since I wrote this post awhile ago and went to VCU to present this presentation last week there’s been a bit of follow-up chatter around both (which are conceptually linked). Just read a comment from @edwardboches, and since I can’t frickin’ figure out how to comment back on his posterous (i know, it’s me) I thought I’d post the reply here:
Edward’s first comment I wonder if we should stop referring to “creatives” as some special department or group of people that the brief serves.
Sweet Jesus Edward I couldn’t agree more. As much as they shouldn’t, I think in reality names matter and the fact that one department is named to be the outputters of the creative task means that we’re always going to be a bit behind.
Taking it one step further, there was another comment on the “frickin’ pedestal” post from @bebutler about how these approaches take a different kind of creative and how it will be difficult for creatives to work in this system because of the way they’re incentivized and rewarded. Again, couldn’t agree more with that one either. Just like the planning ego needs to drop, so does the creative.
I do think it’s a bit odd that at the end of the day, when the awards shows roll around that we end of celebrating two or three people/creatives, a producer and an account guy when there is increasingly going to be teams of people that make ideas really possible with brilliant solutions happening at every step of the way. But as long as our top award in the industry rewards creatives first and foremost, creatives will struggle with opening the process and thinking to a team, because they need that ownership, their moment on the stage and their name on the Lion to get their next job. It’s not their fault.
Now, as far as I’m personally concerned I don’t need to be up on the stage (I believe in quality control, if people are taking pictures of me and I can’t delete, I get nervous heh heh). But it does seem odd that we celebrate the production end of the process, which at the end of the day, is necessary but isn’t the sole root of the brilliance (in my humble opinion).
Edward Number Two The post on “the most important blog you’ll ever read” talks about insights from what appears to be a message bias: problem, what has to be remembered (as a message), and a small nod to other insights. I wonder if those other insights — how a prospect interacts with technology, content, media and community — aren’t, in fact, as important as any brand/category insight.
Again, couldn’t agree more. I think the point I was trying to get to (and probably failed!) is that there’s a real need for multiple moments of brilliance in the process now because the conversation is that much more complex. So the old school, “here’s your big fat, brilliant consumer insight, see ya later” planning thing is over. The planner has to feed feed feed, push people outside of their muscle memory and create the environments, inspiration and the direction of the team to concept and grow the idea at all phases.
Man it’s tough. It take a lot more work and a lot more involvement at every step but I think it’s how our discipline is evolving and I’m going to try to evolve with it.
As for anything else, steal away and build. Would love to see where you take it.
edward boches
1 year ago
I’ve never been able to decide if the whole award thing is great or a deterrent. In the days when that was my pursuit, I managed to collect a far amount of hardware, only to realize it never really reflected effectiveness in the market and rarely led to new business. Was incredibly important to build reputation for a small agency and obviously to attract people who want to do a certain kind of work. Once again, we’re starting to focus on that, but if it were up to me all the categories of contributor would go away and there would just be the team. I believe that Big Spaceship does that. They enter as an agency, in an attempt to emphasize teamwork. That makes sense in an age when there is more and more collaboration needed and a greater number of people making contributions in different ways. If it’s a platform or experience, who’s more creative? A writer who wrote some lines? A UX person who made it something people (as in ad people) actually use (as in simply click on to check out how cool it is). Or the strategist who identified the opportunity? Maybe all of them equally.