Food for thought: The spy who sold out
Forgiving a pretty face
Facebook to agencies: how will people share your story?
Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
“As long as you’re happy with it, I’m happy with it.”
Ugh.
Can we banish that kind of thinking from the ad industry?
Yup. We have deadlines. Budgets. Places to be. Ads to make. Dogs to pat.
But in our hurry to close the deal, there’s a temptation to try to anticipate what will most likely sell.
What will the client buy from me?
The problem is we end up looking for the answer to a question that hasn’t been asked.
The brief was not, “show me something I’ll approve.” If it was, it should be rewritten.
Don’t ask what the market wants. Or what it’ll buy. Or who else has already done most of the work to get there.
Assess your ambition. (How can I be great here? What does that look like?) Bring your natural insights and abilities. (Your gift for seeing and showing the world like only you can.) Then do the hard work you need to do to find the best solution to the client’s problem.
Approval is the baseline. A given. The cost of entry.
Clients demand only that we pass. Get to good enough. It’s up to us to close the gap between that and the great work that’s right there waiting for us to pluck it from the ether.
Trev Gourley
May 10, 2011 @ 11:30 am
That last line is an absolute gem, probably belongs in the “Ad Advice” post from a few days back as well as this one. Worrying about what’s safe and sellable is a huge obstacle to overcome in the creative process.
Andrew
May 10, 2011 @ 4:51 pm
The title of this post encapsulates what many feel while doing project work. I was working on a project several years ago that after a focus group session, the client said the feedback was bullsh*t and demanded another focus group. Got the same feedback and again called bullsh*t. Ended up demanding his vision for the project…it was so bad it nearly bankrupted his company.