Are We Losing Respect for Advanced Creative Abilities?

This week39s post revisits the following two comments from loyal Cog Blog readers Jacques Lehodey and Tom BowmanJacques makes the point that even though creative solutions emerging from media agencies may not be better than those from creative agencies they do tend to be cheaper quotClients are willing to believe as the differences are too complicated to explain internally so the cheapest solution winsquotThis hits the nail on the head amp160Far too many clients don39t have the courageamp160or indeed the wherewithal to explain to their colleagues that Idea A is more likely to work than Idea Bamp160One option is to fall back on research thus in effect passing the responsibility for the decision on to someone else A second option is to reduce everything to cost anyone can understand that A is cheaper than BWe are in danger of losing respect for those blessed with advanced creative faculties Like it or not there are people who are good at making a judgement based on an idea39s potential be that creative or businessbuilding or most likely bothThe BBC recently aired a fascinating behindthescenes documentary on the creation of the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony Aside from showcasing the huge amount of work that went into the final show the programamp160also commented on the role played by politiciansamp160Those who viewed the ceremony might remember a major segment celebrating the NHS starring volunteers from the NHS It seems that our Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt tried very hard to have this segment downgraded to a simple stroll around the stadium by happy smiling NHS staffDanny Boyle the director refused amp160In fact he threatened to pull not only the NHS segment but all volunteers the whole opening ceremony cast in effect from the show Hunt lost the argument and the world marvelled at Boyle39s productionHunt may have been driven by political expediency but politicians and civil servants of all shapes and sizes were kept away from Boyle and his team by Tessa Jowell a Labour politician charged with delivering the Olympics Jowell was the account woman keeping the client from interfering with the creative process and with the confidence to back her judgement in the team39s ability to deliver something wonderfulShe allowed the creatives the space to create in other wordsBack in the day one agency I worked in Leo Burnett tried operating a quotthreestrikesandyou39reoutquotamp160rule Clients having bought an idea were allowed to make two amendments On the third occasion the idea was off the table and the whole process started againNamed individuals were thus held to account for the failure of a bought idea to progress It was a nice if crude idea which didn39t last longThere has to be a respect for creative judgementTom Bowman39s comment promoted the Havas Village concept placing all Havas London agencies from all disciplines in one venue as the modern equivalent of the old fullservice modelI wish Havas well with this but it39s not sufficient simply to put everyone in one place although that certainly helpsFullservice integrated thinking call it what you will but the key ingredient for success is a state of mind a mutual respect for others39 skills and abilities whatever the disciplineLandgrabs driven by parochial revenue chasing might be a shortterm way of ensuring an internal target is hit but they do nothing to deliver the most effective solutions to the clientCheapest possibly Most effective unlikelyThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers

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Are We Losing Respect for Advanced Creative Abilities?

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Brian Jacobs

The Ad Council, Huntsman Mental Health Foundation and Amazon Announce “The Mind Set” to Support Mental Health - Ad Council InSites

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Are We Losing Respect for Advanced Creative Abilities?

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Brian Jacobs

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