AngusGastle.com

How Creativity Works

Angus Gastle — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:00:20 +0000

How to write

Angus Gastle — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:53:54 +0000

David Ogilvy sent the memo below to his staff in 1982.

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather.

People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

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What motivates us?

Angus Gastle — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:12:24 +0000

Brilliant little video on what really motivates people. When I think back, I can see examples of these motivators working in my life even though I didn’t realize it. Will be a great tool as I continue to grow.

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Productivity Alberta

Angus Gastle — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:37:53 +0000

In 2010, the Government of Alberta initiated a study into the productivity of Albertans compared to the rest of Canada. It turns out that Alberta is the least productive province in the entire country.

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Alberta College of Paramedics

Angus Gastle — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:44:32 +0000

Under the new Health Professions Act, Alberta’s Paramedics are set to be recognized as true professionals; on par with doctors and nurses. The college approached us to rebrand and take charge of their future.

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OEM Remanufacturing

Angus Gastle — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:20:14 +0000

OEM is a heavy equipment remanufacturer for Finning CAT here in Edmonton. Their challenge to us was to figure out a way to engage the employee population in their new Vision 2016 initiative and secure their future for years to come.

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WorkWild

Angus Gastle — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:19:30 +0000

The Alberta Forest Products Association came to us with a challenge, find a way to make forestry relevant to Alberta’s young people again. Our approach: embrace what makes forestry different, the ability to truly work wild.

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OEM Remanufacturing

Angus Gastle — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:46:22 +0000

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

OEM Remanufacturing remanufactures heavy equipment parts for Finning CAT in Alberta. They deal with everything from massive mining truck engines through to wheels and suspensions. And all of it is huge. However, as they’ve grown and evolved over the past 7 years, they have had trouble uniting their workforce. A workforce that, admittedly, has a high churn rate due to the draw of the oil sector in Fort McMurray. Our challenge was to unite all the employees of OEM under a new 5 year vision that would lead to improved performance for the company and an improvement in the processes that directly effect those on the factory floor. It is an exciting time to be at OEM, and we wanted to share that excitement with all 700 OEM-ers more publicly.

It’s easy to get lost in the commotion on the shop floor at OEM, and forget that you’re part of something larger. We wanted to empower the employees to take charge and believe that their actions can directly impact the company in a meaningful way.

INSIGHT

Everyone in the heavy equipment industry makes a play on the ‘big-ness’ of their industry. “Join the Big Leagues” and “We do BIG” were common phrases in that sector. The problem with big is that it is hard to quantify, especially when talking about creating a truck that is 100x larger than a person. Our approach was to make ‘BIG’ real for the employees at OEM. Take the high level corporate strategy and put it right on the shop floor, where people can understand it.

We needed to take OEM’s Vision 2016 strategy and make it engaging for their employees. To do this, we simplified it to its essence and placed it right on the shop floor, where it’s relevant to the men and woman who really make all the difference.

CREATIVE STRATEGY

Playing off the big theme, we created a series of 3D rendered statements and photoshopped them onto photos taken on the shop floor at OEM. We tried to make these elements as visually interesting and ‘deep’ as we could so that people really had to look at them and engage with them in order to appreciate the message. From there, these ‘core images’ were then incorporated into everything we did: e-blasts, posters, memos and messages from the CEO.

RESULTS

The WE ARE OEM campaign officially launched in February of 2012 and has been widely accepted within OEM’s organization. It remains to be seen where this relationship takes us but we have high hopes for OEM’s future.

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Bell Canada Rebrand

Angus Gastle — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:02:51 +0000

In the Spring of 2008, Bell Canada decided to kill the beavers. The beavers were a creation of the agency at the time, Cossette. And by 2008, they had grown a bit tired and had to go.

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Goodwill Halloween Costume

Angus Gastle — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:00:36 +0000

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

For Halloween 2011, we wanted to do something out of the box to help promote Goodwill as a great destination for the diehard costume hunter. Our challenge was to raise awareness for Goodwill given the fact that most people travel to ValueVillage around this time of the year for their costume adventure.

ValueVillage owns the Halloween Costume market in Edmonton. We needed to do something out of the box and unexpected to get people’s attention.

INSIGHT

Goodwill has such an incredible selection of clothes, with more donated everyday, that you could literally be anything you wanted to be for Halloween. Even a mailbox (if you’re lucky).

CREATIVE STRATEGY

We created a series of stickers featuring a set of eyes and a hand holding the key message. Then we dropped by Whyte Ave here in Edmonton and posted the stickers on some unconventional locations that could also double as Halloween Costumes.

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