A couple weeks ago Matt and I were invited by the One Club to participate in the One Club Creative Unconference. This two day event was essentially a group of loosely guided discussions that people could join and participate in. We realized that while Matt and I occasionally get called upon to do these things, we rarely share our topic internally. So, we decided to blog about it.
Matt spoke first on Thursday with the topic of the $6 Million Dollar Creative. Better, faster stronger. Here is an except.
"Steve Austin, creative. A man barely alive. Ladies and Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic creative. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.
Better at logistics, faster at concepting, stronger at engineering a plan. Add in more entrepreneurial, digital master, social genius... What else is expected of the re-built creative of today and the future? And how do you do this and allow them to have lives?
This of course lead to a lively discussion. And Matt of course revealed what we look for in Creatives.
-Planning strategies – Can you identify a real business problem? Your concepts may be fake, but the business problem you choose to solve should be very real. Good creatives don’t sit and wait for the planner to bring it to them on a plate, they help inform the approach. Finding the right problem to solve is half the battle.
-Executional vision – Are the executions believable from a production standpoint, respective to the client? And do they show some thought on engineering them for the real world.
-Use and understanding of digital/social media. – It’s easy to check boxes here. But is there some understanding of the nuance it takes to truly get picked up in the conversation of social media? Is there a specific program or piece created that is an engaging and shareable expression of your bigger idea?
-Overall presentation and packaging of ideas – Being simple with ever increasingly complex ideas is the great challenge of the day. Can you layout and flow your integrated ideas in a way that has lots of parts, but just enough detail as to not overwhelm. Invite people into an idea first, resist the temptation to over explain too early. When we see care taken in the full presentation of a campaign, we can guess that will carry over into a professional idea that is something we can be proud to sell.
-Sources of inspiration and guiding forces. – This is about your style. What type of humor or visual appeal is reflected throughout your work? Range is good, but showing your prospective on the world is what agencies need. We need a collection of different thinkers.
-Personal projects – This shows a person’s entrepreneurial spirit, and reveals passion points. We want people who dare to create culture, not just curate it.
-And of course, really smart ideas. – Original solutions. Insightful angles at problems. Wacky and weird only works if the central motivation is smart.
Needless to say, all the entire creative department here should be proud to be represented and exemplified as the bionic-creatives of the future. Of course, since this was a discussion, we didn’t have all the answers and are still working towards figuring out a few things here.
I spoke on a topic that was different, but again related. There’s never been a better time to be in this industry.
The reasons for my optimism are simple. One, I tend to be optimistic. I believe you always look the direction you want to go. But beyond that, there’s a lot behind this thought.
1. We have more tools than ever. And tools were the things that originally separated us from our friends in the animal kingdom. Some of them are familiar. Print, digital, TV, Twitter, blah blah blah. But the fact is that it seems like every other day we get to add a new one to the mix, and that’s pretty cool. Plus we get to invent a few along the way. Probably even more interesting is the fact that we get to take our familiar tools and use them in ways that are innovative on their own. Think of a TV spot as a hammer. You can use a hammer to pound nails, but what else can you do with it? This is exactly how we all used Twitter for the Current pitch. In a new way.
2. We have clients now that are aware of the possibilities, but might not know how to take advantage of them. This leads to clients asking for our help. And this allows for more fruitful partnerships and relationships where we can execute better ideas.
3. The economy is our friend. When times get tough, people need to re-examine. Clients need to rethink a bit with smaller budgets. This is a time when innovation can happen. And innovation is makes our lives interesting.
What does it take?
Part of our job is the same as it ever was. Coming up with a good idea. Part of our job is different and way more fun. Finding new ways to bring them to life. Keeping up on technology. Not using technology for the sake of it but to further an idea.
The truth is, Matt and I had different topics, but they often intertwined. I guess that’s a good sign. But I have to say, it was fun to use real-world examples from here at Creature to back up what we talked about. So, thanks for making our discussions not just theory.
