Creativity Squared: Guy Bradbury on Why Creativity Has the Power to Change Everything

Guy is a creative leader with over 20 years’ experience in building highly award-winning teams. Throughout his career he has been group creative director and executive creative director at some of the world’s most successful agencies, helping both DDB London and Saatchi & Saatchi win ‘Most awarded agency in the world’ for creativity and effectiveness. He started his own award-winning creative agency Atomic London which won numerous awards, before being hired by Ben Golik as M&C Saatchi London’s first creative partner, to help supercharge creativity.

Person

I would probably describe myself as curious, restless and a little bit rebellious.

I think you have to be, as a creative director.

Otherwise, nothing would ever move forward.

The really great ideas, come from asking What if? Breaking a few rules. Being innovative. And embracing new thinking. 

I think that’s why I am fascinated by new technology and always want to find out how stuff works. Whether it’s AR or a new social channel or Ecommerce platform. 

We live in an incredible era where technology has transformed how people engage with brands and as creatives, we have so many new colours to play with in our palette.

But if we want to add them to our armoury, we need to know how to leverage new channels to make a difference for clients’ brands. 

And be open to change to keep a brand relevant. 

Product

For me great creativity has the power to change everything. It can make you think different, feel different and ultimately change behaviour. 

And the most exciting thing about my job is helping our clients and our teams to find those ideas. Combining brand building with data and technology to reach audiences in new and exciting ways. 

Creating ideas that will help their brand be more distinctive in their category, and giving the audience an emotional reward.

Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best creative directors in the world like Dave Droga and Jeremy Craigen, and that has certainly influenced how I see creativity.  

For me there are three things I look for in ideas.

1. First and foremost, the idea has to be distinctive. It has to stop people in their tracks or in their feed. As the late Bill Bernbach said, “If nobody notices your advertising, everything else is academic”.

2. Secondly, will the audience really give a shit if this idea existed? Is this idea worthy of being stored in their brain or will it make a difference to their world?

3. And finally, will it create an emotional connection? Will it make the audience feel more positive towards the brand?

Right now, many brands are using their power to make the whole world a better place, and make people feel more positive towards them. But for me, being more ethical and sustainable should be table stakes.

If we want to create truly valuable brands, we have to give them a role in people’s lives and make their world a better place. How we can bring some joy to their day? Offer escape? Or help them live a better life?

Process

Coming up with great creative ideas is a team game. And in my opinion the more you have the best talent rubbing an idea, the better it gets.

For me, the creative process should be more like a game of rugby than a relay race or baton passing exercise. And fundamental to that is casting and how we kick off a new project for our clients.

Thanks to technology, data and new channels, there are so many ways we can help a brand grow. So many ways to reach audiences. So, I really enjoy having the right talent in the room from the outset to discuss a client’s business challenge. 

We bring together specialists in brand, data, PR, CX, tech, social and design to talk about the possibilities. Kick it around. Allow ourselves to dream and shape the brief.

It’s a far more open way to start a project that ultimately leads to transformational ideas for brands. And it creates a fantastic playing field for creative collisions to happen and fresh thinking to emerge.

At M&C Saatchi I may have the role of creative partner, but deep down I believe everyone who works on a project is a creative partner and can make an idea better.

And creativity isn’t just the role of people with ‘creative’ in their title. It’s data, technology, PR, design, it’s the storytelling in our PowerPoint presentations.

Creativity changes everything and it is in all of us. 

Press

For me this isn’t really a job, it never really has been. It’s a passion. 

I genuinely love it. I love working with brands, solving their problems and helping them grow. 

That doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Sometime briefs are complicated, objectives aren’t clear. There are too many stakeholders, or other agency partners are less open and collaborative. These bad inputs can all have an impact on the end result. 

So, our job as agency leaders has to be to create the right conditions and culture for success, for creative magic to happen. 

Working closely with senior brand owners to remove obstacles and create good energy around a project. Bringing the right talent together that will make the biggest difference to their business. Creating belief in the team. And making a brand infectious to work on.

Because when you have that, great things can happen.

And great creativity can change everything