Articles That Are Music To Creative Ears

Articles That Are Music To Creative Ears Articles That Are Music To Creative Ears Taking a leaf out of the popular and funny porn for women and porn for new moms books (dont worry, none of them are x-rated), the following articles tell creative people exactly what they want to hear, need to hear, and never hear enough. From the basics of writing a creative brief that art directors and copywriters can actually use, to talking about morale and creating solid ads, these articles are like catnip to them. Mediocrity and Vanilla are Enemies of Advertising Vanilla is a flavor everyone, or 99% of ice cream eaters, like. Its rarely loved or talked about with passion, but its a safe bet. If youre serving ice cream, go with vanilla over something like Rocky Road or Cherry Garcia. But how many people will taste vanilla ice cream and blog about it? Or rant about it to their friends? Or insist that they get the recipe for it?  Vanilla is mediocre, as flavors go. It is safe. Really safe. And safe advertising suffers the same flaws. If you play it safe, youre playing to lose.   The Power of Failure and the Success It Can Bring FAIL and HARDER.  Two words that, when placed together, create an idea much bigger than themselves. These two words are emblazoned on a wall at Wieden Kennedys main office - an image made entirely of thumbtacks; over 100,000 of them to be more accurate. Of course, it would have been easier to create those words with the thumbtacks, and leave the space around them blank.  Thats not the WK way. Instead, the negative space is filled with the thumbtacks, leaving the words FAIL HARDER, in a beautifully scripted font, to shine through. It took 351 hours to complete. In essence, they chose the hard way to get the message across. This is in the DNA of one of the most successful, and most creative, advertising agencies in the world. And it underlines one of the most important lessons in advertising…   One Quick Easy Way To Do Better Work There is no shortcut to talent and creativity. While you can always get better, and learn more, you need to have the raw ability to become a success in advertising. However, there are tried and trusted methods you can use to do better work. Some of these that many creatives rely are listed in this article. Read more.   Great Advertising Needs Great Clients The advertising industry has produced some truly remarkable campaigns over the years. From the epic 1984 Superbowl spot for Apple (agency: TBWAChiatDay) to the ridiculously good Subservient Chicken for Burger King (agency: Crispin, Porter Bogusky), and hundreds in between, great ads produce a reaction from the consumer that drives the brand forward and makes a huge impact. Some say that these ideas are few and far between, and that advertising is 90% mediocrity and 10% brilliance. But those of us in the industry, on the creative side at least, know that brilliant ideas are born every day. Sadly, having a great idea is really only half of the battle. Getting the client to buy it, thats a different story.   Giving Credit Where Its Due In most careers, advertising included, people like to receive credit for the hard work that they do. However, unlike acting performances, top doctors or genius accountants, its often difficult to nail down the source of the inspiration in an advertising agency.   Why Creatives Should Always Present Their Own Work In advertising, marketing and design agencies, different roles exist to facilitate the production of good, creative work. There are people trained in account management, others who are trained in production, and theres a whole department filled with creative minds. These are the copywriters, art directors and designers who produce the creative work that makes the agency what it is. However, all too often, these creative are not there to present their own work. This happens for several reasons, outlined below. It is strange to think anyone could stand there and say keep the creator of this work out of the meeting room, we dont need to know his or her rationale but it happens. Find out why.