Recently, a really good advertising college asked me to do a series of lectures.
Eight videos, each on a different part of the process of what we do.
Taking each area apart and explaining the logic step-by-step, building gradually into an overall knowledge of how to do good advertising.
I said it was a good idea but I wouldn’t do it.
The college asked why.
I said I knew about creating good advertising, but that wasn’t what was wanted in ad agencies today.
Consequently it would be useless in helping students get a job.
Worse, it would confuse them.
They’d follow my logic: understanding, and analysing the market to work out who would buy the product.
They’d listen to what I’d said about researching how it was made: the R&D guys, the factory, the sales people.
They’d work out the media that was most likely to deliver against the target market.
Then they’d write ads that were designed to be impactful and memorable to those people.
Questioning at every stage how to keep it logical and creative.
They’d build up a portfolio of work like that and they’d never get a job, because that isn’t what’s wanted in ad agencies.
What’s wanted is whacky executions that look like they might win an award.
Something that the journalists in the advertising trade-press can write about.
Whatever you do, don’t let a product difference ruin the ad.
And never do anything as corny as trying to get the brand name remembered.
In that situation, anything I could teach students is irrelevant at best.
Nowadays a ‘creative’ doesn’t have time to think, thinking just gets in the way.
The planners have done all the ‘thinking’ so it’s cast-in-stone and must be obeyed.
It might seem dull, formulaic, and boring, but it’s Gospel.
Just do a punny headline and stylish visual, you’ve got until lunchtime when the client’s in.
So students need a portfolio full of crazy and wild digital solutions to get a job.
Oh yes, digital it must only be digital.
No press or posters or TV, no dinosaur media.
That’s what Mark Read meant when he said the average age at WPP was under 30: “No one remembers the eighties, luckily”.
Because they’re not looking for ideas that could work in any media.
They’re looking for digital techniques, digital stylists, production line workers.
Not people who are going to start thinking creatively and maybe have an idea that wasn’t written on the brief.
Digital stylists: who know the answer before they even see the brief: the answer is digital, now just do a visual and headline.
That’s the version of creativity that’s required nowadays.
And I can’t teach that.
All I can teach is creativity which starts with questioning.
Question the brief, question the media, question the R&D guys, question the salesforce, question the consumers.
And when you’ve done all that, make the answer different to what everyone else is doing.
Most briefs start and stop at “Who’s buying it now?”
But really creative questions will take you to “Who COULD be buying it?”
That’s exciting, that’s fun, that works and it sells stuff.
I can teach that, but that isn’t what’s wanted.
So a portfolio of ideas like that won’t help them get a job.
If only clients could wake up and smell the coffee.
THIS might be your best post ever.
I agree George!
Make this the first video?
“So students need a portfolio full of crazy and wild digital solutions to get a job”. I’d quibble that these don’t even need to be solutions nowadays. Just crazy and wild digital things that can garner press coverage.
The legacy of the damn bean-counter lives on.
People who call themselves admen despite having zero real advertising experience. Like me saying I’m an ios expert just because I’ve been buying iPhones, iPods and Macbooks.
Im sort of missing woke. It must be woke. Genderwoke, racewoke and anti everything right.
Dave: I always remember what they said: You can take the man out of the eighties, but you can’t take the eighties out of the man. great work!
Dave, I am thrilled that you wrote this post. My last job had me writing inane social media posts. And account people had become the creative directors. So, after 42 years as a copywriter and creative director I quit the ad biz. It was sad to leave a business that I loved, so I decided to make it a take this job and shove it moment. How did such a great business die such a tragic death? It’s hard to walk away from something that brought such joy to my life while paying me well but I couldn’t take another moment of the idiocy I faced every day.
Def one from Trott’s finest range. Contains grown up thinking that some in today’s agencies may find disturbing.
Like Cal above, I remember when designers would be trusted to deliver truly creative solutions and were left alone to do their job. Nowadays all you’re doing is executing someone else’s (I’m looking at you, account people) ill-conceived solution. Sad to see.
Who needs designers or art directors when there’s plenty of brand guidelines floating about a creative department.
Dave. As one of the current generation you refer to in this post, your books and blogs have provided advice and guidance that I have failed to find from anyone else, and for that I am grateful. But I must admit I find your posts (and the accompanying comments) on the state of modern advertising hard to read.
Our world is changing faster than ever. The way we work, communicate and entertain ourselves is unrecognisable from the past. If the advertising world does not change with it then it will become redundant. The methods remain the same – your logic you outline above of understanding, and analysing the market to work out who would buy the product has not changed, but the way we do this and the outputs we create certainly have.
And I would argue that accountability and attribution have never been higher. The old adage of “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half” no longer rings true. Every action we take online is tracked and recorded. In the modern advertising world we can attribute individual sales to a single advert or piece of content, even individual lines of copy. This exposes ineffective advertising – there is no room to hide.
The point I’d like to get across is, for those who feel ‘advertising is longer what it used to be’ – you’re right, it’s not. There will still be good work and bad work but the problem is not the fact that advertising has changed, the problem would be if it hadn’t.
Hi Mark,
You sound like you know exactly what’s required to make great advertising today.
Give me your contact details and I’ll put you in touch with the advertising college that asked me to do a series of videos.
I’m sure they’d be interested in you doing a course to help their students get jobs.
dave
That reply is going straight onto my CV as a character reference from Dave Trott! That’s how you get a job in advertising, right?
I don’t imagine I know 5% of what you know about advertising Dave, but I still have an opinion on the issue.
When I look back at advertising from the 80s there are some timeless classics, but in a lot of cases I struggle to see how it worked. It doesn’t resonate with me, but that doesn’t make it bad work, because times change. One of the things I’ve learnt from you Dave is to be open-minded, ask questions, don’t jump to conclusions.
Reading through this comments section, I feel that advice was missed by a few in rose-tinted glasses who are commenting on work that they’re just not the target audience for.
“Our world is changing faster than ever. The way we work, communicate and entertain ourselves is unrecognisable from the past. If the advertising world does not change with it then it will become redundant.”
Amazing.
Who would find working in Mark’s agency fulfilling and who would prefer to work for Dave?
I can’t say I agree with you here Dave.
We’ve never met, but you’re books and blog posts have kept me grounded at every step – accelerating my career immensely over the past decade or so.
I’m in my mid 30’s now and as a GCD I help brands sell through social – most notably turning YouTube in to the biggest driver of sales for one of the world’s largest toy makers for the past 3 years running.
Predatory thinking, getting up-stream of the problem, creativity as means of finding a legal competitive advantage, energy over talent – these lessons have never been more relevant in an age where data is so readily available and easy to pick through.
I will say that it is getting harder and harder every year to find really talented young creatives – probably due to the alternative options social media offers young creative minds. That said, for fresh faces wanting to join the industry, I couldn’t think of anything better than an education in the fundamentals from someone as wise as yourself.
It’s interesting to see people try to argue with this. I’d like to know why they think agencies are losing their appeal to clients. Why consultancy practices have made so many inroads so easily…why in-house agencies exist and are currently on the rise.
Agencies have managed to push their own value down. They’ve precipitated their own end. If you think this is dramatic, you’re not seeing what’s under your own nose.
I wouldn’t disagree with that Johnnie. The majority of agencies are becoming less relevant with every passing day.
I imagine there are a whole host of reasons why that’s the case. One being a lack of new talent, one being that agencies have been slow to adapt to the advantages that new technologies bring and (to your point Dave), opt to just see technology as the answer – instead of just another tool to apply creative or strategic thinking. We could probably go on for hours about the matter.
What I’m saying is that someone with an education in critical thinking is going to fare infinitely better in almost any situation than someone without.
In fact, the more volatile the job market and industry gets, the more relevant the aforementioned skill sets become.
I’ve certainly found that to be the case.
Totally agree with Dave’s excellent post recently. In the 80a I worked in London Advertising agency ABM the creative department was made up of hungry eager creatives looking to get ideas developed, they were crafted, Art Directed, Typography was discussed, kerning looked at on headlines: all the skills that creatives now take for granted when getting employment.
Because they can use photoshop or something similar that gives a client what they want to see they then think that’s a great idea.
Ideas come from the brain of a creative and not the hard drive of a computer.
Yes digital is important and knowing software is important for a designer in current industry but never a substitute for natural creativity.
Since I worked in London in the 80s the industry has changed, everything quicker, faster and with no regard to getting the best ideas or crafting the solution.
Neil Duffy
January 2021