Creative Director Is More Than Just A Title

A student recently asked; 'what's it like to be a Creative Director?" While watching this it dawned on me; with looming deadlines hanging over you, this is seriously what it is like to be a Creative Director -fighting for a proper brief, getting that idea, fighting for it, selling it, fighting for it, delivering it. Once done. Repeat.

But what other factors contribute to the stress? Why tight timelimes? Sometimes it is a quick turn around, its the nature of the business, but some stressful timings and working conditions are self-inflicted by many agency folk. We all know the industry is transforming, with start-ups, consultants and agencies reinventing their offerings.It's now not unusual for pure digital agencies to be the 'lead agency' and to do TV spots and across the way, good old PR agencies creating digital experiences with all of them saying that they can create 'micro-moment' rich content in a day. No wonder there's confusion within the departments and even more confusing for our clients. One such client who has become a good friend over the years spoke to me recently with eyes rolling about another offering from her agency of record. She said something quite interesting in the next breath by saying; 'I nod and I always refer to the Creative Director, if you take away all the jargon it will always come back to the idea'. 'No idea no offering' and key factor is can that agency deliever that idea within the agreed timeframe? Is it going to make a difference within my sector in either brand equity or a strong KPI that has been agreed? All basic stuff nut gets missed time and time again. So why the rolling surf bearing down the neck of the Creative Director from the student who asked the original question? I thought about his question long and hard and it's quite simple really, most companies 'faff' and what I mean by that statement is we have too many people talking and not actually doing what they are been paid to do. I remember many moons ago, AMV London had a website that showcased all their work as a simple sketch on a post-it note. You got the purity and genius of the ideas, where all the other agencies at the time where into Flash sites as it looked 'cool' yes a bastard to load but hey; 'they'll love it' was the shout from the new business directors. Experienced CD's have a knack to cut-through quickly, most are as sharp as a razor in thinking and clarity, and there lies the problem, while all departments have been faffing beforehand many turn their attention in cretaing ideas as it deflects what they should be doing but when it comes to the crunch most come up short,so before you try to catch a wave focus on what you get paid to do then maybe the whole process could be less of a kick bollock scramble and the surf deadlines bearing down your/our neck wouldn't be common practise. Just maybe we could service our clients better, just a thought. Have great creative productive week, surfs up!

Know your true value - especially in business

1998: YAHOO refused to acquire Google for 1M 2002: YAHOO realized its mistake and offered 3B Google requested 5B YAHOO refused. 2008: Microsoft offered 50B to acquire YAHOO YAHOO rejected the offer 2016: YAHOO has been acquired for 5B Current value of Google is around 545B Still amazes me even in business how some top executives under cook or over cook the value of their company, usually with take overs threes plenty of tyre kicking at the start to sound each other out, but I do know of one company who offered 3.1 billion for a competitor, the audit was done over a weekend! That's crazy. Once they looked under the hood did they find it's true value. Back to my point; don't make it personal but look at the figures and weigh up the potential, and make sure the people doing the sums is the right person, if an individual then ask for unbiased feedback or advice from colleagues or people you trust when it comes to business. I remember the old saying nothing personal this is business, I feel Yahoo execs took it personally.

Good morning beautiful people, Don't worry about the rain - people either run from getting wet or there's people who feel the rain - anyway this was very interesting; interesting in that yet again online meets offline - neat simple idea - that harnessing something that is as old as Keith Richards - the pin badge - what is also interesting my 16 yr old daughter sent me the link from Kickstarter - times are changing - this generation will be the next marketing directors, CEO's CCO etc. They don't see digital and an offline experience - they just see an experience - enjoy your day and think positive creative thoughts https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pinscollective/pins-collective

Best Conversion Rate by colour

I have worked at various digital campaigns from finance to fashion brands and have always looked at how best to optimize the performance of the campaign. One thing I have learned is that you never stop learning and tweaking. Take this infographic from Quicksprount around the use of colour, amazing how one change of the CTA (Call To Action) button from say green to red can make all the difference in the success of a campaign. I did a similar test for a campaign for one of the big banks in Australia 2 years ago - I was told time and time again that a green CTA gets higher click throughs - I asked where's the prove? No one had real concrete stats, just an assumption- as in; 'green is the colour for go!! an action colour some would say' Well, I said let's put it to the test, the outcome; red won hands down. It was one of the most successful campaigns the bank had ever ran. Now I know what some marketing directors are thinking, 'I'll apply the colour red to all my CTA's' well, that would be a mistake, and here's why; trends change, people's behaviour change on what gets an interaction. So next time you run a campaign, look at reference like this infographic but always test and learn along the way. Some more info here