Introduction

Does the world need another book about creative work?

Before Tim Patten, Martin Troughton and I set up shop, we asked ourselves this question: ‘Does the world need another agency?’ This helped concentrate our minds and led us to a positioning that proved pretty potent (and to us introducing the term ‘brand response’ into the marketing lexicon).

Before I wrote this book, I went through a similar exercise and asked ‘Does the world need another book on creativity?’ It was a lot easier to answer than the original question.

First, there aren’t that many books on the ‘how to’ aspect of doing better creative work. Moreover, few have been written by someone who’s spent the last 20 years trying, with a modicum of success, to actually do ‘better creative work’.

If, during that time, you’d have asked me to explain how to go about it I’d probably have quoted the great Billy Shankly, who described football as ‘a simple game made complicated by fools’.

You see, the longer I worked in the industry, the clearer and simpler things got. In fact, I became ever more convinced of the efficacy of the things you’ll find described in this book: the need for not one but two big ideas, the problem/solution dynamic and the importance of relevant abruption.

But, to be honest, until recently I thought such principles were pretty obvious and there was little reason for me or anyone to sit down and write about them. Then, sometime last year, I noticed that things had changed in the industry. Which brings me to the second, more pressing reason, why I think you might find this book useful.

People I respected and admired seemed confused and unhappy. Agencies in general, and the creative fraternity in particular, appeared to be having a collective crisis of confidence.

Despondency amid the debauchery

The tipping point for me (and, I think, quite a few others) came at last year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. There was some despondency amidst the debauchery. Even the Aussies looked down. Our trade magazine, Campaign, picked up on this and, taking the parochial view, asked ‘Have the UK’s creatives lost the plot?’

People in my own industry – direct marketing – certainly seemed disconcerted, especially when, on our awards night, advertising agencies threatened to steal the show. The UK contingent left in dismay and it wasn’t long before Campaign was asking: ‘Is direct marketing’s golden age over?’

And the digital folk? Well, while most partied, the shrewder ones took a sober look into the future. Mark Cridge, the CEO of glue London, told me:

‘Creatively, digital may have reached a plateau. The technical know-how that has made digital unique and unassailable to this point is becoming far more widespread. With most digital creative directors drawn from design or technology backgrounds, we have to strengthen our expertise in strong conceptual creative ideas. To get to the next level, we need the people who were weaned on Wired to start getting Creative Review. We need to grow up creatively.’

The big question was, who was going to help them reach maturity? Their advertising and direct brethren? As I looked around a strangely subdued Carlton Hotel terrace, I realised this wasn’t going to happen. Because the self-belief that had once characterised the advertising and direct marketing creative fraternity had been shattered by – yes, you’ve guessed it – the coming of digital.

Offline work no longer worked

In truth, it wasn’t the digital creative who did the damage. It was the digital pundit, and the first blow was landed way back in 1999 by Seth Godin.

His Permission Marketing was an all-out attack on what he called ‘interruption marketing’, or all that traditional ‘offline’ creative work that sought to stop its prospect, engage their attention and deliver its sales message via paid-for media.

The bursting of the dotcom bubble distracted people for a while, but interest returned as online bounced back. A lot of agency folk started to believe Godin. More importantly, so did their clients. Especially when he suggested that a new era of digitally led ‘permission marketing’ would get them the results they wanted.

Few seem to have noticed, however, that Godin based his judgement upon a false premise. He had mistaken bad execution for a broken discipline. Essentially, what he was saying was that adverts weren’t working, so therefore you’d better do away with advertising. It was a little like saying that if the NHS fails to hit government targets then the solution lies not in raising standards of detection, treatment and remedial care but in closing down all the hospitals.

It never seemed to occur to Godin that the remedy might be to do better, more effective creative work. Yet, as digital expanded, Godin’s dismissal of interruption marketing became the conventional wisdom and, indeed, is now the starting point for many of today’s best-selling business and marketing books.

If Godin undermined the foundations upon which competitive persuasion had been built, another book (and the numerous bestsellers, articles, conferences, seminars and blogs that it spawned) was perhaps even more damaging: Rick Levine’s The Cluetrain Manifesto.

As with Godin, the news here was that the days of pushing a message were over.

We were entering a golden era in which technologically empowered customers pulled only those messages they wanted to receive and engaged only with those brands that they’d allow into their lives. Not only that, they would link up to share knowledge, opinions, recommendations and advice on what to buy and what to avoid. In this virtual marketplace the customer really was in control and businesses had to earn the right to join the conversation.

Can you spot the flaw in the pundits’ argument?

This vision of Cyburbia ignored one glaring fact about modern life. The commodity all of us most lack is time. So much so that according to nVision Research, ‘having time to just relax’ is the UK’s number-one luxury.

Of course, as books like Groundswell and Wikinomics show, there are dozens of great examples of digital communities dedicating time to this or that brand. They are, according to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, the ‘mavens’, who are willing to talk via blogs, discussion groups, wikis, communities and forums about the object of their enthusiasm. So steeped are they in the product that they probably know more about it than both the agency folk and the marketing director. Which makes them the logical starting point for all research and development and CRM activity.

But the ‘sneezers’, ‘alphas’ and ‘opinion leaders’ are exceptional. The vast majority of people simply won’t spend their precious time in a virtual huddle about copier printers, roadside-assist services, investment funds, pizza parlours, diesel engines, charge cards, foreign airlines, bleach or business software.

Which means a disproportionate amount of online activity is accounted for by relatively small groups. Take the blogosphere, for example. IPA-sponsored research published in January 2009 showed that of the UK’s online consumers just 2.8 per cent bother to blog. Only 8.8 per cent read them and 3.7 per cent comment. As far as contributors to online chat rooms and discussion forums are concerned it is, again, a tiny fraction. Just 6.5 per cent.

It’s a similar scenario with social networking sites. According to Forrester Technographics research, 25 per cent of the total number of UK internet users use social networking sites once or more a month. The remaining 75 per cent use them once a month or not at all. If you look at those who do use these sites on a daily basis, you’ll see that it’s overwhelmingly students and those aged 16–24. So, while some social networkers are hooked, most others are only occasional users. And, sales directors please note, given the age and occupation of the regular users, most of them are, to put it bluntly, penniless.

But what of those who do have a few bob to spend? Well, even the individual who is totally absorbed into an online community in one aspect of their lives will look to different channels in most others. For example, the new mother who cannot make a decision without consulting and sharing with Huggies Club will still enjoy the glossy, tactile pleasure of Marie Claire magazine when browsing for clothes, accessories and cosmetics. Like the majority of people, she’ll shift between online and offline and have her purchase decisions informed by a smorgasbord of marketing communications.

How are you going to reach ‘the massive passives’?

I say ‘like the majority of people’, but actually that’s not true. Because of the people who are online there is actually a silent majority who’ve been totally unmoved by the Groundswell. According to the authors of that book, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, they constitute 53 per cent of Europe’s digital community. These people don’t even visit TripAdvisor to look at hotel reviews. Moreover they’re not going to start blogging any time soon. As Faris Yacob explains in his brilliant IPA essay I believe that children are the future: ‘The majority will continue to operate much as they ever have. Having grown up with an essentially passive relationship with media, the shift to becoming an active consumer of ideas is neither likely nor desirable.’

Make no mistake, the ‘massive passives’, as Yacob calls them, represent a huge market. Factor in the tens of millions who aren’t even online yet, and you see how valuable these people could be.

Are your clients going to wait patiently for the ‘groundswell’ to eventually envelop these potential customers? And then are they going to accept a new status quo wherein the customer dictates the flow of marketing communication? What do you think? Clients will be expecting you to go out and persuade their competitors’ customers to defect to them and for their own customers to spend more.

Can you do this by first getting their ‘permission’ with, as Seth Godin suggested, the offer of a free pen or entry to a prize draw? In some cases I’m sure this works well. But, as everyone with a letterbox knows, Reader’s Digest have been doing this for years and such tactics tend to attract people who like prize draws and free pens – and these are not the kind of prospects you might be seeking.

Could it be achieved by getting them involved in a social networking site? Possibly, but bear in mind that even Facebook applications created by well-known brands such as MTV gather fewer than 200 users.

Can it be done by inviting these people to join you on a co-creationist, open-sourced platform? Perhaps. But as I’ve suggested earlier, that will work only with a minority of brand advocates, mavens and prosumers, and they will, by definition, be the hardest people to attract if they are already committed to a competitor’s brand.

Or will you have to interrupt these people, both online and offline, by alerting them to the advantages they are missing … the benefit they could enjoy … the problem you could solve? In short, won’t you still have to do a bit of competitive persuasion?

Getting digital messages heard above the din

I am pretty sure the answer is ‘Yes’. Which is why I have written this book. And why I think that the problem/solution dynamic and relevant abruption in particular will be of interest to offline and online agencies alike. Indeed, online agencies will need to adopt these essential elements of interruption marketing as much if not more than their offline colleagues.

The sheer intensity of competition on the web leaves them no choice. As Mobbie Nazir, head of analytic development at MRM Worldwide, explained in Campaign magazine’s ‘Digital Essays’:

‘The problem is that consumers’ shift towards digital media has been equalled, if not surpassed, by a shift in volume of online advertising. Add to this the now well-documented phenomenon of consumers creating and sharing their own content online and the outcome is a digital landscape that has become even more saturated with brand communications.’

Of course, the task of the online creative has been made more difficult because, as we’ve seen above, they’ve been told they have little if anything to learn from their offline peers. However, the smart ones have realised that in many cases they’ll still require a big interruptive idea.

As Alix Pennycuick of Draftfcb has pointed out in the same ‘Digital Essays’: ‘It’s the same challenge we have always faced: how to capture the public’s imagination in the first place … We need to forget above-the-line and below-the-line, online or offline, and remember that, above everything else, it is the quality and creativity of the content that creates breakthrough experiences today.’

The best agencies know the answer

The best agencies buy into this. In 2008 I served as a D&AD Awards jury foreman and all the award winners in digital and direct shared one thing in common: regardless of the platform, the best work had a great interruptive idea at its heart. It was the same at Campaign magazine’s Big Awards. In fact, it was interesting to see that the best UK digital (and indeed direct) agency on the night was that doyen of interruptive advertisers, BBH.

For the foreseeable future, not only will interruptive ideas continue to win the gongs, but more importantly they’ll remain crucial to both the survival of brands and the generation of sales in an increasingly competitive marketplace. I’m not saying I can win you a D&AD Pencil or a Big Award, but in the following pages you’ll get advice on doing work that persuades your prospect that your client’s brand is more appealing and their product is better than what the competition has to offer.

As I said before, it’s ‘a simple game made complicated by fools’. It is also a game in which everyone plays their part.

So, there’s something here for not just the creatives (in advertising, direct and digital) but also for the account handlers, the planners, the people who work in production and, last but not least, the client. Moreover, what I have to say will be just as useful to the chief executive, who wants to run a profitable, creative-led business, as the junior art director, who one day wants to be a creative leader.

It is best, and I cannot stress this enough, that everyone reads the whole thing. That way you’ll all understand the roles you play and how interdependent you all are. Not only will this rounded view make you better at your job, it will also make the whole creative process more understandable – and enjoyable.

Now I’m aware that talking about making things ‘enjoyable’ might give the wrong impression as we all struggle through the worst economic downturn in 80 years. But, as I explain in the next chapter, doing better work isn’t an indulgence. It’s a driver of profitability for both client and agency alike. And it becomes even more important when things are tough.

Economic downturn? Marvellous

In hard times, clients can’t afford to throw money at a marketing problem and agencies can’t afford to do work that goes unnoticed. Those who never really knew what they were doing get found out – for, as the saying goes, when the tide goes out you know who has been swimming naked.

Alternatively, those who know what they’re doing thrive in adversity. During the recession of 1991–3 we started to build Ogilvy & Mather Direct into the best direct marketing creative shop in the UK. Alongside likeminded agencies, we helped set in motion a creative revolution that eventually transformed the direct marketing industry worldwide (excluding North America). Likewise, we founded HTW during the downturn of 2001–3 and in those years we made a lot of money and were named both Campaign and Marketing magazines’ ‘Agency of the Year’, largely on the strength of our creative output.

Such success is what’s on offer here. So let’s crack on.

What’s coming up

The first chapter is aimed at pretty much everyone who wants to be more creative. It applies not just to those who are doing MPUs, press ads and mailings, but also to those who are seeking inspiration for their documents and strategies.

If Chapter 1 is aimed at the individual, then Chapter 2 is about building an environment in which everybody comes together to generate big ideas. Chapter 3 takes a closer look at big marketing ideas and explains how the best are invariably an exercise in problem/solution. Then, in Chapter 4, you’ll see a detailed explanation of how to have your big marketing idea and how to express it clearly and simply.

In Chapter 5 we look at how relevant abruption can help you produce the most effective creative ideas. After that I reckon you’ll have had enough theory, so in the rest of Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 there are lots of creative examples. In Chapter 5 I’ve chosen mainly low budget, tactical briefs, in order to show that the best work can come from the least promising beginnings. In Chapter 6 you’ll see bigger strategic campaigns, which show you the old and the new ways of simultaneously building a brand and selling things.

Speaking of which, Chapter 7 is all about ‘selling’ and explains the five areas of knowledge you need to master in order to persuade even the most cautious client to buy your big ideas. And finally, in Chapter 8, we round everything off with a look at the most difficult job of all, that of the creative director and why it actually involves doing about five jobs at once.

OK, that’s enough of the drum roll. With your permission, let’s begin.