Do you know what the most annoying thing about builders is? It’s when they refuse to talk to each other. You’ve probably been there. ‘Guys, why is there water leaking in through the ceiling?’. ‘Don’t ask me guv, the plasterer probably knocked the pipes upstairs'. ‘Can you take a look at it?’. Cue sound of obligatory-sucking-in-of-air-through-teeth. 'Not today mate, ring Mick and ask him if he’s got some waff-wizard’. ‘Huh? What’s waff-wizard. Actually, never mind, could you ring him?’. ‘I haven’t got his number mate'. ‘I can give it to you'. ‘Bye, make sure to ask about the waff wizard'. ‘Hi there, John said I should ask you about waff wizard because there’s a leak in the kitchen. ‘Waff-what?’. ‘Waff-wizard, oh forget it, look there’s a leak in the kitchen'. ‘Yes I saw that, looks nasty, talk to Gary - tell him he needs to use a pobble-pibble'. And so it goes on. What feels like an infinite number of specialists all of whom have their own languages and tools, but who see any other professionals as being inferior or incompetent, feel obliged to contradict any advice they offer and refuse to talk to each other directly. Whilst flicking through last week’s Campaign Magazine, I had a strange feeling that the marketing industry was showing some similar traits. There were experts from each part of the business talking about the way they saw the year ahead panning out. Each was extolling the virtues of newspapers, digital, TV, outdoor, production, direct, sponsorship and many other areas. All of them made sound, interesting points about their own fields, including lots of technical terms and diagnoses. However, there was very little, if any, reference to how well they all work together. These first-class professionals were all deeply dug into their own particular siloes. Now, this is hardly new. We’ve all worked in agency networks where...




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