“I’m Missing a Good Laugh”: Keeping It Simple with Serviceplan Germany’s Till Diestel
It’s easy to get yourself tied up in knots when trying to explain the seemingly complex landscape of advertising, but when you see great creativity in action, that complexity has a habit of melting away. That’s how Serviceplan Germany’s chief creative officer Till Diestel was feeling this year when I spoke to him during the week of Cannes Lions, sitting amid the bustle of the Little Black Book & Friends Beach.
“It sounds stupid, in a way, because simplicity was always a key to good ideas, but I feel there's a strong push into work that has to be simple,” he says. “I feel like the last couple of years have had a lot of complex cases.” We all know the kinds of campaigns that have come to dominate awards – a buzzy tech trend that pairs a brand with a social purpose in unprecedented ways. A good example of this is the AIZOME ‘Wastecare™’ campaign from Serviceplan Innovation, which won a Gold Lion in Cannes this year. Japanese-German textile start-up Aizome collaborated with Serviceplan Innovation to design the sustainable skincare product ‘Wastecare™’, which was made from textile dyeing factory wastewater.
Speaking halfway through the week, Till observes that Cannes Lions 2023 is “less of that, which I think is good.” Winners he admires are being celebrated for their storytelling. He gives a nod to Uncommon’s out-of-home work for British Airways, which won the Outdoor Grand Prix, and ‘#Turnyourback’, for Dove, by Ogilvy London and DAVID Madrid, which won in Media.
One way to cut through the complexity, says Till, is comedy. “I still find one thing that I've been missing over the last couple of years is humour,” he says. “It's one of the biggest emotional drivers humans have. When I joined advertising, I joined mainly because I thought it was fun.”
In his childhood, Till always enjoyed a TV show in Germany which showcased the funniest advertising from around the world once a week. It was an hour long and it simply compiled the funniest spots from around the world. Before the YouTube age, this was the only way anyone in Germany would be able to enjoy the joy of Brazilian or British commercials. “But I'm really missing that lightness of just a good laugh,” says Till.
Advertising is definitely making people laugh in 2023. Till loved the work from Colenso BBDO for the mobile network Skinny. ‘Phone It In’, which went on to win a total of nine Lions, including the Radio & Audio Grand Prix, was at its core just a funny idea – using witty out-of-home copy to persuade passers by to record the brand’s radio ads for them for free.
Humour is something that Till’s looking for opportunities in for Serviceplan’s clients. “For me the last couple of months, it’s something I'm trying to push a lot,” he says. “I feel like there's a gap currently, in that emotion.”
But convincing clients to believe in ideas that may seem like frivolity can be a struggle after years of brands finding their purpose. Of course, with the right idea, comedy can underline the most worthy of brand missions. “Even that could be funny when done right,” says Till.
The currents of marketing trends make themselves clear when an agency goes fishing for the talent they need though. Recruiting to fill a creative department with jokers is more challenging than filling it with activists, although ideally Till wants both, but copywriters with comic chops are a particular prize. “You've got to have the right people to actually write that stuff. Because there are people who are conversationally funny, but to actually write comedy is a special skill.”
The simplicity that makes advertising great flows from agencies attracting and nurturing talent that can provide those special skills. And another, as Till sees it, is being able to find a place in culture for a brand. It’s something that’s a focus for him. “Cultural marketing is the biggest thing that most agencies and clients haven't accomplished yet,” he says. “For us that's something that's at the top of the list. How do we more deeply and better connect with culture and subcultures for certain brands? And how do you also make that last, make that sustainable?” Because bedding a brand into a cultural space takes time and tenacity. Too often brands have tried endearing themselves to a particular community with a one-off project, before being scared off when it wasn’t 100% accepted by those people.
For so many brands, the question Till wants to answer is: “How do you get in there without disturbing that? Trying to find that way to connect and resonate and be part of that culture. If you nail that, that's amazing.”
“I think that a lot of brands have done it badly, very quickly,” says Till. “Look at gaming, the biggest entertainment industry in the world. So many brands have tried and failed. Some have obviously succeeded. If you want to come in there, you have to understand the gamers [of that particular game] and be part of that game and that environment and that culture. But also play a long game. I think if you just do it once, and then don't get the numbers back for the KPIs, that doesn't mean you've failed. Sometimes it just needs more commitment so that the community will accept you and be like, ‘Yeah, you know what? You've now supported us for the last two or three years. It's really great that you're part of this.’ But I think a lot of brands quickly get out. They are like, ‘It didn't work. So gamers are shit.’”
Like so many CCOs I’ve spoken to recently, Till has had to take precautions to manage his TikTok usage. He tells me he’s set a 30-minute limit, otherwise he falls deep and finds hours have passed. “That rabbit hole analogy is always so true. You get down there and then you kind of have to get out,” he says. But the rabbit hole phenomenon holds a lesson in the simplicity brands can find in a complex cultural landscape.
On TikTok, you can suddenly find yourself watching content around a niche interest that you never knew you were interested in. Till found a man who draws maps for Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, for example. “I don't do D&D but it's nice to watch,” says Till. Then you look at his profile and he has 400,000 followers. “That's its own culture there.” His friend, who makes prop swords for the TV and film industry, only started his TikTok around a year ago but already has half a million followers. The thing is, that D&D map guy isn’t as niche as he sounds. Neither is the person who makes swords for ‘Game of Thrones’. There’s a simple reason why seeming outsiders like Till like this content: “It just shows how creative humans are and what weird things we do and love.”
To help these conversations with clients, Serviceplan has created a cultural scorecard, which Till describes as “a strategic approach to map certain cultures to your brand and see how the fit is.” The CCO finds it an interesting way to talk to clients, because it backs up why a brand should collaborate with a TikToker who makes Dungeons & Dragons maps. When a client asks why, the agency can respond: “Well, we found out that it maps really well to your brand. So it helps to hold some data behind it,” says Till.
When done right, Cannes Lions gives people in the business of creativity the chance to check in with the best work and thought from across the globe. And when they’re lucky, it reaffirms their choice to work in this business. For Till, seeing the work that won has helped remind him of what he wants to see more of: simplicity, humour and a nuanced approach to the cultural landscape. He’s gone home to Berlin energised. “I personally just fucking love our industry. The diverse possibilities to work on so many different clients, to literally start with a blank piece of paper to do something amazing. And then you see it. And you work with the biggest talent on the planet. The possibilities are amazing.”
