Creative Advertising

Advertising began long before Mad Men’s time and will continue long after Burnett closes its doors. 

The field of advertising has dramatically changed in the digital age. Newspaper and magazine viewership is down. Television is forever changed by streaming services. The internet dramatically changed how we communicate and receive messages. Although the field of advertising is morphing with every passing second, at its core, it will always be the same. To persuade its intended target to buy certain products. 

How do advertisers do this, or rather, do this successfully? It all begins with an insight. When creative teams are given a brief, they turn it over until they have the coveted “aha” moment. They get an insight, either into the target, into the product or just a clever way of cutting the campaign. The insight feeds into the direction the campaign goes in. Successful campaigns are the ones that do the unexpected, that delight the viewers, and it goes without saying, inspire purchase.

A key element in this process is divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the hallmark of creatives and a number one damn requirement in the advertiser’s job description. If you can’t think of a new way to sell toothpaste besides “It’ll clean your teeth,” you’re in the wrong business. 

This hasn't changed in our digital world. Today, there are so many channels to get your message across. Many brands use social media sites like digital print publications and just copy and paste what could have sat in a magazine. The truly creative people see channels differently and use them to surprise the viewers of their message. For example, anyone can put a stagnant ad onto snapchat but it takes a divergent mind to think, how can I use this differently? A group tasked with promoting 6Flags used snapchat to play a game with viewers. They had a “ghost” appear in some of their stories and those that caught it first (screenshotted it) could win free passes. 

Almost as important as being a divergent thinker is being a collaborator in advertising. Agencies are organized into teams that work on a particular client and is comprised of creatives and account people. An account executive acts as the liaison between the creatives at the agency and the client. The creatives are broken down into pairs; one copywriter and one art director. The art director handles the look and feel of the campaign while the copywriter writes the lines of copy that go along with it. Both are tasked with coming up with the original idea and extensions of a campaign. 

Until the 60’s, art directors and copywriters were separated. All of the copywriters sat together on a floor and all of the art directors on another. They would work on their lines or layout apart but then come together to stitch the two together. This was the norm until Willam Bernbach of DDB made teams of two, art and copy, to sit together and work on ideas. This forever changed how advertising agencies were structured. Instead of working in a vacuum, the creatives could bounce ideas off each other and collaborate from the first tagline to the last print. 

Bernbach’s advertising revolution is still felt by ad students today. As a senior in the Advertising Creative major, I take Portfolio I and Portfolio II. In these classes our professor divides us into team of two and we work on a brief until its completed. Then we switch. A new art director with a new copywriter and we work again. That isn’t to say working with our partners is always a creative utopia. My classmates and I deal with plenty of frustration. Most often it arises because of the interest, or lack thereof, of our partners. Some people in the class are realizing that they don’t actually like being a copywriter or an art director or even general advertising. For those partnered up with someone like that, it can be unbelievably trusting because, in order for these partnerships to work out, both parties have to be enthusiastic and present. It is as important now as it was then for the teams to physically work side by side and roll ideas off each other. If your partner isn’t engaged and you have to take on the idea making and grunt work alone, your campaign isn’t going to be as strong and you’re going to have a terrible time.

I have also found that the best teams compliment each other. Just yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine from the class, a copywriter, and he said, “I’m really good at the ideas part. I have great ideas and sometimes cant follow them through all the way but I work really well if I have a partner who can”. I immediately thought back to the duos of Kahnemen and Tversky and Eno and Lanois. Both teams had an idea person and a follow through person. All the work wasn’t left to one but there was someone good as conceptualizing and another that could expand upon it. Those two duos also enjoyed each other which I find is also crucial in advertising. The best partner is one you can laugh with and one you’re comfortable with. If theres a weird imbalance between the two, it wont be easy to have a true collaborative spirit and the two will be more inclined to come up with ideas on their own and try to mash them together later.

Advertising is exhausting, cut throat but so damn fun.