Carolyn Hansen

on April 6, 2009

category: integrated marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Don't fail in new media.

If you’re getting started in new and emerging media, I’m going to recommend checking out Brian Gilbert’s new audio conference on April 22, sponsored by The Competitive Advantage.

Brian is our VP of Integrated Marketing, as well as a contributing writer for The Competitive Advantage. Of course, you can also get insight into his expertise by reading his contributions on this blog.

I hope you’ll attend!

 

Comments:

5/5/2009 at 10:50 a.m.
Update: webinar canceled
Brian's webinar had to be canceled. Stay tuned. We hope it will be offered in the future.
>>Carolyn, Seattle WA

Thomas Lamprecht

on April 1, 2009

category: creative

Vice President/Executive Creative Director

If you want creatives to do great work, do you let them play?

In a recent wave of concept generation for several of our clients some interesting patterns occurred. One large, important client required a range of many concepts and the work was given a reasonable but not excessive timeline and resources. Another client, of lesser size, required similar scope of effort but the schedule was impossible and work was rushed through with all-nighters, weekends and down to the wire, almost missed the FedEx, anxieties. Yet another ideation run, for a third client, was allotted quite generous schedule allowing for play, slow-cooking and several rounds of refinement.

How much time do creatives really need to come up with the best work? Is it the more blue-sky time the better? Is it a strictly defined optimal number of hours, perfectly planned and distributed over realistically scheduled days? Or is it small time window, crazy insane, due yesterday pressure? In cases above, the results were mixed and not necessarily intuitive. The first effort went terribly at the beginning and as time shortened and pressure mounted, the quality increased. The second, surprisingly, produced more work but at the end of the day the quality seemed to have drowned in volume. The work didn’t seem focussed enough and although the work was recognised as solid it did not bowl anyone over. The third effort produced great quality and range of ideas that blew our client away.

Do pressure and tension add to the quality of creative? Does having all the blue-skying time you need inspire the best creative ideas? Do realistic but tight schedules? Is there a method to this?

What do you think?
 

Comments:

5/1/2009 at 6:25 p.m.
hmmmmmm.
What is great quality creative? There really should be only ONE answer. Good creative is innovative, always changing, always evolving. But at the same time still be timeless. Good quality creative is creative that makes the agency and the client proud. Proud to have put their blood, sweat and tears into. It breaks through the advertising clutter and gets noticed. That's good creative. A month, a week, a day, an hour it doesn’t always matter, it's not how you get to the good creative, it the end result of the journey.
>>N. Fidel, San Francisco CA4/25/2009 at 2:25 p.m.
Answering your question with a question
What is great, quality creative? Ahhhh. We have as many answers for this as we have clients. As for my own creativity, both tension and pressure always help to drive a bolt of lightening. For better or for worse!
>>Jill Kaufman, Seattle  WA