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Via Steal Our Ideas

I’m sure we’ve all seen the latest T-mobile flashmob TV ad – and this post is not about that ad per se. Rather it’s about the debate that seems to have sprung up around it.

Because the professionals seem to hate the ad, but the public just love it.

Look at the advertising blogs and you’ll see the same criticism again and again – “unoriginal”, “seen it all before”, “old hat”, “rip off”, etc.

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There’s a disturbing trend in clients using pitches to solve problems rather than choose agencies – ie, to find the right idea, not the right agency.

It’s disturbing, because it means they get a lot of good thinking – arguably, our most valuable commodity – for free. That’s not good for agencies. But it’s also not good for clients. Because they get an idea based on a rushed, pitch-frenzy process and therefore a superficial understanding of the brief, the market and the client.

Even worse, the idea you present may be one you’ve developed to impress the client, not solve the problem. As I always say, in a pitch the client is the customer, not their customers. I’ve always been tried to pitch the idea that will win the business first, and answer the brief second. Now that these are one and the same thing, it’s harder and harder for everyone to get it right.

Now that we’re able to access creative from all over the world in seconds, it gets harder to stake a claim on originality, as this link shows. An original and distinctive creative idea from CHI has been done before, not once, but three times, in three different countries.

There was a time when creatives could steal ideas from abroad (Dave Trott admitted he got his first job by nicking ads from the US that he knew hadn’t been seen by creative directors in the UK). Now you can’t even have an original idea without finding out later that someone else has already thought of it… well, several times.

It’s not harder to be original, it’s just harder to prove it.

Reuben Turner, creative director, the Good Agency.

Does anyone know which agency produced this poignant and intelligent interactive banner for Amnesty International? A good old Google search draws a blank, as does speaking to Amnesty themselves. A friend of mine wants to feature it in a book he’s writing but needs permission. Please let me know ASAP – chris@chriscatchpole.com

Chris Catchpole
Creative Consultant
Chairman of The DMA Creative Forum 

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week, I judged 3 categories for the 2008 DMA Awards. Sworn to secrecy on pain of death, I can’t mention a thing about the work I judged suffice to say that I saw some truly outstanding work. Every year, I join fellow members of judging panels from agency and client side and we tear into every entry like a pack of wolves. How anything survives is sometimes amazing. If outsiders really saw how brutal the process is and how many flaming hoops each piece has to jump through, I think there’d be a few shocked faces and a real genuine pride in the work that wins. It is one hell of an achievement to win a DMA and I’m not sure everyone really understands this.

When the shortlist is made, around 7 to 10 entries are cast on the floor in front of the hungry panel eager to see if their chosen ones made it through. I like to think that I know the great from the good/average and I generally have about a 90% success rate of choosing the shortlisted few. But when it comes to the debate, boy is it passionate. Only the strongest survive. Only the ones who really do tick those three boxes – strategy, creativity and results. I was due to enter a radio and DM campaign in three categories this year but results-wise, it just wasn’t up to it. And you knew full well that some bugger would see straight through my wishy-washy words in the ROI bit.

Many a mind has been changed for or against an entry after an empassioned plea by a juror. No one in the room knows the final result but everyone is sure of one thing – whatever is voted Gold, Silver or Bronze, it bloody well deserves it.

This year more than any other, I think I was re-energised about our industry by some great workand subtley warned that I had to raise the bar yet again!

It really is a privilege judging awards – one I would recommend to anyone but not perhaps the faint-hearted…

Chris Catchpole, Creative Consultant, Chairman of the DMA Creative Forum

P.S. Don’t forget 9 December – Awards night at the glorious Grosvenor House.

Check out this post on the Osocio blog for a classic reaction to successful charity DRTV.

Yes, we’d all like charity DRTV to be groundbreaking, challenging, new and different. But I’ve never heard of anything succeeding that doesn’t follow the same formula as all these ads. Problem: solution. Eye contact. Rousing music. Earnest voiceover. Repeat the number. Repeat the number. Repeat the number.

Have you?

Reuben

The new Times outdoor campaign strikes me as everything that’s wrong with mainstream advertising. Overblown, impersonal and, worst of all, irrelevant. We are facing financial meltdown – and they are running (very expensive) ads featuring fat kids and Jordan with her horse. I bet it cost millions — and it could cost them a lot more yet.

Reuben Turner, creative director, the Good Agency

This is the best book about advertising, creativity and business I’ve ever read. The ads are truly groundbreaking in terms of both copy and art direction. But it’s also the best exposition of what a client/agency relationship should be that I’ve ever come across.

Unfortunately it’s not quite as easy to find as ‘Whipple’, but you can always borrow mine?

Reuben Turner, creative director, the Good Agency.

I’m delighted that the DMA has finally decided to take digital seriously, with its ‘revamped’ awards for 2008.

A little bit late to the party, perhaps, but better late than never.

A couple of years ago I wrote an article for the agency blog about how DM was failing miserably to embrace digital.

I thought then – and I still do – that digital belongs to us. After all, we already understand the idea of bringing brands to life; the importance of involvement and engagement; the secret of getting people to do something. We know all about targeting and measurement and testing.

Combine that with the expertise of online practitioners - interaction designers, information architects, developers – and I think you’ve got something special in the making. And something that sits right in the middle of our domain.

So why have we been so reluctant to grab the opportunity? (more…)