It seems to me that if you were a truly creative agency, unless you deal with the head of any major organisation determined to change things, you may never get to break any rules. Or, unless that person demands their people really challenge the status quo and gets involved in facilitating and enabling some challenging work, it just will not happen.
Without this hands on leadership, large organizations will get communication that consistently delivers solid results. Nothing more.
Ironically, as a marketer to really step change the business (rather than safely in corporate world grow the few percentage a year) you need to do something that is different to others. But the system of large corporate world encourages and rewards being more incremental than revolutionary, different or dramatic (unless there is a crisis!)
It does seems that the really big break through work in large organisations came when the very senior leaders were the client or actively made it happen.
Two examples
From the past: The Margaret Thatcher "labours not working" which not only took her to power but make the Saatchi's into a powerhouse.
From the modern:
The slightly bizarre but very effective in terms of sales Cadbury "Gorilla" that was designed to create an ad people spoke about.
Both broke the mould and the norms. Both were dramatic, unexpected and spoken about. Like them or hate them, they were seen, remembered and spoken about.
Unless the most senior decision maker leads either directly or facilitates, it is always going to be safest for people in the chain o follow existing rules and norms in large organisations. Although communication should be developed for the consumer, there is always going to be a big element of “what will the boss think of this/ how will I sell this to my boss”. If you are the boss you nly sell to yourself in the end.
The key being, as one of my idols David Ogilvy made, is that when you really understand the rules of what works and then consciously break them this often works better. This is because you know why you are breaking them. You need a lot of experience and the ability and confidence to fail to do that. When you are the boss you can. When you are in the ladder hoping for the bonus and the next promotion, you need to deliver what your boss likes. Usually the boss likes no surprises, reliable and incremental. This is the stuff that bonuses and promotions are made of.
1 comment:
I absolutely agree and have often wondered how these kind of campaigns are possible and what work/people situation in a big company environment is required to enable such rule breaking ad developments. It often seems that in FMCG (and especially skincare) "traditional" ads are still the only way to go. It's always...hey there's something new, and that's the product and that's what it does and this is how it looks when it removes your blackheads/gets rid of your wrinkles/cleanses your skin/gives you radiance...oh and here's a shot of the whole range so that you know that there's also a toner/moisturiser/foam wash of the same line... Examples that other creative CAN be made is for me Clearasil's "may cause confidence" and Dove's "real beauty" campaign even though the latter quickly lost its appeal after being stretched to the max...
Just some thoughts on a topic I always found myself thinking about, too.
Post a Comment