Creatives, Know When to Ask for Help
25th August 10
Author: Kevin Roddy, Chief Creative Officer, BBH New York (follow at @tweetrod)
Originally posted on Ad Age, August 23 2010 (link: http://j.mp/crf6Io)
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I have a theory about why some “traditional” agencies aren’t evolving as quickly, or effectively, as they need to: because their creative directors aren’t admitting that they’re stupid.
Now, hang on a minute. Before you take a four-iron to my knee caps, let me explain what I mean. In my pre-creative-director career as a copywriter (you know, back when ads were written in Triceratops blood on cave walls) I never had to worry about writing for a small thing we now call the internet. Back then, an “integrated campaign” meant it had TV, print and radio. The definition of “interactive” was doing a print ad that required someone to turn the page. My colleagues and I never had to think of any solution beyond it.
The path to becoming a creative director in those days was to be really good at developing work in those media, the theory being, the better you were at doing it, the better you would be at directing it.
Today? Not so much. As someone who’s now responsible for directing creative people doing things I never even dreamed of in my copywriting days, I don’t consider myself solely equipped to make every kind of idea better. How could I? I’ve never done many of them myself.
Sure, I can tell someone how to make a TV spot or a print ad better. I’ve done a ton of them. And, I think, I’m pretty good at them. But when it comes to creativity today — a new world that encompasses everything from iAds to augmented reality — it’s a whole different ballgame.
I’m not alone. I’d venture to say there’s a whole industry of CDs out there who have the same difficulty as I do single-handedly creative directing today’s ideas. Some have even confided in me as much.
So where does that leave creative leaders like me? Here are a few options:
- Ignore the new ideas. Hey, if we can’t make them better then let’s just dismiss them altogether!
- We can ask for new ideas, even demand them, but because we honestly don’t know how to improve many of them, we can just let them move forward in their “first-draft” state.
- We can admit that we don’t know enough about how to make technologically complex creative ideas better and ask for help.
Hopefully, we’ll all be brave enough to pick option No. 3. Creative directors need to admit a weakness in our own ability to creative direct today and ask for help. Take down the walls and ask other people for suggestions about how to make the work better. Heresy, I know. (You’ll have to turn in your creative director secret decoder ring and conveniently forget the creative director secret handshake.) But the danger of pretending like you know how to do it all means great creative opportunities could pass through you agency without a chance of exposing themselves. I believe we’ll be more effective in our jobs if we get help revamping our creative departments to deliver the complex kinds of creative products clients require to engage consumers today.
Note, I’m not suggesting you get others to do it for you. I’m simply saying get help. As creative directors it is still, ultimately, our responsibility. We are, like it or not, better qualified to judge and direct great creative work, of any kind, than anybody else.
And if and when the “I need help” movement takes hold, I promise creative directors will look really damn smart (actually being smart, however, is a different story…hell, we’re creative directors not planners).
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9 comments on “Creatives, Know When to Ask for Help”
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The beauty of being a CD in this day and age (we are of the same paleolithic vintage, I’m afraid) is the amount of data points a CD can reference / slipstream in the creation of the message. Back in the olde days we never really knew what consumers thought about a brand unless we paid them to sit in a room and lie to us. Now we just surf Twitter or Facebook and can glean at least a directional idea of where the message is not being heard.
Great post, thanks!
Thank you for this point of view. I’d really love to see more of those experienced and valuable creatives embrace this. While working with them, I learned a lot and I believe it’s time to give back…
It’s an interesting challenge that we find when we work with ‘traditional’ (ugh, sorry) agency teams and CDs. The idea that’s generated though is still key, and all digital does is to provide further uplift.
The social channels, for instance, are adept at spreading that shiny creative idea, whilst allowing people to review (shock!), feedback and discuss openly the merits of the idea/brand.
Of course the really good ideas flourish online. Parodies and home-made versions of big ad campaigns are the sincerest form of flattery (mostly)…so CDs can relax and focus on the idea.
Guys like us just help it fly further. “here to help”
love it. love roddy. love helping.
Sweet article… the importance of a leader admitting a weakness and asking for help can’t be stressed enough. plus asking questions is at the core of having a beginner’s mind which is what some of the most creative people (in many different fields) have… a beginner’s mind.
[...] by jamshop on August 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment Great article here from Kevin Roddy, Chief Creative Officer, BBH New York, on how CDs can get the most out of ideas, [...]
Interesting article, but I don’t agree. I believe creative can and should express the same strategic creative concepts in social media or internet banners as in TV or print. By strategic I mean branding, positioning and direct response. For example, the brand characters that work on TV can and should also work on the Internet. See Apple PC v Mac which does this very well.
My perspective is that of a visual effects artist working in commercials. Artists working in this area are some of the more up-to-date and technically capable. Many I know are very creative and communicate well, and I’m sure would love to be involved in the creative end, if only someone were to come to them and ask. The separation of creative work from production work from post-production, all the layers and layers in between, unfortunately means that this rarely happens.
Ed Catmull of Pixar spoke about taking inspiration from Toyota, where monitoring what goes on on the factory floor is important for improving the manufacturing process. Unfortunately, in commercial art production, the factory floor is many companies away, so there is less chance for this type of learning to take place.
Thank you so much for this post! I’m an MA Ad-grad looking to enter the industry and dream of being a CD one day when I‘m older and wiser…after studying the industry for 2 years I’ve met a lot of CD’s who are choosing ‘option 1’ on your list, which really gets me down when you show them an idea that you know will work (relevancy / technologically) but it’s ignored due to personal / cognitive biases. Thanks again for the post though – it’s reignited the fire!