Page 102 - AdNews magazine Mar-Apr-May 2023

now is more because we are going into a period of low growth, which means that the change in the ask we're getting from a lot of clients is more and more switching from demand creation to demand conversion. It's a natural move.
“Then all agencies with a bit of integrity remind clients that the ones that do invest in demand creation, brand, they're going to be the better ones off when the tide turns, which it will.
“That's the change that we're seeing predominantly. There's a lot of talk about the metaverse and there's a lot of talk about AI but I haven't experienced a lot of those types of conversations or requests coming from clients.”
“The same with ideas and creativity. You need to do it often more than once in order for something to really explode and really work hard for the service of that business.
“I am a little bit obsessed with this thing that we do, which is to apply creativity to a business problem. Not often do you really, really see what can happen when you do that but when you do, it's amazing. I've been lucky enough to have been part of a couple of projects in my 25 years to have really seen what creativity can do for a business when you apply it correctly and you make it sweat really hard in the service of that business and we can make it rain. It's the last competitive advantage in business that's legal, so that gets me up in the morning.
“I think that, as with everything in life, that there needs to be a pur- pose to it, because there's choice. I think that there needs to be a why behind every brand and behind every product and service, and then you just got to figure out the right one, the one that fits for the brand, that fits for the product, and then see how many consumers gravitate towards that why, because they share the same beliefs.”
Talent is a big issue.
Fagerström: “Talents today have such a vast plethora of opportunities, and rightly so; they should have that because this is the gold, this is the holy grail.
“Compared to 25 years ago when I started out in this business, this was the place, this was that little piece of the pie where you got to celebrate creativity, where you got to focus on creativity, where you got to really, really leverage creativity as a business tool, and you were expected to do that.
“Now, you can do that in so many different places, not just our little industry. You can go anywhere and everywhere.
“The problem is one of talent, but I also think recruitment of talent is an issue for the industry. There's a lot of really, really talented people out there who don't even consider this industry a career for them, which means that we need to make ourselves visible to them at an early age.
“I'm again generalising, but there are so many problems with the fact that the majority of creative departments around the world are populated by white, mainly male guys. It sets a tone and it's not a good one.”
He says the business of creativity is a bit like an angel investor, or a venture capital firm, investing in 10 different startups because they know that nine are going to fail and then they have one unicorn left.
Richard Parker, executive planning director, Edge: “Shrinking budg- ets (commercial) are driving us to tap into culture to spread ideas organ- ically – rather than exclusively via paid media – visible in the rise of brand collabs, meme culture and product placements, all fuelled by the count- less hours people spend streaming TikTok (creative).
“Creative agencies especially have often been characterised as trapped in an endless internal tug-of-war between ‘art’ and ‘commerce’ – clients and suits pulling endlessly in one direction and creatives in another, with incentives horribly misaligned (awards vs sales; craft vs ROI).
“But this is clearly nonsense. Look outside of the world of advertising and creativity is almost always commercial. Whole books have been written about Walt Disney’s creativity, but the business that bears his name is inherently commercial. Fine artists have always used ateliers, where assistants, students, craftsmen churn out pieces aligned to the master’s creative vision – maximising commercial value (and revenue).
Kanye West (discredited though he is) turned his undoubted creative talent into a multi-million dollar empire that went way beyond music. And on the other hand, the best marketers (and internally at agencies the best suits and plan- ners) are the ones that use creativ- ity to solve business problems – not just through comms, but through creative manipulation of product, price, place AND promotion to drive commercial results.”
Adrian Elton, an independent creative and a former winner of the AdNews magazine Cover of the Year: “As a microscopic independ- ent agency that doesn’t work with the kind of multinationals that are understandably in the firing line for the damage that they inflict upon the planet, it's incredibly easy for me to support not support- ing fossil fuel advertisers.
“That in mind though, I still believe that in the same way that individuals can do things that enhance or diminish the world around them, the same can certainly be said for businesses, and all the more so for massive businesses with vast environmental footprints.
“As has been noted many times before, there is no Planet B - unless of course you're Sullen Husk - all barred up for life on the red planet! So getting serious about sustaina- bility shouldn't be seen as the radi- cal mania of the 'woke'. Those who brandished lumps of coal in Parliament were shown the door by a populace who overwhelmingly voted for leaders who weren’t bur- ying their heads in the sand, or dedicated only to the imperatives of their slimy corporate sponsors.
“With all that in mind, there is certainly a role for advertising businesses to say ‘no’ to promoting products that destroy the fabric of our shared existence. And while it gets murky with the satellite busi- nesses that intersect with that self-evidently ‘bad’ bunch, at least there should be no vacillation when it comes to saying “no” to the worst of the worst. Hopefully the effect of finding fewer and fewer agencies, open to doing their bid- ding, will increasingly push them into a corner where they’re forced to do more than just greenwash the elephant in the room.
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