Page 35 - AdNews Magazine May-June 2022

Investigation
“The last two years has shown that we can trust people and we can trust creatives. A lot of cotton wool was wrapped around creatives and they weren't treated like the mature professional, business people.
“The pandemic showed that, left to their own devices, people will not only do the right thing, but the great thing.”
Adrian Mills: “As an MD, I used to think: ‘Oh, these people who want away from home. They're the cunning ones.’
“But when everybody is out there, and in the same situation, they rise above expectations. There's a real maturity and pride in the output when it's firstly under duress, and then it's, secondly, under faith.”
Independent creative Adrian Elton: “As ‘story whisperers’ we adver- tising folk have this sweet little suite of artistic and creative skills that we routinely draw upon to express our pantheon of ideas.
“So we make beautiful things. Provocative things. Hilarious things. And occasionally tasteless or puerile things.
“And while we often make things for our own amusement or pleasure, in a bid to put schnitzel on the table and mead in the flagon, we also trade these skills with the commercial world in a bid to help them tell stories about the things that they make.
“The intersection between the commercial and creative worlds goes far beyond advertising though as there are so many deeply creative people across the swathe of various industries.
“From architects, to industrial designers, to cinematographers, to audio production specialists, etc... The honours roll call is nearly endless. And while there are certainly vast numbers of zombie box-tickers, pen-pushers and timesheet-fillers, business at the highest level is funda- mentally creative.”
Already working from a home studio space, the changes for Elton were far less amplified than they would have been for those working, as he describes it, in juggernaut global agencies which suddenly had to ‘pivot’ like a possum negotiating an arcing electricity line.
“For me it was really the swivel to Zoom meetings, the greatest feature
Helping you help them. Google.
being that I could finally share a screen, and therefore a presenta- tion, without fretting that a client might skip forward through a PDF that previously needed to be sent through first,” he says.
“First world problems. While I would usually prioritise the oppor- tunity to 'press the flesh' and eye- ball my clients for real, I liked the way that Zoom ironically removed the masks and humanised us all.
“Indeed, how many times did shut doors get opened as toddlers toddled into shot and jumped upon pyjama’d knees to see all of the ruddy faces populating those Brady Bunch grids?
“And while I know it wasn’t the case for everyone, I was incredibly fortunate to have remained incred- ibly busy right across the pandemic with an inspiring slate of projects.”
Sharyn Smith, founder and CEO, Social Soup, and director, The Influence Group: “I think creativity is more important than ever in the post pandemic world, as people are looking for something more real and authentic, and creativity is the best way to deliver this to audiences.
“There have been significant
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