Hasta La Creative!

Scamp posted about Jon Williams, a digital creative taking the helm as ECD at Grey/London. He chose an unusual title for the post: It’s No Longer Safe In The Water.

The post has generated some interesting commentary, pitting old school TV addicts against the new school. Here’s how it starts…

At 12:18 PM, rjhayter said…

‘Above-the-line-creative’ sounds like such a quaint, old-fashioned thing to say, these days. According to the story in Campaign, Mr Williams has looked after lots of different kinds of creative departments. Sounds like he could be the archetypal ‘modern’ creative director.

Just like you, eh Scamp 😉

And Brummy Trev wouldn’t have hired him if his work was shit – he’s no mug.

Ernie Schenck, executive vice president and creative director at Hill Holliday, explores the tendency in creative people to occupy their minds with thoughts about how much better things are “over the hill and through the trees.”

We are terrible longers, we ad people. No matter where we are, we long to be somewhere else. Goodby. Wieden. Chiat. If only I weren’t stuck in this sorry ass agency in Davenport, we think; if only I could squeeze my eyes shut and a wormhole would pass over me at that very moment and when I opened them, I would be awash in the glorious radiance of Crispin; if only I could be anywhere but here in Davenport, in Tacoma, in Providence, in Oklahoma City, life would be good, life would be perfect. The creative grass is never so green as it is anywhere but where we happen to be.

Truer words have rarely been written.

For me, I don’t see one of the name brand shops as “the answer” like I once did. For me personally, it’s about working for with people I like on projects I find worthwhile.

[via Communication Arts]

“This is a business that is changing like crazy, but Sullivan’s advice is timeless.” –Mike Hughes, President, Creative Director, The Martin Agency

This updated third edition of Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan presents a real-world look inside the big agencies and examines the industry’s best and worst work – from the hilarious to the horrid. New chapters cover online, guerilla, and direct marketing as well as new case studies and tons of cool new examples of great work.

It’s available in stores first week of February or so, and “it’s a much better book than it used to be,” according to Sullivan. I remember the first edition being a good read, but I’ll take his word for it.

Amazon is accepting pre-orders now.

Hat tip to High Jive

Maurice Lévy gets more press than any ad man on the planet. And it’s mostly favorable.

Fast Company’s Linda Tischler did manage to offer this criticism:

Maurice Lévy confesses over cappuccino at a New York hotel, the only reason he got into the ad business was to chase skirt.

Although, in his native France, that insight into the man’s character would hardly pass as criticism.

Thankfully, Tischler dug for more substantive material for her piece and she found it. She looks closely at Lévy’s “two Davids,” Droga and Kenny. The two men represent the great challenge before the industry, balancing the power of creative with the lure of reliable data (that clients are increasingly hungry for).

The undercurrent of panic at big agencies is palpable, as is the hunger for fresh approaches. How Publicis is attacking this reality is a case study for the industry — and a saga of unexpected self-discovery. The rising stars across Madison Avenue are the folks who can best target consumers, deliver tailored messages, and analyze performance. The joyless granularity that once made direct marketing, digital’s forebear, the lowest caste in advertising, has come out on top. And suddenly left-brainers like Digitas CEO David Kenny can crow, “We’re all gearheads here!” without worrying that he’ll be barred from the cool-kids’ table in Cannes.

For Lévy, the holy grail is to make Droga a little more like Kenny — and vice versa. Lévy’s grand vision is an interlocking system in which data are at the service of creativity, and creativity is responsive to the data. Despite all the focus on click rates, numbers alone, he knows, won’t fuel performance without the sizzle that gets target customers excited. “We can’t have a line that is pure digital,” he says. “We have to be digital with humanism.” In short, he needs a fully functioning cortex with synapses firing efficiently and cheerfully across the divide. The complementary brains of his two Davids, Kenny and Droga, lie at the heart of this strategy. Now he just has to prove that it all works.

Personally, I don’t see Droga’s “QVC meets MTV” contribution, also known as Honeyshed, as a creative answer for the digital age. But I guess the data will determine that.