Thinking and Selling

Andrew left this gem of a statement within the lead-in to Rob Campbell's feedback for the APSotW. Worth pulling out and letting it breathe a bit.

"I sometimes think that the so called, 'cooler' more creative agencies do themselves a disservice by not exposing the utter mania for rigorous, watertight thinking. All the great work you see isn't just a result of a mania for doing great creative work, it's about taking care of the detail. Take the famous Old Spice work. It's probably as creative and provocative as an integrated campaign gets, but don't forget it was done for P&G - one the most notoriously formulaic, risk averse clients there is. You don't get any work through clients like that, especially work like this without proven rigorous thinking."

I've always felt like this is the great untold story of some of the best work out there. Not just the final product, but all the other stuff that allows it to happen. Anyway - never really saw that mentioned with all the praise for the Old Spice campaign. Thought it was interesting. 

Comments

[Rob]

The thing is we want to be judged by output, not input, so if you like the work at the end, it means everyone has done their job well. When planning big talks itself but the work produced is bland or category convention, I always feel it's more an attempt to shift focus from their respomsobilities because in my mind, the great agencies work together rather than have departmental silos.

At least that's what I think.

[Rob]

And for the record:

http://tinyurl.com/287xhuz

[Paul McEnany]

Okay, you win, you mentioned it. :)

But on the bigger point, couldn't agree more. All the silo does is disconnect people from the work, which makes them lose that feeling of ownership, love or perspective for what they're there to do. Like your job isn't to make a killer brief, deck, argument, whatever - but to get to the best work. Seems like it should be obvious, but also seems like it's easy to lose that perspective at many places.

[Gillian Lanyon]

"Nobody wins awards for writing a brief" - ad school teacher, when I told him I planned to switch from copywriting to strategy. Fortunately, this "you won't get any glory!" warning hasn't come to pass.

In my experience, agencies themselves usually understand that awards and great work are the result of fantastic work from every department. The advertising press seems to be the problem. They are missing out on the best and most interesting story.

[Paul McEnany]

Looks like I might have spoken too soon. Of course, today Adweek comes out with an article about this very thing.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/pg-does-dan-wieden-s-bidding-132903