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Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
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Group745

Upstream Creativity is our Industry’s Greatest Asset

03/03/2017
Advertising Agency
London, United Kingdom
376
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INFLUENCER: Big Al’s Creative Emporium’s Laurie Castelli-Gair asks whether our industry is leveraging its greatest asset to best effect
Few would doubt that creative thinking is a source of business advantage that has never been more valuable or more necessary. It’s also self-evident that no area of a business has a monopoly on creativity: a new piece of code that solves a consumer problem can transform a market almost overnight, or spawn a whole new source of revenue.

Yet, isn’t creativity meant to be what the marketing services industry excels at? In which case, is it leveraging its greatest asset to best effect?

If not, then it’s a failing of our own making over the last three decades that in my view stems from two main sources: firstly, in an effort to professionalise our offering we have mirrored our clients and become too process driven, and, secondly, we have annexed the act of ‘creativity’ to one particular department. When business is crying out for innovation and disruptive ideas, the last of these points seems particularly perverse and anachronistic.

This trend has been exacerbated it seems in recent years by an increasing marketing emphasis on technology, data and new channels that, whilst brilliantly beneficial for improving marketing efficiency, is essentially a downstream activity.

A good idea is much more than a clever piece of copy, a witty end line, or even a marketing stunt that plays well in social media, or a handy app that improves mobile interactivity.

For creative thinking to have true impact it must work upstream. Whether it’s ‘This Girl Can’ (Sport England), ‘The Fourth Emergency Service’ (The AA) or becoming the Fixer (Direct Line), a creative idea expressed in a compelling way has the potential not just to sell products, but to define - or re-define - a commercial enterprise and give it a sense of direction. 

One of our greatest recent satisfactions at Big Al’s was the response of a client team member who, when we presented a new campaign idea, simply said: “Now I know why I come to work here”. He had been working there for two years, and of course had an inner sense of what motivated him to work at that organisation, but the campaign encapsulated an idea around which the business could rally.

Creativity is messy, non-linear and hard to manage. Live with it. Clients - especially senior ones - do not need to see people who think and talk the same way as they do. They have plenty of those where they work.

If I may be so bold, they don’t really need to be in a beautifully decorated office, sipping lattes, sitting on bean-bags while people play ping pong across the vast expanse of warehouse office. They need to roll their sleeves up and be amongst the misfits, the dropouts, the dreamers and the non-jargon talkers who ask the unaskable questions and make improbable connections and left field suggestions. 

That’s one of the reasons why at Big Al’s we have stripped away the unnecessary fat that often clogs up many agency processes. We want our clients to have direct access to the people who have the best chance of creating transformative thinking for their business. 

The nature of creativity is perhaps a subject for another discussion, but although it is the main currency of the ‘creative industries’, its meaning is at best assumed and rarely questioned. 

There is a general misconception amongst society in general that creativity is somehow associated with being artistic – a child who is good at drawing is considered ‘creative’, whilst someone who can think laterally to solve a problem is considered smart. Solving problems is a creative act, as is entrepreneurial thinking, and the best creative ideas do just that. Good creative thinking is an upstream activity that finds new ways in which to build bridges between organisations and the human being who interacts with them.

There is nothing wrong with good selling copy, or developing a brand experience, or shareable content that builds a social presence for a brand, but the communication industry must not allow itself to be marginalised as a downstream activity of simply filling an endless array of communication channels, or as an adjunct to new media technologies. To be valued it must see and be able to influence the bigger picture. 

When we were approached to create a new communication campaign for Marston’s Brewery, we realised (eventually) that what was required was not simply another witty, millennial friendly, postmodern piece of mind pollution (we are perfectly capable of that too!), but rather a piece of work that could give pride back to a brewing institution with deep roots and influence in a part of the country that was once part of our collective industrial heritage. A campaign that could re-energise the thousands of people who work for the Marston’s organisation, and galvanise the sales force to sell the likes of Pedigree in to new pubs. 

From this thinking was born the idea of ‘From Burton With Love’ – an idea that hopefully has the potential not just to sell beer, but to influence the client and wider culture of the region.

It is this kind of thinking that differentiates creative agencies from consultancies and the so-called managerial sciences. Our ability to connect organisations with people will ultimately defend us from the land grabs being made by the likes of Accenture in to the creative sector. No number of MBAs can compete with that.

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