2016 Mobius Judge István Bracsok on His Search for the ‘Notion of Idea’

István Bracsok, a member of the 2016 Mobius Awards Jury, talks about trends and creativity. He is Creative Director and Partner at White Rabbit in Budapest. His interview follows.

Q: What is the most fun you have had on a project?

A: There’s a fun moment in every project you do. In our latest “Nature is cool” work for WWF Hungary, we gave a raw deck of boards to brown bears to leave their marks on them. However, one of the bears had a different opinion. First, with one swing of his claw, he ripped apart the boards and then he got bored, climbed up a tree and didn’t want to come down. We had to buy 2 kilos of salmon to bait him to the boards again. That was fun.

Q:  When you are judging a work, what process do you use?  

A: I always look for that never-changing notion of “idea.” Is it there? Can I find it? Does it touch me emotionally? Does it give me goosebumps? Does it make me laugh, bring tears to my ears? Does it give me an insight into a fresh truth? Show me the world in a new way? It’s as simple as that. If I have one of these reactions, the work – works.

Q:  What trends are you noticing?

A: I see pure product innovations instead of ideas and communication solutions. I’m not happy with that. And I don’t like the tendency of covering up the lack of ideas with the number of “likes” and impressions. This suggests if something has reached that many people it must be good.

Q:  Do you think that national context/touch is important in today’s advertising?

A: Yes. It’s getting more important as it’s getting more difficult reaching the consumers. But it might help a lot finding a touch-point to reach them, have a visceral impact on them. Nowadays this “national context” plays a crucial part in the world of communication.

Q: You live in a small country. Does it make your work harder/easier?

A: Sometimes it’s bloody hard. Small country, small market, small budgets. Many brands are centralised, and for a small market like this it’s not profitable to develop anything locally. It’s not quite the most inspiring environment for a creative mind.

Q: Are advertising festivals still important?

A: Yes, definitely. More than ever. We need those milestones to see if we are heading for the right direction. They’re inspiring to us and the clients. But we should not forget: those awards must reward not the creative idea but the business results and profitability of that idea for our clients as well.

Q: What inspires you most?

When I feel that I might get closer to understanding the “why” of human existence. Then it turns out that I never will.

Bracsok started his career at Ammirati Puris Lintas; worked at Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB and was a creative director at JWT. Awards from Cannes Lions, Ad Stars, Golden Hammer, Lisbon Festival and several Effies. Jury member at Cresta, Cannes Young Lions, AdStars, Mobius Awards, Creativity International and New Stars.