A Fable of Failure

I read a brilliant book this summer; Adapt - Why success always starts with failure by Tim Harford. In the book Mr. Harford argues that most successful ideas had to struggle through years of rejection, humiliation & condemnation until they adapted & finally succeeded.

This reminded me of my long painful journey to get Russians to send postcards. It's been 6 years of heartache. The original idea was from Sweden. The idea was to have beautiful free postcards available in the trendiest bars & restaurants. To stop clients from turning the cards into marketing briefs there was a simple rule - the logo has to go on the back. This is actually better for the client as their brand will appear next to a personal message from the sender to the recipient. The idea was so brilliant that it soon spread to London, Barcelona & other cities.

But when it came to Moscow it was immediately ruined by marketing people who insisted that their logo go on the front - turning a lovely postcard into an ugly ad.

6 years ago I was sitting in a bar, as I sometimes do, waiting for a late client - as I always do, when I realised there was an easy way to improve this medium. Add a stamp. As Russia is a rather large country & stamps are cheap this was the media opportunity of a lifetime. I checked in the office and it turned out that stamps for postcards were less than 4 rubles - around 20c at the time.

We launched the idea in Cafe Mania (see film in the headline link) and then I waited for the creative agencies to bring me their wonderful ideas.... and waited.... and waited. Nothing happened.

For the last 6 years I've been trying to sell this idea to clients & creatives with no success. But then a friend pointed out that we should use the internet to 'crowd source' the project. So I established a group on Facebook and waited for the marvellous images to appear.... and waited...and waited.

We have 10 places available. So far by bribing & threatening people I've managed to gather seven decent images. I still have 3 places free. It was easier getting penguins in the zoo in Poland than putting postcards (with stamps) in bars in Russia.

Today the cost of a stamp for a postcard in Russia, to travel from Central Europe to near Alaska & Japan, has risen dramatically to 10 rubles, or 30c.