How a Little Extra Is the New Service Delivery Strategy
Editor: Khumalo Nkosazana
The 1% Story by Alistair King
The concept of hard work is often mis-conceptualised or misunderstood with the tenacity to do more than is required — i.e. putting long hours, more work and so on in the hopes of achieving greatness. Without disputing the fact that yes, hard work pays off, no one really asked when it would be the right time to add or do more. A better question even would be more of the lines of — what is it that you must be focused on to be the best, at that very particular time?
In part 05 of our series Strategy In Session, we explore the ‘1%’ story by Alistair King. Alistair is the Founder and Group Creative Director of ever so admired King James Group and one of SA’s biggest agency with no doubt. His work has touched so many, and his brand portfolio is as wild as you can imagine, and so it is only fitting to cast some light on his work, his processes and the way he goes on about taking up new work.
To start things off, here’s some of the work Alistair worked on, there’s obviously a lot more, but these are a few familiar creative executions under his creative leadership.
I can’t leave out my own personal favourite of-course, the One Rand Man series, which was a digital hit, when no one thought digital was a ‘thing’ at the time. This is also a series which after watching, I knew it was time for a switch into a world of digital, and I was converted, from TV & Film all the way to now a world of digital, extending to products and platforms.
One Rand Man’ case study — Source King James Group
“The only way to grow your business is to do your job amazingly well. ” — Alistair King
MarkLives #Loeries2019: Alistair King’s Hall of Fame showreel
Below is an excellent merger of all Alistair’s work as an additional portfolio just to add in that extra spice.
The work of Alistair is impressive as you may well see, and more so the agency he has built along his partner James Barty, but in between that, surely there must be a drive, a formula, or some sought of a guiding principle, right?
In one of our advertising industry talks hosted by the ACASA (Association for Communication and Advertising) — Alistair finally let us in on how he is able to deliver the work that is above average.
Alistair starts the story with an encounter of a not so ordinary Hammersmith Bridge, designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, in London. This bridge was not a big deal at the time, but he could not help it but kept thinking about it over and over again. The more he thought about, the clearer it started to make sense what creativity or a service is, or should be.
As you may as well see, the bridge looks ordinary to eye, but to Alistair, that is not the case.
The bridge according to Alistair was a work of creative excellence in all respect from supplier, the architect all the way to the client. In an ordinary way, a municipality would just request a bridge, and a client would then design a bridge with point A to B, says Alistair, but not this time. This time, the design was just unnecessary, highly creative and out of the ordinary, which to Alistair, is something we should at-least strive for in our work.
Why though?
Why should we bother though? According to Alistair, and I must agree, everything is mundane, a lot of things are boring, a lot of things are the same, repetitive and overly done — which end up ‘boring’. This is because everyone is playing safe, from client all the way to service providers. The result is ‘boring’.
Everything has the potential to be great, according to Alistair, for as long as we approach it in Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s thinking as he did with the bridge
But what does that mean exactly?
To Alistair, we need to show an extra commitment to our work, that 1%, that little extra, and that little extra can be summed up as the below depending on industry:
- A greater attention to detail
- Offering more than is necessary
- Staying out of the comfort zone
- Introducing an element of surprise — ‘put something they’ve never seen before”
- “Provoke a sense of awe”
- Take the idea further than it has been taken
- Provide more than is asked
“There is no merit in doing something exactly the same way as it has been done before” — Alistair King
To Alistair, everything amazing on earth, is a because of the effort someone has put in something. It is the result of the unnecessary, the surprise, the 1%, that a thing remains impactful.
Below are a list of endless examples to illustrate this:
- The Pyramids of Giza, Just a out of the ordinary grave!
- The Basket building (OHIO) — Just an apartment building/block
The Upside Down House — I mean?
The Leaning Tower — Just like others, but built at a few degrees?
The Dancing House — Like?
Eiffel Tower — Originally a gate!
As you can see, there is some merit in deliver more than a functional benefit. A brief will always ask for the basic, for the sake of it, it is up to us to challenge the way clients think about work, and it is up to us to challenge them, to challenge them to go further and add that ‘1%’.
This is the only way to deliver to class quality and unconventional solutions, which gives both parties (client & service provider) a well rounded win!
Durban, South Africa
