THIS IS IT!
THIS IS IT!
The three words we all love hearing when someone is evaluating our work.
“This is it” seems to pour out of their mouths so easily after rounds of hearing them saying, “this isn’t on brief” or “I’ve seen this before” or “we need to be more insightful.”
My brain always filters ideas using the same formula when reviewing either my own work or works of others to get to a “this is it” creative response:
Have I seen this before?
Is it on brief?
Will it connect to people on a human level?
Does it make me feel something?
If it checks off all these boxes, then more often than not, it’s the easiest ideas to sell to clients and tends to lead to great PR-able work that not only picks up at awards shows — if that is your thing — but also build revenue for brands.
A campaign that had a lot of people saying “this is it” that I’m proud of was “Hello in Elephant,” an initiative for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust where we worked with scientists to study the language of elephants, allowing people on social to actually speak elephant through donations for World Elephant Day. It was shared by the UN, CNN, and more, won some Cannes and Clios, etc., while making a lot of much needed money for the Sheldrick Trust to help protect these wonderful animals.
Today, ideas that don’t look or feel like “ads” are what excite me the most, they connect with you like art, music, fashion or movies would, and it’s those sorts of ideas that we need to see more of in the industry if we truly want to have people falling in love with our brands.
If work you’re creating or evaluating doesn’t make you feel something — then you don’t have it yet. But the great thing is, with a bit of fun and hard work “this is it” is just around the corner.
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Brett Terblanche is a Group Creative Director leading the Social Impact arm of David & Goliath with Blake Winfree (CCO) and his colleague Luiz Vicente Simões.
He has worked with some of the world’s leading brands across the globe including: Coca-Cola, Volvo and GSK, Nestle to mention a few with destinations including Australia and the UK. His work has won multiple awards at Cannes, Clios, ADC One Show, New York Festivals, WARC, Effies and more.
Brett’s work has been featured by CNN, BBC, National Geographic, The UN, Sky News and more.
As a member of the LGBTQI+ community he has also lead the Diversity & Inclusion committee in Australia and was on the D&I team at Havas Chicago.
