Knowledge is King. Insight is God.

A few years ago, when I was Creative Director at Robson Brown, we had the opportunity to pitch for the Scottish North Highlands Tourist Board Account.

My Agency was based in Newcastle upon Tyne. The other agencies on the pitch list were from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Edinburgh, in particular, had some very good agencies at that time.

It would be an uphill task, literally. Client Services Director Brian Adcock and I would have to fly from Newcastle to Aberdeen, then fly on to Wick. Then hire a car to take us to the presentation in Brora.

But before all that, we needed an idea, and a bloody good idea would have to be the order of the day.

I asked the Account Handling team to gather as much information as possible to begin the creative task.

They amassed a substantial hoard of leaflets, guides, and print-outs. I looked through the offerings on my meeting table and noticed they all had one thing in common: none of them was about the Scottish North Highlands! 

Cue vacant expressions.

You see, they thought that the Scottish Highlands and the North Scottish Highlands were the same thing.

They are not. This was the spark that ignited the idea! 

If a bunch of well-educated advertising professionals can get this simple yet crucial detail wrong, perhaps the general public would make the same mistake.

Our Creative Strategy was then focused on that insight. Using the Saltire of the Scottish flag as an ‘X marks the spot’ device, we built our campaign to educate the public about the specific geographic locations of the many spectacular and beautiful North Highland visitor attractions.

The day of the pitch, two flights and a car ride later.  The room was set up with a massive ‘U’ shaped table, with the various interested parties, including representatives of the Royal Household. (The Queen Mother’s residence, The Castle of Mey, was within the tourist board's remit.) 

The IT wouldn’t function, and I had to carry backup boards around the table like I was holding up the round numbers at a boxing match.

As our presentation progressed, the sound of tumbleweed was deafening to say the least. 

So, off we went back to Tyneside, via a car and two planes, with metaphorical tails between our legs.

The next morning, I went to see Andrew Marwick, who was MD at that time, and asked if he’d heard anything from the prospective client.

He’d just got off the phone with them, and they’d said that they were, to quote, ‘Blown away, in any case we’d rather give our business to Geordies than Lowlanders!’  Trust me, this sounds funny in a North Highlands accent!

So, the lesson learned: never presume anything, equip yourself with the correct knowledge, and from that knowledge develop a valuable insight. Here endeth the lesson.