Stephen Barnes, creative partner, Collective London
Budget is a red herring: Every brief has its constraints and a tight budget is just another one. If anything, it can help by focusing the mind. You get to the solution more quickly with less “big budget possibilities” clutter. Small budgets force you to exclude lots of routes straight away. There’s nothing quite so invigorating as a small budget and an ambitious client; in fact, that’s where some of the best stuff lies.
Talent is key: We are constantly on the lookout for fresh talent. New blood is a vital part of any creative department. It keeps the rest of us on our toes and competition is healthy.
Jessica Ashman, animator and director
Trust the idea (and the notion that a good idea will serve you well): That might be quite an idealistic approach but it reminds me of when clients want something to “go viral”. You can’t force these things – the reason they go viral is because the idea is solid.
Bigger is not necessarily better: The most exciting and hands-on projects I’ve worked on so far have been due to smaller clients; they’re more open to what I and my other colleagues have to offer. But I do agree with the notion that in the end it’s all about the idea and if you can pull it off. That seems to go across the board for all types of client sizes and budgets.
David Harris, independent creative consultant
Risk aversion stifles creativity: I feel as a society we demonise failure and this makes people averse to taking risks. Creativity by its very nature is disruptive and big ideas are risky. As a consequence we see a lot of safe work
Clients must consider the value of creativity and the way they commission it: Clients want big right-brain creative ideas to help solve their business challenges but have processes that result in small left-brain purchasing departments that in turn drive down agency costs with expensive pitch processes. All that stifles any opportunity for agencies to invest in extra value thinking to benefit clients. There’s something weird about pitching all your great ideas (giving them away) and then debating how much to pay per hour for a designer
Left-brain, right-brain: I feel that creative thinking is something that should be spread to lots of different areas. But research by the neurologist Baroness Susan Greenfield suggests that only one in five people has a brain wired in such a way that is capable of coming up with a good idea. So selling those ideas is tricky, especially with our education system geared around the superior hierarchy of left-brain subjects as Sir Ken Robinson covered in his great TED talk: How schools kill creativity. Big ideas are valuable but difficult to get buy in from those who hold the budgets (mostly left-brainers).
It’s tough for creatives in networks that are very risk averse: It’s like walking on eggshells. On the one hand your clients think you’re too expensive – on the other hand the network wants a bigger profit. Meanwhile you lose creatives who get more money and the chance to do better work at independent agencies. In business and networks there is a need to constantly improve margin, increase profit and the problem is that experimentation and new ideas take risk.
Creativity is about exploration and experimentation where failure is part of the process. It takes bravery and trust to support something that may fail, not something for which most networks are known.
In with the old: I read something recently that revealed the sale of fountain pens and luxury writing paper was booming – not something I expected at all. The next day I received a handwritten letter and it was a real novelty. In our attempts to look at “new” ways to make an impact, maybe we’ll revisit some of the old ones!
Nick Tebbutt, senior copywriter, Critical Mass
Think multiple: It’s definitely possible to be creative even if your budgets are tighter than they used to be. The restrictions can even spur your creatives on to be more innovative. I’d say the key thing is to think about how you can make any content you create fulfil multiple roles.
We really liked the Shot It, Got It Instagram campaign Forsman and Bodenfors created for Åhléns. The agency created a series of Instagram films that blended innately shareable branded content, a gamified consumer interaction (that’s buzzword bingo won for some!) and a great incentive to buy – all in one hit. Clever stuff!
Refreshing and redoing: There’s a difference between extending and refreshing a recent campaign and just redoing old work. Saying something new isn’t always the best thing, but finding a new way to say something can really work. I previously mentioned the importance of creative strategy and I think that’s relevant here: Coke are making sure their core message is out there on TV and on shelves.
Click here for the full transcript of this live chat, which was provided by the Marketing Agencies Association
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