But I still think it’s a Good Idea

Working in teams with the creatives here at Miami Ad School in Hamburg, I have a strong feeling of deja vu – of me as a young copywriter. The one defining lesson I took from my experience in the creative field was how much you can fall in love with what you believe is a great idea. But, truth be told, it is not a good idea – no matter how eloquently you post-rationalize it. The memory of me as a bad copywriter is my constant reminder how important the third person in the middle is to ask, “Does this really work?”.

A quote from a discussion this week: “I know it goes against all the values of the brand, but I want to present it anyway.” So what do you think will happen? That miraculously the client throws over board all his prior considerations and picks your idea? That would not a the brave client, that would be a stupid client.

Now there is proof you can make a client brave and bold, but you need substance and strategy that make sense for the client, not for yourself, not for the idea. I am still amazed how many of the seemingly crazy ideas (Old Spice guy) have obvious and clear strategy behind them (we need to address married middle-aged women because they make the bodywash decisions for their husbands, often choosing lady-scented varieties). Planning gruntwork and great creative helped P&G take a controlled risk, not a leap of faith.

Creatives have it tough. Idea after idea after idea rejected, buried, killed. Every meeting a rendezvous with the guillotine for your most brilliant work to date. I get why they hate it. I’d hate it, too. But all the great clients are usually the toughest clients with meetings that can be summarized (according to folks I met) as “Great! Your best work, ever! – Make it better.” To steal and paraphrase a quote from Winston Churchill: “Great creative is the result of going from one rejected idea to another with no loss of enthusiasm”. Creative is more about letting go many ideas than coming up with one perfect idea.

That said, being aware of the creative’s fragile mind I avoided to kill off the idea of the prior quote: I will let the person present their great idea personally, if they show up on time. Which they never did at any of our meetings. I rest assured we will not be wasting our client’s time in the meeting.

the deer now have guns…

the deer now have gunsDuring the Planning seminar in Retz Oke Müller of TBWA mentioned this quote when discussing how Web 2.0 is changing the marketplace. The image above has been in my head ever since.Of course, the obvious thing of Web 2.0 are cases of corporate bloopers. Company X tries to silence a blogger who dared complaining or pointing out a major error of their product. The Streisand Effect should tentatively be taught in Public Relations 101.On the other hand, my observation is that those beloved brands envied by their competition for their passionate followers are more and more becoming the prey of their users. Especially those companies that have been able to create a passionate user base. Of course I am talking about Apple here. The iPhone is a perfect example: Apple’s users DEMANDED a breakthrough piece of perfection. No less. The pressure on Apple was immense (in fact, so immense that they preferred to push back the development of Leopard). Compare Microsoft’s Zune. Who cares about the quality of that product? Who cares it sucks?Greenpeace’s Green Apple follows the same pattern. Users were informed, they cared about the issue. Anybody seen outrage on other bad performers on the list? Steve Jobs had to act.The more passionate consumers are about a brand the more they will demand.Your best consumer will be your worst enemy. The whip that pushes you forward.