The best way to check who is focussing on substance and who on spin.
Read last year's trade press. Exactly the same time last year: day, week and month. Flick through the old issues of Marketing Week, NMA or Revolution.
You are likely to come across a lot of boasting, product launches that promised to kill off the competition, or rebranding campaigns that claimed the category is just about to be turned on its head.
It is always interesting to see how many of them actually achieved what they set out to do. Why is that important for the rest of us, particularly agency people?
Because, from time to time, we tend to fall into that trap ourselves and start believing that the proverbial sizzle is more important than the proverbial sausage (to borrow Dave Taylor's metaphor). Reading the last year's trade press for a day is a good antidote for self-deception. It focuses one's mind on real, crucial strategic issues that our clients need to resolve, not on providing yet another physical extension of a 'bullshit bingo' ticket. Frankly, there is a lot of it around already.
Digital world has a particular form of the 'sizzle': technology. So, far we have been pushing it hard. The time has come to focus on the 'sausage' as well: tangible, measurable business benefits. If it comes with a nice 'sizzle' even better.
But don't take your eyes off the 'sausage.
