Nope, I’m not veering off course, and suddenly talking about movies. This post has nothing to do with Humphrey Bogart or Ingrid Bergman. It’s just my way of letting you know that I’ve written a few blog posts over at 365 that I think are just as appropriate for those of you who follow this, my business blog, as those who follow my I-just-want-to-write-everyday-for-my-own-pleasure blog. This is the first. There will be a couple more. If you follow both of my blogs, I apologize in advance for the repetition. Although it never hurts to hear what I hope you agree is a good message, again.
There’s a misconception out there. A myth. That ‘creativity’ is the exclusive province of creative people. Writers, artists, actors, directors, fashion designers, make up artists, hairdressers, lighting directors, singers, composers, interior decorators, photographers, musicians and the like. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
In fact, every human being has the ability and, as far as I’m concerned, the responsibility to think creatively. Without holding a paintbrush or a pen or a microphone or a camera or any other ‘tool’ those of us who are creative, use. Here’s a good example of what I mean:
One of the ad agencies I worked for is BBDO. It is one of those huge, international (289 offices in 80 countries, 15,000 employees), full-service agencies that’s been around for eons. Since 1891, to be precise. I have worked for more than my fair share of the top agencies in the world, so I speak from personal experience when I say what I’m about to say:
Of all the agencies I’ve ever worked for, when it comes to creative excellence, delivered consistently, throughout the world, they rise head and shoulders above the rest. At least when I worked there (not suggesting I had anything to do with it, by the way). In fact, their tagline is, “The work, the work, the work”. And they mean it.
And even though I’d had many jobs by the time I landed there, and had enjoyed a very successful career up to that point, it is BBDO where I ‘found’ my voice. It was like they sprayed ‘creative thinking’ through the air vents. It was palpable. You felt it the minute you got off the elevator, and arrived in the reception area. And it was ‘present’ in every office, on every floor.
Honestly, if you were not capable, or willing to think creatively, if you weren’t passionate about ‘the work’, if you didn’t want to own your own, little piece of it, then you probably didn’t really belong there. And you would probably never have been hired. And I’m not referring to those who, like me, worked in the Creative Department. Those who, like me, created the ads and the commercials and the direct mail campaigns and the websites and the billboards and the loyalty programs and the questionnaires and the contests that consumers see and respond to.
The people I’m talking about are the Suits (the ‘adults in charge’, who run each piece of business and are the client’s partner in the agency), the media department folks, the researchers and traffic people, assistants and even the accounting department and HR. I’d never seen anything like it before. On my first day at the agency, the HR department hosted an indoctrination session for all the new employees. Nothing unusual in that. Except when I heard the HR Director talking about the work BBDO did, and discussed the reel of some of their most recent commercials she was about to show us. I had to give my head a shake, because she sounded as enthusiastic and excited as the creative teams who produced that work. I was blown away as much by her, as I was by the work.
But that wasn’t all she did. She talked about HR innovations she had championed in the agency. Paid sabbaticals, flexible working hours, the ability to work some hours each week from home, and that was just part of it. All this done years ago, before all the dot.com companies came into being and working conditions like these became the norm. They were way ahead of their time. Creative thinking.
It didn’t stop there, either. I was completely blown away by the ‘creativity’ I experienced working with their media planners and buyers. They came up with some of the most brilliant, most inspiring ideas I’ve ever seen; and they were true partners to those of us in the creative department. When I wanted a ‘teaser’ on the front page of one of our daily newspapers, that led to the client’s ad, and mentioned which page the ad would be on, they found a way to make that happen. And then they ‘saw my idea and raised me an idea’. In those days, we still used floppy disks (feels like the middle ages I know, but it wasn’t that long ago). They decided that we should put an ‘offer’ on the disk and dip the disk on to the page where the ad was, in a specific spot on the ad.
Do you have any idea how impossibly difficult that was? Not only to come up with the idea, but to get the newspaper to execute it. But that was just another day at the agency for this group. So was the time that they suggested that a client who couldn’t afford TV, but had to make an impact’, buy every single transit shelter poster and every single bus and subway billboard in the ‘footprint’ where their target audience lived and worked. It was beyond spectacular; and beyond-your-wildest-dreams successful.
Their CFO (Chief Financial Officer) devised new and creative ways for the agency to get compensated, endearing him to clients who were fed up with the same old, same old rigidity they found at most agencies. I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift.
Now that I think about it, I do have more to say. Not about BBDO, but about creative thinking, in general. So stay tuned for part two.
Filed under innovation.
Tags: account executives, accounting, ad agencies, advertising, BBDO, creative departments, creative thinking, creativity, full-service ad agencies, media
I didn’t pursue advertising after college, for reasons I’ll not get into here; but I still remember one incident:
I had a professor who worked at BBDO, a gentleman by the name of Steve. I liked him. He was a quiet sort who encouraged creativity by giving us space to work, trusting that we’d follow through.
A fellow SVA student and I visited his office once after hours. There was an art director who played electric guitar at all hours in the office, as a way of enticing ideas. But we didn’t get to hear him play; Steve told us about it when we noticed the guitar through his open office door.
The way Steve told us about this was matter-of-fact, as if this were a normal happening in advertising. This monolithic giant of an agency somehow managed to keep the energy and enthusiasm of a tiny startup house, and this guy who played guitar in the office–a man I’ve never met–somehow became my faceless ambassador to all that was good in the field.
Exactly right. Although I must say that most of the agencies I worked at did (and may still) encourage ‘creatives’ to tap into their inner muses however it works for them. Playing guitar, taking off in the muddle of the day to go to a movie or the museum, shooting hoops in the department ‘playroom’. Whatever as long as it works. Agency life is somewhat unorthadox, but despite that, the responsibility we have to clients, their brands and their money is taken very seriously. I know a ‘Steve’ who worked for BBDO in LA. But when he and I worked together he had mived to Ogilvy in New York. He’s a legend in the business. I adored him. Still do.