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This isn’t advertising… yet

Shane Bradnick, TBWA\New Zealand Group Chief Creative Officer, explores ideas outside of adland that offer inspiration on how to take the industry forward and ways of working from other sectors that marketers and ad folk can learn from. 


“Nike Settles Suit Over ‘Satan Shoes’ That Had Human Blood”

“1,000 Warhol artworks are on sale for just $250 each. But only one is real”

“A Laptop Infected With the World’s Most Dangerous Computer Viruses Is Up for Auction. The Bid Is Now More Than $1.2 Million”

There’s an art collective behind these headlines – appropriately called MSCHF. 

With each of their ‘drops’, they generate enough media attention to make any advertising agency envious.

Maybe it’s because MSCHF bridges the worlds of art and commercial creativity. 

They use the unadulterated power of ideas to create impact on culture. 

Instead of working for brands, they are using ideas to build their own brand.

All the value created from MSCHF’s ideas (money and fame) is attributed directly to the creators.

Now MSCHF have earned so much money and fame through their ideas, that brands are coming to them.

To launch his latest album, The Weeknd teamed up with MSCHF to drop a vinyl so sharp, it came with a safety warning.

In this way of working, MSCHF doesn’t need to compromise its vision as it picks and chooses collaborators.

Most agencies borrow influencers to help make their idea go ‘viral’. 

MSCHF is not an advertising agency. But they are a model for a creative agency that is the influencer.

Isn’t that the true currency of creativity – influence?

Canned water brand Liquid Death is showing us how the MSCHF approach could work to sell products. 

With a series of outrageous drops of their own, including water tattoos, collabs with evil superheroes and skateboards with Tony Hawk’s blood – Liquid Death now boasts more than 1 million followers. 

Aviation Gin, the brand owned and marketed by Ryan Reynolds is another example of creators using ideas to enrich themselves. By selling Aviation Gin to Diageo, Ryan Reynolds has enriched himself to the tune of 610 million US Dollars.

What if an agency used ideas solely to build their own brands? 

Advertising agencies aren’t capturing the full value of their creativity – yet. But they can. 

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Shane Bradnick is Chief Creative Officer at TBWA\NZ.

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