However, there do live among us those that push boundaries; who dream bigger and see further than most mortals. Some of them work in advertising. What do these people give us? Ideas. They give us great ideas.
Sharp'ner What is a great idea?
And you are creative people, people with ideas. But how do you know when you've got a good one? And what is it that elevates a good idea into the realms of great, the realms of brilliant, the realms of the yellow pencil?
Andy Cameron, Interactive Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy, will have to answer this question again and again in April as juror on the Digital Advertising Jury. Joining him on the panel are some esteemed creative minds, some who are judging, some who we just think are great - Poke's strategist Chris Whitlock, Paul Davis from Big Orange, Lambie Nairn's Adrian Burton and, from Euro RSCG, Fernanda Romano.
Listen and watch the ways that they judge an idea. Ponder. Question them if you like. Make a few judgments yourself. Let's cast some light on what we really mean by a 'great idea'.
D and AD*, that holy of holies, put on panel discussions (at Vibe Bar in Brick Lane) for their members’ delectation. Like their brand, it’s a mixture of accessibility, personality, gravitas, and moments of breath-taking brilliance.
As you might expect, the calibre of speakers goes beyond interesting, and settles more in the neighbourhood of creative juggernauts.
Demonstrated by their opening blurb above, last night's was about what makes a great idea. I won’t go into detail about every speaker but I will offer up a few choice nuggets (and possibly post up links to the video content once I find out where they’ve put them).
It's not that these panels divulge anything massively life-changing – you will not suddenly burst out of your cocoon and become the world’s best Creative or Strategy Director. And most people would recognise the majority of the campaigns referenced, but what makes these panel discussions so brilliant for the ad passionista, and what these chaps are so amazing at, is their clarity of thought, and being able to articulate how and why. They provide a cultural, and sometimes technical, frame that suddenly breaks a campaign wide open.
You suddenly realise that there are campaigns that you unconsciously knew were amazing (because we all know enough to make those ‘instinctive’ judgements) but now you really know why, and can qualify it too.
And who knows? You might one day be able to take that qualification and smooth an edge off one of your own ideas, making it even better. And even if you do know it all, it’s always enjoyable to listen to people who are at the top of their game and nod your head.
Adrian Burton, Creative Director, Lambie Nairn http://www.lambie-nairn.com/
Adrian is a great speaker and gave an unpretentious, although passionate, insight into his agency and his clients.
He gave the following formula for taking on any design brief:
- Insight
- Originality
- Impact
- Empathy
- (Objectivity)
I’m sure I don’t need to explain each segment (as always though, if for some unearthly reason you’d like to discuss, my contact details are around here somewhere). A good start to any design project to remind yourself where the innovation needs to live. I’ve used a similar basic structure many times for brand and website scoping. Foundations like this do not stifle the inventive process, on the contrary – in my experience it never fails to free innovation.
Adrian went on to say that an original (read innovative) idea belongs to everyone. It is currency for the brand and the consumers. Also, art aside, never forget we are in the business to grow business.
He finished with voicing one of my favourite quotes (which references the now widely bought into belief that you need emotional buy-in in order to get loyalty and good will for your brand):
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
That quote always makes me feel tingly. It’s one of life’s truisms.
Andy Whitlock, Strategy Director, Poke London http://www.pokelondon.com/
His take on the abstract form of an idea, when asked if a great idea is always original, is that an idea often made up of a whole mish-mash of (cultural/behavioural) references, amalgamated in a way that hasn’t quite been seen before.
“It shouldn’t be so ‘original’ that we can’t use it at all and have no concept of how to relate to it!”
Andy’s theme of hiding technology and putting a human face on it went down well with the crowd. This was the foundation of the solution for a bakers in East London who were having problems selling their products because people wouldn’t always happen come in when said products were fresh out of the oven. They developed a system where as soon as the timer on one of their ovens went off, a Tweet would be sent out notifying everyone of their freshly baked goods. It was a resounding success – they’d used technology to promote very human behaviour to the benefit of their business and their consumers. I guess the point to take away is use what super technology is available, but don't forget to think like a human.
Paul Davies draws. You can find his work at http://www.copyrightdavis.com/index1.html
He also contributes to http://www.thedrawbridge.org.uk/issue_19/
Paul is very amusing and whilst dry would be a good start – arid, acrid and utterly sardonic might serve to better describe his wit. He’s certainly incisive though; you might be able to criticise his harsh delivery, but never the content. Paul is clearly a creative that, if I might be so bold, has had so many ideas raped and pillaged, misconstrued and generally done wrong by, that when the subject arises, he’s a teeny bit touchy.
Paul’s first screen was a black and white illustration with the words:
Are you ready for a low paid, lengthy, pointless and soul-destroying job that’ll make no difference to anyone, or anything, anywhere?
So we knew what we were in for.
He then launched into a series of quotable one-liners:
On panel discussion etiquette: “Keep your phones on, if anyone calls, ask them what makes a good idea. I asked my mum and she said ‘I dunno’.”
On pretending to be in Sweden to avoid meetings: “I can’t stand meetings. I don’t know what happens at meetings.”
Paul is eminently suited to his chosen medium. His speech is very much like his illustrative style; rapier quick and concise to the point of if you blinked (aurally), you’d miss it. There’s no explanation, and no dumbing down. You either get it or you don’t and if he’s demonstrated a ‘good idea’, his target market does. A good idea to Paul is one that is stripped back, to the point, and that captures the target market in that fraction of a second as their eyes wander over the illustration. As he says:
“If you get people in that split second, then the job’s done. Don’t dilute it (the idea), distill it.”
“If you get people in that split second, then the job’s done. Don’t dilute it (the idea), distill it.”
Paul exhibits his fake adverts (We're experts in expertise, Democracy shampoo and conditioner, Uphold the freedom of fucking expression) and is, call it female intuition, on a bit of a mission to stand up against bad advertising. To the extent he has copyrighted the phrase 'Common sense approach' to stop anyone else from using it. He clearly figures that this prevents one less cringe in his life.
I can’t tell you how much I want to go for a drink with him and Modern Toss. Now that would be an amusing afternoon.
In summation, if you haven’t signed up for D and AD’s Sharp’ners*, do so. They are a treat.
*Embarrassingly, I can't use the ampersand symbol on this blog, so sorry.
