Wanting to have more fun this year, DDB chief creative officer Damon Stapleton takes a look at why creativity is more important than money.
Browsing: creativity
Ever wondered what you can do with your creative writing degree? Wonder no more.
Nike’s slogan ‘Just Do It’ was inspired by the final words of a murderer. And DDB chief creative officer Damon Stapleton reckons this says a lot about creativity.
This week, PHD worldwide strategy and planning director Mark Holden spoke about impending conflation of tech and humanity. He argues that we are already well along this path but says things will become really interesting over the next two decades. What follows is a short excerpt from Merge, a book co-written by Holden and number of other contributors across the PHD network.
Illustrator and art director Kelly Thompson couldn’t create her works of art without using tech. For her, it’s all about striking that elusive balance between the old and the new.
Having an idea is not the same as making an idea. And Damon Stapleton argues that the process of doing the latter isn’t as easy as it looks.
Hunch founder Michael Goldthorpe peers into the boiling cauldron to find out what goes into making creative magic.
Neville Doyle observes that some of the best examples of creativity emerge under the most restricted conditions.
With the advent of automated buying, there’s a growing consensus that marketing communications need to be short and snappy. But after walking in on four young creatives huddled around a laptop, DDB chief creative officer Damon Stapleton learnt that longer form storytelling is far from dead.
When former Saatchi & Saatchi boss and ICG executive director Mike Hutcheson decided to do a master’s thesis on New Zealand creativity, he didn’t want to produce an unreadable 60,000-word treatise. Instead he used interviews with four senior New Zealand business leaders – former Saatchi colleague Kevin Roberts, Les Mills International chief executive Phillip Mills, Hobbiton director and ex-Tourism NZ head George Hickton, and Innovation Council chief executive Louise Webster – to put together a 30-minute video examining the paradox that New Zealanders come up with great ideas and largely fail to commercialise them. But the attitude that creates the problem may also be part of its solution, he says.
Newly appointed chair of the Marketing Association Lance Walker recently spoke at the Marketing Association Network of Executive Marketers events in both Auckland and Wellington, and shared his views on the evolving role of marketers in the modern industry. In a thought piece shared with StopPress he talks about why the current trend of marketers placing emphasis on numbers isn’t necessarily conducive to creative and effective marketing.
Damon Stapleton reckons just 15 percent of the 100 or so Super Bowl ads could be classified as any good. And, given the pressure on agencies and clients to produce great work, that’s not such a good hit rate. But he believes the idea that being weird is a far greater sin than being average is one of the major reasons.
Yesterday, at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the Committee for Auckland announced some of the key findings that have been compiled in its latest report called ‘Auckland as a Creative City’. The principle theme delivered during the breakfast event was that “Auckland needs an over-arching strategy to unlock the potential of its creative sectors and grow the economy to make the city more globally competitive.”
Damon Stapleton notes that unhappiness levels in the industry seem higher than usual, and he thinks this might have something to do with the lack of courage among agencies these days. So where did that courage go, and how can it be brought back?
There’s so much talk about innovation today and at Spikes Asia held in Singapore last week, innovation and technology were overwhelming seminar themes, says FCB’s James Mok. But what is the relationship between innovation and creativity? And is innovation always creative? What should come first?
Although no Kiwi agencies picked up a Grand Clio at the 55th edition of the prestigious American Awards show, the list of nine winners in the various categories provide a concise summary of another fantastic year of creativity from across the world. Of all the agencies to pick up one of the big gongs, only Harvey Nichols’ ‘Sorry I Spent’ and British Airways’ ‘The Magic of Flying’ won across more than one category. And There were also several winners that carried their Cannes success across the Atlantic, with Chipotle’s ‘The Scarecrow’ and Volvo’s ‘Live Test Series’ collecting the major gong at the Clios.
As Damon Stapleton wrote recently, the idea is the gift, the award is the wrapping paper. His employer, DDB Group, shares this philosophy and, in a rather earnest video that showcases some of the best ads ever made, it gives ‘the idea catchers’ a pat on the back and attempts to prove Bernbach’s quote about creativity being the most powerful force in business correct.
The traditional PR model may be eroding, but PR agencies and corporate comms teams still serve an important business function, says Kelly Bennett.
There will be no Lions awarded to Kiwi agencies in the Innovation category at this year’s Cannes Festival of Creativity, as it was revealed that all three entrants from New Zealand failed to make the shortlist.
Stock imagery is sometimes criticised for presenting little more than over-used clichés, which offer little in the way of original brand representation. So, in an effort to illustrate that this criticism doesn’t apply to its offering, Getty Images has just released a new video montage that showcases the broad range of imagery across its catalogues.
The ad industry often seems like a young man’s game. But there’s no substitute for experience, as renowned copywriter Paul Burke wrote recently. And, if you’re wondering when you’ll come up with that brilliant product innovation, that revolutionary campaign idea or perhaps that long-awaited solution to the world’s energy needs, turns out you might have to wait a while.
This new year we’ve again gathered together a family of campaigns that represent something of a high water mark of achievement in our industry. To be judged Gold at Cannes and then Gold at the Effies is evidence of an advertising idea that is beyond reproach, both in terms of the commercial or behavioural impact it creates for its client and the way it moves our industry forward through sheer imagination and innovation. And in 2013, 12 campaigns achieved this remarkable distinction.
The Cannes Lions has become the world’s pre-eminent advertising awards ceremony. And its chairman Terry Savage was in Auckland this week where he presented at Colenso BBDO as part of its Love This Speaker series and announced the return of the Young Lions in association with Val Morgan. Here’s what he had to say about purpose, creativity, data and competition.
As Voice Brand Agency recently learned, publishing a magazine is hard graft, even with the resources of a creative agency behind it. Creative director Jonathan Sagar explains why whacking stuff on Facebook won’t cut it anymore and why chasing perfection is futile.
Michael Goldthorpe went along to TVNZ’s new season launch at the Viaduct Events Centre. And he got inspired about the potential for New Zealand to become a branded content powerhouse.
As chair of the Axis awards committee, Colenso BBDO’s managing director Nick Garrett oversaw a few changes to this year’s festivities that aimed to make the event more collegial, more credible and more celebratory. So how did that work out for him? Have the changes helped change the perception of the awards among the wider business community? And what about those Driving Dogs?
Urban strategist Charles Landry on what makes a city creative, how to inspire curiosity and why strategic agility is key.
As a guest contributor for The Gunn Report, Y&R NZ’s managing director James Hurman looked for the campaigns that had hit the ‘high water mark of human achievement in creative communications’ by winning both Cannes and Effie golds. And just nine campaigns joined this exclusive club in 2012.