Creativity Squared: Why the World Is an Endless Buffet of Inspiration with Avital Pinchevsky

Avi is a proven creative leader who loves the work as much as she loves the people. Global in every sense, she believes in ideas that transcend language and that creativity is a behaviour changer and business driver. She’s been lucky to learn from, partner with and mentor some of the best minds and kindest hearts in the industry and she’s learned that craft is truly the difference between 'ok' and 'wow'. 

She loves to tell stories, build teams, solve problems, build brands, fix broken things and forge strong relationships along the way. 

She’s had the pleasure of changing the hearts and minds of Americans about their biggest retailer, turning protest art into voting booths and bringing separated loved ones together through haptic technology that allowed them to hug remotely. 

Most recently she helped cats get adopted on a gaming platform, de-stigmatised bladder leaks and show-cased the capability of an incredibly innovative vehicle.

Person

I’m a compulsive list maker, mainly for the freedom it grants my mind. With everything written down, my thoughts can go crazy-in-a-good way, without nagging doubts of forgetfulness.

The world is an endless buffet of inspiration. Stopping and smelling the roses is a crucial life skill. Watching great creative content is important. Boredom is important. Our creative brains need to hunt down stimuli and then kick back and let those ideas marinate into something good.

I think everyone is creative. We are born this way. It’s just that this world we live in tries to teach us out of our natural creative instincts, with its obsession for rules and logic. But we should really allow those rules and logic to take care of the boring stuff so that we’re free to create.

While I like the idea of routine, I must confess that I’m not a terribly structured person. No two days in my life mirror each other precisely. However, I do believe in regular exercise, hydration and restful sleep. But only so that nothing stops me from doing everything I want to do. It’s like a deal I have with my physical body.

Product 

When judging the creativity of a piece of work, I always ask myself whether the work is relevant, fresh and memorable. If it checks all three boxes and manages to make me a little nervous, I know there’s potential. While my criteria haven’t undergone drastic changes over the years, the notion of relevance has evolved with the times. The world we inhabit is a different place today and advertising continues to hold a mirror up to our ever-changing culture. 

In my body of work, I cherish many pieces, but I do believe the best is still to come. Right now, I’m loving the work we made for Kia for the horse racing season. One of early favourites to win was a horse named Forte, which happens to be the name of Kia’s award-winning powerful Sedan. In true horse-race day spirit, we created fancy hats, complete with feathers and decals of the car that said: “Go Forte”, and had some fun getting attendees to wear them and pose in them. I love that we managed to tap into a subculture and have a presence in notable horse races. 

I also greatly admire D&G’s project NFTrip where NFTs, for the first time ever, starred in a commercial. It’s a testament to the constant exploration and innovation unfolding before our eyes.

The industry is in an interesting place. We’re all feverishly brainstorming ideas that make use of the brilliant new toys, oops I mean tools, at our disposal. Yes, I’m referring to AI. We’re also allowing ourselves to be light-hearted and entertaining again, which I couldn’t be happier about. The pandemic era ‘sadvertising’, thankfully seems to be somewhat receding.

Process

Inspiration is everywhere, but I force myself to be picky about the amount of content I consume. There are almost too many good shows, movies, books and art out there and only so many hours in a day. 

When it comes to generating ideas, I usually spew a bunch of thoughts onto a page. I’ll admit, some of them are downright terrible. But I firmly believe that when it comes to ideas, it’s a case of ‘better out than in’. When I get super stuck, I like to do a ‘ten minutes ten ideas’ exercise. It’s like a mental vomit session. Moments of blankness, distress and impostor syndrome usually follow. Then I go for a walk. Watch a movie. Sleep. And then, it usually comes. 

In terms of techniques, I like to have work up on a wall. Purely working from a deck is a habit I’d like to see us all move away from. Advertising is an in-person, collaborative contact sport, where we rip pages down and rearrange them and add new ones and talk about them incessantly to get to great work at idea stage. It takes a collective effort, and more than one pair of eyes to know when a piece of work is “done”. There’s always a sneaky detail we might miss that’s glaringly obvious to someone else. 

Press

I grew up in a household overflowing with books. My mom taught me to read at age four, and brought home a new book for me every single week, which I’d devour in a day. My parents ensured I had an abundant supply of crayons, markers and paper and supported my obsession with music by providing me with a lovely upright and funding my piano lessons. I’m incredibly grateful to them for supporting and encouraging my creativity, for recognising it and allowing me to explore it. They also didn’t flinch at my request to go to ad school and while they maybe didn’t exactly understand it, they trusted my choice. 

When I was accepted into the AAA school of advertising in Johannesburg, it all really clicked for me. I finally understood the essence of the expression ‘a fish in water’. I was surrounded by like-minded, awesome weirdos and doing exactly what I loved. 

Nowadays, many agencies, countries, clients and projects later, I find myself at David&Goliath - an agency that continues to champion creativity and provides the nurturing structure that we, as creatives, require to make noteworthy work. Just as great families provide a defined box to play in, clear expectations of our responsibilities and unwavering support, so too do great agencies. It’s a delicate mix of balance and trust. In my role, I strive to foster that exact combination for my team – the freedom to explore, the guidance to excel and ample support, whenever it’s needed.