Planning for the Best: Geoff McHenry’s Endless Pursuit of the Truth

Geoff> I don’t think there is a huge difference between a strategist and a planner. Strategists should have a crystal clear vision that enables clients to see around corners based on what is happening in the category and what they’re seeing in culture. Planners need to intentionally set the guardrails and create the guiding principles for how clients can achieve that vision.

There is no strategy without planning, and there is no planning without strategy. Those two things  must work in tandem to turn dreams into reality.

Geoff> I probably consider myself to be more of a strategist, or, more specifically, I consider myself to be more of a creative strategist. 

Part of the reason I say that is because my background is non-traditional. I didn’t go to ad school. I didn’t complete any strategy bootcamps./ I was never a rising star in any of the notable programs that introduce you to the world of advertising.

I was fortunate enough to have people who could see my talent, who believed in me, who coached me, and I learned the craft of strategy by having great teachers and being a relentless student.

As a person who has always been passionate about music, sports and entertainment, I understood culture and creativity before I ever fully understood the art of strategy. As a result,  I've always believed my core responsibilities as a strategist are to unlock creativity and maximize cultural impact.

Geoff> Continuing on the non-traditional theme, I will answer this question in a non-traditional way. Opposed to a campaign, I'd like to focus on a product innovation. Google’s “Real Tone” feature on the Google Pixel demonstrates great strategy because it does the most important thing a great strategy should do…it solves a real problem.

There is a skin tone bias in AI and camera technology that often inaccurately represents darker skin tones on camera. To combat this, Google worked with more than 60 photographers of colour (including my wife, Noemie Tshinanga) to build a technology that ensures skin tones for black and brown communities are accurately portrayed on Google Pixel cameras. 

What I love most about this is that Google not only identified a real problem but committed to working with the communities affected by that problem to ensure they got it right.

Geoff> One thing that many people know about me is I tend to speak in metaphors. The way I communicate with my friends is through movie quotes, hip hop lyrics, and often Chappelle’s Show references.

So, when I'm looking for inspiration, I use culture as my canvas. When I get a new brief, I'm not just thinking about the challenge laid out by the client; I immediately go to what the conversation is happening around this brief in culture.

What broader macro trends are happening that are relevant to this brief? What cultural tensions and conversations are happening around this brief? What movies/shows/songs have touched on topics relevant to this brief and can be used as a jumping-off point for creativity?

The most important thing to understand is the real cultural conversation that’s happening around whatever brief that you’re trying to solve. Without that, you can miss the potential to connect with your audience in an authentic way.

Geoff> I’d say the two parts of the strategic process that I enjoy the most are what I call the interrogation and the unlock.

The interrogation process is one of my favourites because it’s all about defining the “real problem” you’re trying to solve. I often consider the problem or the challenge that comes from the client brief as merely a starting point. From there, I love to schedule time with the clients to ask the tough questions and really dig underneath the challenge that we’re looking to solve. I find this level of interrogation necessary in order to identify a clear and inspiring problem that creative teams can get excited about solving. 

After I identify the real problem, I quickly transition into what I call the “unlock” phase. It  is all about finding the most interesting insight, cultural tension, or jaw-dropping statistic that will help unlock and unleash creativity. This process often starts with my thoughts, but the real fun is when I bring my creative teams, and account leads into the process to figure out what angle or strategic territory feels the most interesting to them.

The best strategies are written in collaboration opposed to isolation, so I very much enjoy the parts of the process where I can work with others, as opposed to being stuck in my own thoughts.

Above: Geoff's work on 'Naija Odyssey' for WhatsApp

LBB> What strategic maxims, frameworks or principles do you find yourself going back to over and over again? Why are they so useful?

Geoff> I had an old boss, John Greene, who always said this Emily Dickinson quote that really stuck with me: “Tell the truth, but tell it with a slant.”

I often go back to this because I sometimes find that strategists are great at finding the truth but can struggle with finding the unique angle that makes it interesting and captivating.

Right now, our industry has many observations but not enough real insights. Observations are the nugget of truth you can find if you spend enough time scrolling through Reddit, but insight is the interesting angle on that truth that will spark creativity and inspire great work.

Going back to the mantra of telling the truth but telling it with a slant helps me ensure that my strategy is always insightful and not just repeating what I researched in an observational form.

Geoff> Is this a trick question? (laughs out loud)

Well, the easy answer is to say that I like to work with creatives who are strategic, but I think it’s a bit deeper than that. I want to work with creatives who want to collaborate. Right now, in this industry, I think there's a bit too much baton passing that happens between strategists and creatives. A strategist writes a brief, briefs a team, and then creatives show them work two to three weeks later during a creative check-in with 30+ people in it.

Creatives and strategists need to not only work together but they need to speak the same language. They need to share with each other early and often and not be precious about sharing their work.

To build trust and create the conditions for this culture of collaboration, I believe strategists need to take the first step. We need to share where we are without strategy even when it’s vulnerable to do so; we need to spend less time trying to get things perfect but share ideas when they are still work in progress, and we need to let creatives influence the brief so hopefully later down the line the strategist can help influence the work.

Geoff> Well, the first thing is to establish your value as a strategist as being more than a person who writes some set-up slides for creative presentations.

That’s a waste of time and talent.

As I mentioned above, strategists should be the driving force to ensure projects get off on the right foot. They need to be asking the hard questions to the client and identifying the real problem. They need to be setting clear objectives and KPIs that the work needs to accomplish. They need to be working with their teams to debate and bat around strategic territories that creatives and account leads believe will lead to great work.

With increased demand on the speed at which clients are asking us to work, it’s easy to fall into the trap of just kicking off a brief quickly and hoping you can solve a lopsided strategy with a killer creative idea.

It’s important for us to start our projects off strong. Not only to illuminate the true value of strategy but ultimately to get to great work that actually solves our clients’ problems. 

Geoff> I would never have found myself in the world of strategy if someone hadn’t given me a shot and took a chance on me. Because of that, I often find myself evaluating talent not based on their years of experience but on the unique perspective that they would bring to my department.

During the interview process, I love hearing how people see the world. I love hearing about the latest show they’re watching on TV or the latest book they’ve read. I love hearing about their lived experience and how it has shaped their unique point of view.

A lot of the technical skills of a strategist can be taught, but I'm looking for people who are willing to learn, ready to grow, and, most importantly, always remaining curious.

Once I hire someone, it’s important for me not to just throw them in the water and see if they can swim; I also need to make time for coaching. I need to offer myself up to them in 1:1s. I need to spend as much time helping them sharpen their strategic sword as I am taking time to get to know them as individuals. I need to build growth plans for them based on their measure of success and not the plan that I have in my head for them.

I want to nurture my department’s unique voices and help them find the tools to continue to express and develop their point of view. The last thing I would want is a department of Mini McHenrys. The most important thing I can do as a leader is to continue to help my team find and refine their own voice. 

Geoff> I think our business spends too much time trying to rationalize everything and, as a result, we have lost some of  our gut instincts. 

We need to find a bit more balance between inspiration and effectiveness. We must remember that emotional storytelling is a powerful tool to help people fall in love with brands and move them to buy products. At the same time, we need to be working with our clients to establish clear KPIs upfront, and then build work that i will meet those key objectives.

Strategy should always be a combination of art and science, and right now, we're at a tipping point where we’re beginning to lose the art of it all.

Geoff> The thing that frustrates me the most is when strategists try to position themselves as intellectually superior to everyone else. I don’t like this stigma that the strategist is always the smartest person in the room. I don’t ever want to be the smartest person in the room because  that means I don’t get to learn from anyone.

I had a quote in my email signature for many years from Brené Brown that said, “to be clear is to be kind, and to be unclear is unkind.”

As strategists, we can be a bit more kind by being a lot more clear. Let’s stop using big words in our briefs that people don’t understand and using 70 slides in our presentations to overcomplicate ideas that can actually be quite simple.

The true mark of a great strategist is simplicity and clarity, our industry could use a lot more of that.

 

Geoff> I’d give them the same piece of advice that I heard from Dan Wieden. “The biggest advantage you have in this business is your voice.”

Spend every moment of every day finding and refining your voice. Read everything, remain curious, dig deep (go to therapy) and discover how your experiences shaped you into who you are. Use that knowledge to define your unique point of view. Once you find that voice, you are unstoppable.