Things no highly-awarded Creative Director should say out loud

When you become a Creative Director, people expect you to look and act like one.

Dresses only in black? Check.

Late for meetings? Check.

Last minute brilliance? Check.

Occasionally surly/ disarmingly charming? Check and check.

When you become a highly-awarded Creative Director, you’re allowed a few more eccentricities. Mileage may vary among creative types.

By then, you’re invariably surrounded by all kinds of shiny objects from Cannes, D&AD, One Show and the like.

Amidst all the glitter and glimmer (Glamour is so yesterday), it’s easy to lose sight of why you exist.

You use phrases like ‘Capture the zeitgeist’, ‘Shape social norms’, ‘Start a chain reaction’, ‘Influence culture’, and the crowd loves you for it.

Like Caesar building an amphitheater for wild beast and gladiator fights, you can do no wrong.

But let’s turn that dial back (or forward if you’re still wandering around the Colosseum) to the advent of modern advertising.

A bit of advertising history

The first newspaper ads (circa early 1600s) were written by the publication’s editorial team. Presumably by juniors so that the real writers can get on to the more pertinent work of reporting the news.

In 1840 Philadelphia, Volney Palmer started an agency to sell media space. They bought inches in various newspapers and resold them to advertisers. Ads were produced by clients and passed to the agency who passed the artwork to the newspapers.

In the same city in 1869, 21-year-old Francis Ayer set up N. W. Ayer & Son (named after his father) representing several religious newspapers. Like the Volney Palmer Agency, they also sold media space. They grew quickly and expanded into other publications, mainly by acquiring the Volney Palmer Agency. In 1884, Ayer offered clients a new service: Advertising content creation.

The latter were somewhat relieved to say the least. In 1892, Ayer thought of another money-making scheme idea. They brought together artists and writers and got them to work on ads. These pairings were called Creative Teams.

Law of first mention

In theology, there’s something called The Law of First Mention. Essentially, it means that to understand a particular concept, students must find where it is first introduced in scripture, and study that passage.

Reason being, the first mention is the simplest and clearest presentation. Subsequent mentions are simply reiterations of the same thing.

It’s no different with advertising. Using our US example, we can work out a few things

The first agency was a media buying agency

Creative is a subset of media, the creative department created to sell more media space

Reaching audiences is a little more important than creative ideas

Agencies swallowing smaller competitors is not a 21st century phenomenon

Oops, wrong altar

As Creative Directors, it’s easy to get lost in the Big Idea.

Truth is, the Big Idea isn’t the main thing.

The Big Idea doesn’t make or break a campaign.

The Big Idea isn’t God, it’s a false deity.

And while some may consider this blasphemy, let’s remember that 95% or more of the client’s advertising budget goes to media.

As an aside, if you want to measure the health and sustainability of the advertising industry, look at the health of the media industry. Healthy media companies, healthy advertising agencies.

When media grows, we grow. When media fragments, we adapt accordingly. It’s already happening before our very eyes. Global mass media has been reduced to segment specific micro channels creating all kinds of channel and audience-specialist agencies.

Let’s keep this for another article.

We sell. Or else.

Advertising isn’t about ‘Capturing the zeitgeist’, ‘Shaping social norms’, ‘Starting a chain reaction’, or ‘Influencing culture’.

Saying these things at advertising festivals might win you applause but try selling that to the client’s CEO.

Advertising is about reaching the right audiences to sell more of the client’s products.

David Ogilvy said something similar but I can’t remember what.

End day, selling isn’t something cheap and crude. Selling is fundamentally human.

Author Daniel Pink sums it up best in To sell is human: “The ability to move others to exchange what they have for what we have is central to our survival and happiness. Selling has helped our species evolve, lifted our living standards, enhanced our daily lives.

The capacity to sell isn’t some unnatural adaptation to the merciless world of commerce. From the beginning, selling was always part of our makeup.”

Selling pays the bills. Don’t be afraid to make your ads work harder.

And by all means, make it win creative awards. Yes, it’s hard. That’s why not everybody is a highly-awarded Creative Director.

Impress clients, not your peers

Clients will remember how you pushed sales, not how you pulled the heartstrings of award show judges.

If you plan to move forward in the client’s boardroom, take a step back.

Understand the basics.

That creativity complements media.

Creativity is a mere vehicle to move products and services.

Creativity has never been the top dog in the kennels.

Keep growling. Keep grinding. Keep making smart witty wonderful brilliant things.

If you’re lucky, cultural shift and social change happen as a byproduct. Just be careful not to make it the main objective.

Above all, learn how to sell.

Or learn to how to stay silent during important client meetings.

The world is a noisy place. Don’t let your job title add to the cacophony.

Edward Ong is an award-winning Copywriter/ Creative Director. He works with client’s inhouse creative teams, and helps agency people level up their game. More at IdeasAreBorderless.com and LevelUpProfessionalTraining.com