Page 37 - AdNews Magazine Jul-Aug 2020

Feature
Crafting
Agility. It’s one of adland’s favourite buzzwords, yet how much it was practiced across the industry prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is probably not as much as it was preached.
If anything, 2020 has been the year that put agile working to the test as the pandemic’s unprecedented and ever-evolving nature left many campaign messages quickly irrelevant and plans for big, lavish shoots overseas thrown out the window with travel bans imposed.
for the new
That was the experience for independent Sydney-based crea- tive agency Emotive and a number of its clients. With the cancel- lation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the agency
lost a number of campaigns.
Despite the losses, Emotive group creative
director Ben Clare says the agency was able to
use its size and independence to its advantage. “Being small and nimble is actually a huge benefit in times of disruption,” he says. “It means that we can react pretty quickly.” And quickly they did. At the time the lockdowns started to take place, the agency had a campaign for audiobook platform Audible out in market that touted the benefits of being able to
listen to books on the go.
“Pretty much everywhere where you weren’t supposed to be
with the new restrictions in place,” he says.
“We needed to adapt the messaging because all of a sudden we’ve
got an ad out in market that just simply didn’t make sense. Lucky for us, we often create longer form edits designed for social.
“There was enough footage there, we could quite easily cut together a more appropriate edit for Audible.”
normal
Disruption often breeds some
of the best creativity but never before have brands, agencies
and production houses found themselves in such extraordinary times requiring them to think innovatively at a rapid fire speed.
WORDS BY
PAIGE MURPHY
www.adnews.com.au | July-August2020 37