I think vox pops have a place in research and for new business presentations but I hate them as ads. Especially when they are used as cheap ads. I haven’t seen the new KFC ads that are shot in store but I’d guess as they are BBH they’ll look great. But those NatWest ads are like a bad corporate video. As a long time NatWest customer they even put me off (and most of my friends). The ads are full of salesmen suited up and just waiting to cross sell. The ads certainly don’t make me feel like I want to be with them. By contrast my bank manager is really sweet and doesn’t look like an insurance salesman. If they are trying to make the band look friendly it doesn’t work for me.I think clients think that real people ads make ads look honest. The problem is they always look like actors or idiots. And both leave you feeling sold at. It’s true that people buy from people but as soon as people appear in ads they seem untrustworthy. Research in the States gave advertising a trust factor of just 17%. More shocking are green ads that came in at just 14%.Over the last few nights I’ve noticed more and more cheap looking ads. There may be a recession on but cutting corner on your ad is a false economy. These kind of ads just make brands look bad. Is it any wonder people watch less TV ads? It seems the best ads about are the spoof ones. Check out a brilliant Australian series called the Gruen Transfer on YouTube. It’s a big hit in Oz and makes Tarrant on TV look mild. One of my favourite is selling the positive side of climate change and another, invade New Zealand is brilliant.I read a forum on Brand Republic on how one agency was facing a big legal claim for nicking an idea (it’s since been settled out of court). The issue of who owns an idea is a serious one for our industry as there are plenty of people who want to make a few bucks out of us. Of course art, music and design has always borrowed and adapted what’s gone before. Where would Oasis be without the Beatles? But it’s unethical to just steal an idea and claim it as yours. An issue I took up with D&AD many years ago when I suggested that ‘adapted ideas’ should always credit the original author, at the time endless gags from comedy programmes were ending up as TV ads.Creative Orchestra is only two weeks old and one of the first campaigns presented to one of our clients, an amazing dyslexia charity called Xtraordinary People, uses an adaption of a well know ad campaign. It’s one of those ideas that takes a brilliant idea another stage on. If it runs and wins awards then I would automatically credit the original authors. It’s the same as taking a famous song and even though you re-record it in a new musical style you’d always credit the original writers.I fear that YouTube has made some people lazy and rather than invent new ideas they search for them online. There’s one legal case going on where one young team did just that. Made the commercial, got another job and left the agency with a big legal bill. I’ve watched several YouTube films recently that were used for ads. But what YouTube does prove is that the general public can be just as creative as us, and sometimes even more creative?This week for a bit of fun and as an exercise in getting back to the streets Creative Orchestra set up a mobile creative lounge (complete with carpets and cushions) on the Circle Line – renamed the Creative Line for that day. Engaging with real people is something I recommend. While some of the creatives worked on a brief for Channel 4 others challenged the public to think creative. A simple exercise using 4 pieces of wire that you have to turn into six had even a surveyor who declared he was uncreative soon cracking it (trick is to get them to visualise six). The joy of seeing people be creative is very rewarding. But equally amazing was the fact they managed to go around the circle line so many times with no security throwing them off.The joy of creativity was the theme of a talk I gave at a gathering of the Ideas Foundation on Monday evening at Engine to new mentors. The IF is a brilliant venture that helps encourage school kids to be more creative and discover the creative industries. If you haven’t discovered it find the website and read up on and if you want to be a mentor contact them. And if you are in the mentor frame of mind, the School of communication Arts will be relaunching next year thanks to Marc Lewis.As a sign off, despite the recession, as an industry I believe we have to invest in the next generation of talent and as agencies encourage clients to value talent rather than time. The recession will challenge us to change, which can be a good thing. This quote from Einstein I think is very relevant.“Let's not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress. Creativity is born from anguish, just like the day is born form the dark night. It's in crisis that inventive is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies. Who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome. Who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent, and is more respectful to problems than to solutions. Incompetence is the true crisis.The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There's no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony. There’s no merit without crisis. It's in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead. Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it.”Albert Einstein.
1 comment(s)
Last Friday the creative ‘new kids on the block’ agency Creative Orchestra flash mobbed Brand Republic, posting replies to news articles, forums and blogs, including Dave Trott’s, each plugging their new agency. Some may criticise them for blatant self promotion but isn’t that just good marketing? Make a noise and get noticed and be prepared to risk upsetting a few people. Probably not a conventional way agencies market themselves but then CO has an average age of 24, so unexpected and technology based thinking is more normal in this age group.Recently I was dipping into the IPA website and came across the 2008 Agency Census which puts the average age of employees in creative agencies as 34.4 years, which surprised me, though I can think of several agency creative departments who are probably nearer 44.4. For an industry that outsiders perceive as very youthful, this isn’t. Ok, it isn’t old either but you know what I mean. At a number of recent awards I’ve been to I’ve noted that the vast majority of people picking up the gongs were probably at least 34.4 and well above. What’s happened to the young ones? I’ve always hired on talent never age. We can all think of many great creatives who have picked up just as many golds in their mature years as in their youth. Wasn’t Picasso producing just as great work in his later years as his early ones? But I know many older teams job hunting who on the mention of age doors close.Some have accused our industry of ageism, the assumption being that just older people are victimised. Older creatives do suffer from being expensive. Others because of their lack of punch, having become so conditioned by years of submission and the need to pay the mortgage and school fees they stop pushing. It’s not a criticism but a reality.But young talent is also victimised. Fresh, broad thinking, challenging, not as disciplined, less predictable and less willing to do what the client wants - not every agency wants a team of mavericks in house shaking up the place. But that’s exactly what I love about them. If we are honest, there are many agencies that have become just production factories selling time not talent to feed shareholders. For young creatives to discover that all that image of adland being one big creative trip was sales talk as they sit down with a brief to sell discount sofas or car insurance. Not exactly the dream job some young creatives had in mind. Worse, there probably isn’t a job at the end of it. I have heard some terrible stories of abuse.If feedback from the many interviews of young creatives I’ve done recently, a lot of highly talented creatives grads aren’t finding even a slight glimmer of a job, and there’s a hell of a lot of them going about the circuit. That’s a lot of great talent going to waste. We’ve had over 200 queuing for interviews and the emails come hourly as word spreads. The average junior is taking up to 2 years to get a job, some longer. There’s little real structure training within agencies to incubate their talent (account handlers get a better deal) so most go from one unpaid placement to another. Some of the stories I’ve heard are depressing. Juniors left in small offices, with no real contact with experienced creatives, given bad briefs and just used to do the crap briefs. It hardly shows respect for talent and shows any willingness to invest in what we should be selling. If you do respect talent you don’t make them work in the post room, sweep floors or fetch your dry cleaning – this isn’t the Victorian times.Employment wise, the word is that juniors are out, a safe pair of hands are in, reducing the opportunities even further. Understandable if you want to lock down the hatches and weather the recession, but the last time we did this as an industry we had a massive talent vacuum a few years later.Having conducted a survey around 100 clients (mainly for the book on Ethical Marketing) some of the feedback may come as no surprise to some. What many clients I spoke to want to buy from agencies is talent. They see agencies as having that creative magic they can’t do themselves. Yet many felt they were getting poor value from agencies due to too much of their fees going on anything but the creative bit. Worse, some complained their agencies didn’t let them meet creative at all. Why? There’s no logical reason why clients shouldn’t meet creatives, most are highly intelligent and nice people. Can you imagine a magic show performed via a third party? In my experience when a client gets involved they tend to buy the work and the creatives get a better understanding of why the client has to say no sometimes. It works for Mother, and they have one of the most impressive growth rates in the industry (and awards to go with it). This week two of Creative Orchestra’s first clients spent the day working with the teams. Both clients (one a charity, the other a TV channel) got more and the creatives got more. I believe that as an industry we need to take away all barriers between creative departments and clients. We need to engage and interact. Clients pay for the talent so let them experience it. Far from taking away the mystery they come to appreciate just how talented creatives are. The recession will change things, some for the better, some for the worse. Most of all it will challenge conventional thinking. There are no rules anymore, because there are no guarantees, no predictable outcomes. Playing safe is playing dead. My view is it’s a great time to stick your neck out and push. To write new rules and discover new possibilities. Most of all, it’s a time to invest in talent.
4 comment(s)
CHRIS ARNOLD
Blogging for:
Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 04 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 310
