So I haven’t watched in The Apprentice for a long time as the format had begun to feel a bit samey and over done. But when I heard my brother in law (in my head)* Tim Campbell MBE – the first ever winner – was returning I actually had a reason to watch.
So for those of you who don’t know what the show is about Lord Alan Sugar (original OG business man, developer of Amstrad, could probably be considered the UK’s answer to Bill and Steve (Microsoft and Apple founders respectively)) brings in 16 business people into a recruitment-stroke-development-stroke-vetting process to get the only kind of injection I’d want: a quarter of a million pounds.
Side Note 1: I get a real sense of Catholic guilt calling Alan Sugar ‘Lord’. Super weird. I also think the three minutes dedicated to the dad jokes at the top of the show was a bit much. Anyway…
Each week the teams are given a task and at the end someone or, on occasion multiple people, is fired.
Side note 2: I was well chuffed that the gave big brother Tim an entrance! Half the girls team had their mouths open. Convinced it wasn’t from shock and I’m sure I saw candidate and online pyjama retailer Kathryn flick her hair. We don’t play that, woman. Face your front.
This week, the team were asked to create a marketing campaign for a new cruise. As a marketing geek I was hyped for this challenge and glad they didn’t start with the show’s typical first task which essentially demonstrates supply and demand – find what sells, repeat the process, make the most money, win.
Anyway hilarity ensued as they were tasked with creating a campaign which included: branding, an advert and a social media ‘tease’.
My takeaways
• A common theme amongst both teams is that there is a sh*t ton of ego and self preservation going on from the outset. Both selected Project Managers were belligerent and dismissive of their team. The poorest show of team leadership I’ve seen but not unusual in the workplace.
• Marketing is one of the most strategic and exposed roles in a business bar the CEO. Everyone inside and outside a business sees marketing and everyone thinks they can do it. This was the perfect demonstration of what a fallacy that is.
• Audiences could easily misinterpret what a brand is as there was so much emphasis on the logo. It makes sense to focus on that for general audiences and they ultimately do discuss messaging, colour psychology, did a light touch on customer personas and brand names but when someone comes up with the name “Never-ending Nautical” for a luxury cruise, you can’t help but think your job’s safe.
Side Note 3: Tim and Baroness Karren Brady (Lord Sugar’s advisers and “eyes and ears on the ground”) poker faces are stellar. You can see moments where Karren just thinks you lot are a waste of life.
• I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. The boys when the boys revealed their logo is the best piece of television I’ve seen in a long time. Scroll down to see the reveal
• It pays to shut your mouth. The person who left could have said their piece contesting the direction of travel then pulled back. He ultimately drew attention to himself for no reason. Costing him £250k
I’m excited to watch the rest of the series though the candidates seem to be over confident to the point of obnoxious. I suspect this will series is going to be juicy and you can never not learn something from these shows.
*His wife is Sierra Leonean like me. That’s it. That’s the connection.
