crowd sourcing our name. Our good friend Patrick Collister's response was that it's either genius or nuts. I'd settle for adventurous. Or even mischievous. Or I could aim high and say brave?

There’s been a Golley Slater in London since 1957. So why are we changing it?

Well, because we’ve changed irrevocably as an agency. ‘Irrevocably’ is a strong word, but it’s literally true in this sense. As Mark Hancock, our Strategy Director puts it: “Golley Slater London is changing its name because it has changed. Fundamentally. As in ‘can’t go back now’.”

We’ve squished things together, fusing the disciplines of PR, digital, advertising, search and media into one process that creates a different sort of advertising.

 Because, although we’re still an agency (we still have timesheets, and meetings and deadlines and clients that want banners and press ads) we are finding that our clients and prospective clients want more. They want different stuff that doesn’t feel like advertising. Ideas that go beyond simple messaging. Ideas that can be advertised not advertising ideas.

That’s what we create. We call them ‘ideas beyond messaging’.

All of this puts us so far away from where Golley Slater was – and what that name recalls – that we felt we had to change the name.

Some clearly feel pained at the thought that we’re throwing the heritage of the agency away. We just feel the adrenalin of pushing the London office of the UK’s oldest independent agency, into a future proof reincarnation...