What I say when someone asks,
“What’s your creative philosophy?”
“Never ask an ad guy about philosophy.” — Nietzsche
If we define “creative philosophy” as a systematic understanding and collection of beliefs around the nature of creativity, then it stands to reason that virtually every creative person, and certainly every ad agency, ought to have some form of codified creative philosophy written out somewhere, right? Just as any freshman philosopher can muster an answer to the question, “what is being?” every creative person should be able to answer the question, “what is creative?” Right?
Yeah. No. The truth is actually just the opposite. Most creative people have no honest, conveyable, measurable or own-able philosophy around creative. It’s more of an I-know-it-when-I-see-it kind of thing.
Clients and prospective clients ask a lot of questions. Most of which, we are prepared to answer: “How do you bill for your work? How many people do you have on staff? What’s your process?” (Get ready for a lot of bubble charts.)
Yet, when someone asks, “what’s your creative philosophy?” the answers are often surprisingly unsatisfying. Or they’re just so much well-crafted hooey. Here are some examples:
Poorly Formed Creative Philosophy No. 1: “We work very hard to understand your audience.”
This is actually a brilliant account planning or business philosophy disguised as a creative philosophy. Of course you need to know what makes the audience tick (or buy, or change behavior). Any agency who doesn’t kill themselves to go out and learn this stuff is guilty of malpractice (which is to say, a lot of them). The implication is that by knowing your audience, only then can you be truly creative. But that’s exactly not true. If you get inside your audience’s head and then write a flat-footed, account-service-driven headline, you’ve still failed creatively. Just the same, points for effort.
Poorly Formed Creative Philosophy No. 2: “To be creative, we do our homework to know the clients’ business inside and out.”
This is very similar to Poorly Formed Creative Philosophy No 1. And it fails for a similar reason. Every good agency digs in and gets smart about their client’s business. They just do. So claiming this as a differentiating factor in one’s creative product is like claiming wetness as a major benefit of bottled water. Plus, doing one’s homework has more of an impact of the quality of the creative brief than it does the creative product. One still needs to be creative for the knowledge learned to actually benefit the work in a real way.
Poorly Formed Creative Philosophy No. 3: “Creativity, to us, is not about creation, it’s about making new connections.”
Ah, very good Grasshopper. We are getting closer to a true philosophy. But this is actually a truism cleverly disguised as a philosophy. Creativity doesn’t just spring out of nowhere. It flows from some existing source of inspiration. One of the greatest ads ever made, Apple’s 1984 was inspired by Orwell’s book, 1984. Warhol’s art was inspired by Marilyn Monroe and soup cans. The Beatles were inspired by Little Richard and Chuck Berry. By connecting the brand with a known concept in unexpected ways, creativity is born. But that’s less a philosophy than it is an astute understanding of the mechanics of creativity.
Poorly Formed Creative Philosophy No. 4: “Our creativity is the x factor that allows our clients to have a bigger share of voice and strength in the marketplace over larger competitors.”
I’ve heard several agencies claim this as their philosophy. And it has the added benefit of being true in many situations. But like the previous failed philosophy, it’s not really philosophy, it’s more of an observation. It falls down when you realize that, in some industries, a manufacturer can give their retailers an extra point on the cost of their product and do far better in the marketplace than a competitor who advertises intelligently but sells at a different margin. So there.
Poorly Formed Creative Philosophy No. 5: “Creative is about good story-telling.”
I have an undeniable urge to slap every ECD who says this. While a good narrative is worth its weight in gold, it’s not the be-all and end-all of creative endeavors. There are lots of other ways to sell things creatively without telling a story. How about driving a major selling idea home in an unexpected and powerful way? No story needed there. How about having an interesting and unexpected technique? Not a story. How about zigging and not telling a story when everyone else is out there zagging by spinning a well-crafted narrative? You get my point. Stories are great. But not everything has to have a story. Enough with the story thing already. Don’t make me come over there.
Poorly Formed Creative Philosophy No. 6: “It’s not creative unless it delivers on KPIs.”
Describing what something is by telling your audience what it isn’t is downright foxy. And this is the foxiest of all creative philosophies because it basically sets up a straw man: the “creative” idea that doesn’t work. And then knocks it down, taking every so-called creative agency with it. Well done. Kind of. Unfortunately, this is a seriously fallacious idea because it ignores the fact that for KPIs to be realized, so many other things need to be in place. Media, strategy, message, budget, product performance. Not just creative. Another reason this philosophy fails is that it perversely gives an agency license to be un-creative, even boring, as long as it’s making its metrics. What kind of creative philosophy is that? (I’ll answer that rhetorical question: A crappy one.)
So what’s my creative philosophy?
You’re not going to like it.
Compared to the above philosophies, it’s going to sound trivial and a little simplistic. Which is to say, free from the bafflingly brilliant BS that comes out of the mouths of so many agency people. As intended.
You can sum up my answer to the question, “What is creative?” in three words: Making Andrew uncomfortable.
By, Andrew, I am referring to my friend and colleague, SVP of Strategy at Mintz + Hoke, Andrew Wood. Andrew is one of the smartest people I have ever had the opportunity and privilege to work with. Together we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of billable hours (and perhaps millions worth of non-billable ones) discussing research, messaging, strategy, concepts, positioning, rugby, branding, value propositions and the like. And I have found that one thing takes Andrew out of his comfort zone: a really powerful, new, creative idea.
Bad ideas don’t make him uncomfortable because he’s smart enough to know why they are awful and how to argue against them (and he secretly likes doing so). Strategically good ideas don’t make him uncomfortable because, well, he knows a good strategy when he sees one. He expects them. That’s what we do, after all.
But when Andrew is met with an idea that’s on strategy that he can’t argue against, but it’s making him uneasy in some way, well, then I know we are onto something. That idea is usually unexpected and different enough to make him feel like he’s staring into the abyss of newness. Uncharted territory. (Here there be dragons?) Which is a very hard thing to do given the number of years he (and I) have been doing this stuff.
Does it always happen? No. But it’s what I shoot for. Philosophically speaking.
It doesn’t always have to be Andrew who’s uncomfortable, either. Great creative can make your creative partner uncomfortable. The account folks. Even clients. For many intelligent, experienced people, creative ideas they’ve never seen before are unsettling. They have no basis on which to judge. The novelty and audacity is hard to take. (One reason why has been previously explored here.)
So, yeah. That’s my philosophy: What is creative? Making Andrew (or someone) uncomfortable. I told you you wouldn’t like it. At least it’s honest, conveyable, measurable and own-able.
What’s your creative philosophy?
Grant Sanders is the Creative Director at Mintz + Hoke advertising in Avon, CT and when he’s not in the office, philosophizing, he’s at the beach on Nantucket with his kindergarten-teacher wife and scar-faced black dog named Seven. Find him on LinkedIn.
