Tim Clancy

Do not over emphasise past experience - focus instead on skills. Researching portfolios and getting testimonials are no doubt helpful tips. But you also need to be able to look beyond the past opportunities people have been given and remember: Talent is evenly distributed. Opportunity is not. Try to identify your top needs. Do you need someone who is data savvy? Or creative? Or a great communicator? Or a problem solver? Then ask questions to see if prospective strategists have these skills, remembering that due their age, colour, gender or other personal trait they may not have been given as many opportunities to demonstrate these skills as other people. Be inclusive - don’t overemphasise experience and past ‘achievements’.

Everyone practices their presentations. It's just that some people will be practicing them for the first time at the same time as doing their final presentation. Don't be that person. Do whatever you can to carve out the time to run through your presentation out loud at least once. It can be by yourself or with someone else, any kind of practive is better than none!

Brand strategies are often overcomplicated and over-intellectualised. This happens because strategists want to show how clever they are; because people spend so much time thinking about a strategy they lose sight of the bigger picture; or because people try to fit too much into a strategy. Instead: 1. Remain focused on your end user - who is going to use this strategy and focus on what they need (in terms of both what information is included and how it is shared) 2. Be ruthless about leaving out information not essential - edit, edit and then edit again 3. Use the most simple language you can. If a school child couldn't understand it, try to simplify some more

Invest as much time as you can in building a strong relationship with your brand strategy or marketing ops counterpart. If you are confident in your brand strategy, and you have the right marketing ops, it is the implentation of that brand strategy that is letting you down. The most common cause of this is not enough time being spent building a relationship. Specifically talk about: - What the other wants to achieve, professionally and personally - Compare what a successful project looks like for you - Share any concerns you have with either the brand strategy or marketing ops But most importantly, listen to your counterpart, be humble and empathise with them. If you can do this you will naturally form a great team.

You do not need a USP to be successful. The concept of a USP was created by someone called Rosser Reeves in the 1950s. Since then, numerous studies have proven that brands do not need to be 'unique' or have a USP to be successful. My advice is to stop reading this, type "differentiation vs distinctiveness ritson" into Google and read the Marketing Week article that comes up.

The longer you can keep a tagline for, the better. Your goal is to build familiarity and a strong association with your tagline. This will allow it to become a 'brand asset' which can be used in limitless, creative ways to increase awareness and perception for your brand. However, it takes time to build strong association with your tagline, so consistency is key. It is very unlikely that people will get 'bored' with your tagline or it will become 'stale' as generally consumers do not have strong opinions on such things. So try to keep your tagline for as long as possible, and only change it if it becomes drastically at odds with the brand perception your are trying to create.