HHCL : the pioneers that got scalped

I was at the HHCL wake party this week where close to 100 HHCL-ers drank to the death of a great advertising brand.

I remember suggesting to someone that we write up a list  of all the firsts that HHCL did; most were derided at the time, but many have come to be common place in the industry.

There is an old saying along the lines of "its the second wave of settlers that make the money, the pioneers just get scalped".  So bare headed and proud I present to you the things that were once extraordinary that have now become common place (NB I mention no names, you know who you all are) :

1.  CSR. HHCL put "social issues" into Fuji advertising in about 1992/3 and got accused of exploitation.  It is now called "corporate social responsibility".  HHCL were also part of the team that got BP to where they are now : Beyond Petroleum.  Around the time of the last recession in 2001/2, HHCL relaunched  on a theme of "responsible desire" (check the Iceland ads of the time).  HHCL sunk, the issue eventually rose.

2.  Multi-ethnic casting.  Did HHCL start it?  Probably not, but a lot of their ads had non-whites in the cast (re-rigeur for Tango) and often as frontmen (Bhs, Thomson holidays). Now almost an Equity casting guideline.  They never did veils/niqabs, as it happens.

3.  HR Directors (see coverage of these in  Campaign recently).  Been there, did that in 98.

4. Futurist.  Had one of those in about 1990.  Strangely, she never predicted her demise.

5.  Integration.  Merged in 1994 with the boys from IMP.  Had a glorious few years selling integration about 5 years ahead of its time.  Personal favourite was the Martini  "Campaign for Beatiful People"  where HHCL supplied both money-off and money-on coupons to beautiful and ugly people resepctively.  Jade Goody - was it you who redeemed the "50p on if you buy this drink" coupon?  Tango, Mazda and Pot Noodle also showed us the future.

6.  Interactivity.  We didn't have the  internet back then but we made do with our wooden toys and clunky phone lines.  Apple Tango ratched up more than 2,000,000 calls.  Pop Idol - happened six years later.  Thanks, Simon.

7. Dot coms. HHCL.com - registered in 96.  Maybe earlier. The agency once had the accounts of Amazon, Egg and Yahoo all at the same time.  Where are they now, we ask?

8. Second Life agencies.  OK it was crap and it didn't work but "HHLand" in about 1999 was first with the virtual agency in a MMORPG type of thing.  Blame IT.

9.  Putting media back in. Did this in 1989 with Bullet later span out as Michaelides and Bednash.  Had Media Strategists working on ALL accounts in the early 90's. Slagged off BARB. Got fired by Thames TV (mind you look what happened to them)

10. Putting PR in.  Created an in-house brand PR unit called Environment Marketing in about 1993.  Got loads of front pages and TV coverage (Tango, Martini).  Built in PR re-appearing in some start-ups as of 2006.

11. Disruption.  From the utterly surreal First Direct, the edgy youth of Tango through to the perpetually bannable Pot Noodle it wasn't just a philosophy is was a show reel.  Also known as the "what the fuck was that?" school of advertising.

12. Funky offices.  OK HHCL nicked it from Chiat Day but HHCL had ROMP-ing : hot desks, PCs for all, no land lines only mobiles.  The future of agency  working was up and running by the mid-90's.  The Money Programme even covered it.  For all of those who will now never get a corner office, sorry  - our fault.

13. Makeover shows. Presented by Sylvester (see point 2 above) we anticipated Trinny and Susannah by a good 5 years with our "happening in a high street near you" ordinary people makeover campaign for Bhs.  80" TV shows in Corrie every fortnight as I recall.

14. The Pensions Crisis. No really. Check out the Manulife ad from 1990 : its all there - longer lives, more divorces, no savings.  Nice ad, shame about the media budget.

15. Fellow HHCL-ers feel free to add  your own Pioneering firsts.

HHCL - the name has gone. The ideas live on.

Comments

[Simon Manchipp]

What about a truely integrated design group rather than a bolted on buy in!

[anne-fay]

You forgot to include the ban on pot plants.

[Chris Bryant]

The Howell Henry Show

Surely we were the first to film the entire content for our company meetings??!

[jon leach]

Simon - good point. Add it to the list (citing Go as the particular example?)

Anne Faye - you got me there. However a list of all the things we didn't do might be hard to compile. On the other hand "No sitting in departments" has been imitated.

PS what colour is your hair today?

Chris - another goodie. The company meeting as video clip - YouTube owe us one.

[Ben Hasler]

what about making everyone the drinkers they are today? i owe it all to hhcl! many thanks! i actually have a hangover so i'm now going to have a little sleep (or power nap as it used to be called, did hhcl invent those also?)

[richard]

One of the most irritating things about being an ex-hhcler is that we are already bored of the things everyone else in marketing thinks is the next greatest thing. We went there, did it, and gave up before the others were our of nappies.

[Simon Manchipp]

oh, and what about interactive posters/TV ads (Mazda)

and 'win dinner with Ian Priest' the then MD (Won by Jane Tandy)

or be the worst dressed person in the room (Didn't Huntington get told off for wearing clam diggers to an Iceland meeting?) - Now surely adopted by some of What!If?

The responsible away-day - rebuilding a day centre by day, making the owners cry with joy. partying in it by night, making the owners cry.

It just goes on and on... sadly HHCL didn't.