It refers to my colleague David Carr's thinking - which is summarised here.

There's more analysis and opinion here from Philip Buxton, who came to the DMA event and asked some pretty fare reaching questions of the direct marketing community. 

Looking beyond the game show, it occurs to me that the programme reflects much of what goes on in everyday agency life. More importantly it highlights some of the basics which are so easily forgotten.

Firstly, Starck used an internet competition to select the participants, only meeting them once they’d arrived. This seems to have been an extremely unreliable indicator of talent – perhaps one of his goons could have sifted out some chaff (a dud on TV makes funny TV, one in an agency makes work clients won’t buy). In our agencies, how often do we rush in new recruits, waiving more rigorous testing, only to rue our choice?

Next, his briefs seem to consist of a few disconnected words and thoughts, and nothing else (eg “A product for daily use which is Democratic, Ethical and Ecological”) - and that describes the bulk of the responses he’s getting. How often do we all write unclear briefs which confuse rather than inspire?

I do, however, like the way Starck crits the work, though – passionate, instinctive and decisive – everything’s either ‘ok’ or ‘shit’. He speaks with his heart first, then post-rationalises his feelings. His sixth sense finds potential in work that’s now just mediocre, and so he doesn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Could we all learn to see with our heart before we think the ideas into the wastepaper basket?

The students’ presentation skills are judged as lacking and I can’t disagree – Starck kicked out the one who could sell his work in the first round for being a smartypants. Maybe our schools and colleges could teach young people to express themselves rather than nurture a fear of public speaking?

What’s really clear is that the ones who do their homework come up with better ideas – insights from the coal face beat random thoughts every time, and give the context required to sell the ideas.

But for me, the cherry on the cake was that Liverpudlian designer Ilsa Parry finally won through because of her energy, passion and belief in her idea while he pressed eject on others for not going the extra mile. Belief is a quality I think we easily forget in these times where we bend over backwards to keep and please.

So, what can we take from our Philippe’s game show? Do our homework to really understand the task, then write a clear, inspirational brief, use our heart when we develop the work, passionately follow through on our ideas and communicate them well. If we’ve been laughing at the programme, have we just been laughing at ourselves?

The context is that more and more money is being spent on digital channels because they are perceived as effective (better targeting), efficient (cheaper) and more measureable.

The question we ask is: Is digital delivering what it promises?

What’s important about this subject is that it’s very current and an its something on which the DMA should have a point of view.

We’re conducting a survey which should give us the insight we require to both PR the debate and introduce it on the day.

Its here - please could you ask people in your organisations and also colleagues in other agencies to complete it. We need a few hundred responses, and time is of the essence, as ever!

The date they’ve provisionally booked for the live debate is after work on Thursday 15 October – its at the DMA.

Many thanks, and see you then, hopefully!

If we pull it off, it will become a movement, an enlightened way of organising the marketing process.

There's more info here.

If you'd like a copy of the brochure, please email me or register on one of the partners' websites (you can access them via the link above)

• Emerging markets (BRIC and next tier)
• Interactive services (websites, mobile, video, etc)
• Insight (they just bought TNS)

He also said he’d prefer if WPP wasn’t a public company – as if they’d gone with private equity, they’d be able to make longer term strategies. I guess that depends on the intention of the backers.

Here’s what Brand Republic had to say.

It was stuff I’d expected to hear, but it was good to have it confirmed.

Concern over the economy has hugely spiked in the last year, followed by interest rates, personal financial prospects and property prices. In the same timeframe worries about immigration, crime, drugs, child abuse and global warming has been slipping away. A big shift from more social issues to the very personal impact of the ecocomy. One to watch for the politicians.

In the last two months weight has increased as a concern (unsuprisingly), but the emphasis is still on our financial state.

My instinct says that we've not seen the full extent of behavioral change we will see in 2009, many people who are worried have made some changes in their spending and saving patterns, but there's plenty more adjustments to come, including downshifting purchases, delaying spending and increasing saving. A big watchout for premium or induldgence brands is to make sure their value proposition keeps track of the mood of their core customer base (ideally by adding value rather than discounting?).

Hmere are the 12 month and 2 month graphs from Mintel

Not had enough time to think about all that, leave alone things to share here. However, I just came across this, which is pretty cool... particularly if you're a stalker!

A nice app - you need to refesh to update my position.

It's going gangbusters at Chemistry. We're winning more and more work, and more than half of it is digital.

I wonder where we'll be next year?!?