Page 27 - AdNews Magazine May-June 2022

The pandemic changed the way commercial creativity works. Suddenly, everyone was working remotely, dialling in via Teams or Zoom, and doing several things at the same time. More machine than creative craft.
That process had in the past involved a lot of non verbal com- munication. Meetings via computer chips didn’t.
And if you thought the pandemic was a smack down for crea- tivity, the resulting hybrid working has its own set of unique issues for creative teams.
Scott Huebscher, executive creative director, VCCP: “For me, the pandemic started off as a blow to my personal creativity because like all of us -- it meant staying home and not getting out in the world.
Not being exposed to fresh stimuli, not meeting with friends, not walk- ing through the city, not being able to go and sit at a restaurant -- and a big one for me personally, not
being able to escape all of these things and driving to the snowy mountains for fresh air and backcountry fly fishing.
“After the novelty of Zoom calls went away, the pandemic was initially brutal for my creative process. As a writer, the only thing worse than staring at a blank page is not being able to walk away from that blank page. And that's what the pandemic did. It forced me to look for other things to take my mind off the blank page. It made me look to new things for creative inputs -- as well as creative outputs.
“In a way, the pandemic just accelerated what was already well underway in the world. In a digital ecosystem and a digital mar- keting mindset, the scales are fast tipping away from the classic long-term brand-building disciplines to a colder, more measurable, short-term orientation.
“And there’s ever-increasing pressure on creativity to deliver more immediate commercial outcomes (traffic, lead generation, sales, sign-ups, etc). So, what has changed, or is changing, is that the central challenge for creatives is to build brands – and by this, I mean driving relevance, distinction, emotional connections, meaningfulness - in this context.
“Brand-building can no longer be seen as separate from these activities. Big, bold, emotive creative ideas need to start at the middle and bottom end of the funnel. And this is challenging.”
Mike Spirkovski, now former chief creative officer, Saatchi & Saatchi: “You have to get out there and talk to people and look through their eyes, get their reaction.”
WORDS BY
CHRIS PASH
www.adnews.com.au | May - June 2022 27
Creativity whisperers
The pandemic felt like a brutal blow to commercial creativity, separating physical teams who liked to bounce off each other and turning them into some sort of clinical electronic abstraction. But what really happened?
VCCP and Cadbury.