Playgroup | Helping brands build genuine brand equity

I had nothing to do with the creation of this web site. It was conceived, designed and built by the collective talents within our company in about two weeks. I am delighted with the results.

It's an honest site. One that represents the spirit of our company - not contrived to meet favour but a genuine attempt to help interested people understand who we are.

And therein lies the problem - we are an extremely diverse bunch when being niche is in vogue. A good friend of mine, who's opinion I value greatly, said it appears that 'we do everything, and therefore nothing'. Well maybe, but to artificially constrain ourselves into a single highly specialised arena would be, well, dishonest.

Fundamentally, we are problem-solvers. We have an absolute focus on helping our clients address their brand and communication challenges. If those challenges are extremely diverse then so too are our solutions.

Raising awareness and understanding of HIV with 16-24 year olds for the BBC; communicating complex organisational change to HR professionals at Unilever; promoting the new Folklore Playstation game for Sony; encouraging sales and customer services staff at BT to change their behaviours - how do you wrap that lot into a niche?

Playgroup was created as a result of a merger - a fusion of skills, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. Yet there is a single common thread in all our work. We are strategic in our thinking by default, but like to quickly convert strategy into tactics that drive action. And the results are always the same - genuine connections being made between our clients brands and their consumers or employees.

So here we are, naked and open to your criticism. We don’t fit neatly into a pigeon-hole. We are diverse, imperfect, brilliant, fallible, playful and essentially human. Make of us what you will.

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My random musing of today's commute centered on what can you tell about a persons character traits from their favourite colour?

Do we really conform to popular stereotypes? Do fiery, passionate, hot-headed people like red? Do calm, nature lovers like green? If you have a bright and sunny disposition, is yellow the only way to go? What about the more flamboyant people – pink perhaps? What does black say these days, I’ve lost touch. Is it cool or has it reverted to dark and brooding?

Research in the office was required...

It started well. Our Creative Director, Gus, likes pink. Of course he does. So does Marketing Manager Clare but then she’s a girl. Plus there IS a more flamboyant side to Clare, but it only usually comes out after a few drinks.

What about tech head Darren, who famously and spectacularly crashed his go-kart at a work do, causing both him an overnight stay in hospital. What colour would a speed demon like him choose? "Orange" he grins. Yes! He shoots, he scores!

But then designer Jamie, who is a solid, dependable and very likeable chap, spoilt everything by stating he liked red! The theory was wrong - there's nothing very fiery or passionate Jamie. He's calm and considered in everything he does. But then, just I lost interest and turned to trawl through my email, a confession! He said red just because Liverpool are his favourite team, he really he likes brown. Back on track!

I tried to prove my point further. I spotted Linda walking in: smiley, bright, and delightful. I confidently whispered to colleagues nearby that she has to be a yellow. Just has to be. "Linda, what’s your favourite colour", I yelled. "Blue!" came the reply. Dammit!

And then the wheels came off. Steve, Jah, Ben, Andy – all wrong. My statistically irrelevant research had revealed that there is in fact no correlation between ones personality traits and favourite colour.

As all marketers should know, its very risky business drawing too many conclusions about peoples preferences based on too few clues. We are all wonderfully unpredictable in our choices, and that's just as it should be. How boring life would be without surprise.

By the way, I like aquamarine. Does that mean I'm mixed up?

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I'm proud to work one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world. I love the diversity, which brings all kinds of different experiences to my doorstep and I take pleasure in hearing other languages spoken. In our office alone we have a dozen or so languages spoken.

As I write, I am in France enjoying a snowboarding holiday with my family. The French language is, in my opinion, top of the charts. It's a beautiful language and so expressive I could listen to it all day.

My daughter, Lara, is studying French at school and intends to take it on to A level. So I thought it only right to cause her as much embarrassment as possible by asking her to book a table at a restaurant, not in the ski resort itself, but down in a more authentic village in the valley.

In her best French accent, "Bon apres-midi, je voudrais une reservation pour cinq personnes a huit heure ce soir, s'il vous plait." Nice effort. The reply? "OK, let me just check for you".

Hmm... This is supposed to be the last bastion of national pride. Where you get a look of haughty disdain, if you speak English and expect an answer. What’s going on? If the French can't be bothered to listen to us struggle then who will?

I think it's a real shame, but you can see why its happening. English has become the de-facto language of business. Playgroup clients like Unilever and Epson are huge multi-nationals with offices all over the world. Yet all their staff speak English. As the world continues to shrink, people are increasing mobile in their career moves and the younger generations of many nations now speak English better than I do. And they're are keen to brush up on their skills even when they are at home, working in a restaurant, in Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise!

So ironically, I think it may be up to us British to protect foreign languages. Let's be courteous enough to at least attempt the basics in the local language. 'Hello', 'goodbye', 'thank you', 'how much' and of course 'five large beers please' will probably be all you need.

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A headline of the front cover of The New Scientist caught my eye this week. It read "Why 2008 could be year zero for time travel". I had to buy a copy.

The story describes how two highly respected Russian mathematicians have built the 'Large Hadron Collider' which basically smacks atoms into each other at an unprecedented scale and force. This process injects so much energy to the subatomic particles that it has the theoretical potential to change the fabric of the universe and cause wormholes to be created in space-time.

Brilliant! If they’d hurry up and finish the job we might have a way to meet some of our clients increasingly impossible deadlines!

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