Simon Veksner: There is no Year 2
May 20 2013, 9:12 am | | 13 Comments
By Simon Veksner, head of ideas, Naked Communications Australia
On being presented with a piece of work, clients, suits and planners are inordinately fond of asking us to “demonstrate that it’s a big idea.”
For this we have to prepare multiple executions, in multiple media… and above all, “show us how it would work in year 2, year 3 and year 5.” But in reality, Year 2 never comes.
13 Comments
Couldn’t agree more. But does anyone actually say that to a client? Do they f*ck.
Without ever having met you Simon, I instinctively identified with all of your previous columns and felt I had in you a highly intelligent, unusually articulate kindred spirit. However you’ve now lost me. A campaign is everything because it builds the way a consumer feels about a brand. Advertising is about far more than a quick laugh or a brilliantly expressed insight. Sure, I did my share of brilliant one-offs and have the awards to show for them. Some of those one-offs developed into campaigns, one in particular ran in over 20 countries and for over 20 years until quite recently. Sure it’s far harder to devise a campaign and I totally agree that years 2, 3 4 and beyond usually never happen, and often for the reasons you’ve outlined, just to mention a few. But that should never be your mindset when you start out. How does your boss Adam feel about your stance on campaigns? Hmmm, I’m sure that would be interesting. Love, Old CD guy.
Dear Old CD Guy, thank you for your kind words about my columns. I am an admirer of your comments also. Perhaps we should get a room?
And I am pleased that you have at last found one you disagree with, because if everyone agreed with everything I said it would mean the columns were too bland!
Though I must point out that I am not arguing we should never present campaign ideas. Au contraire. We should. And must. But we should also be aware that sometimes a visual style, a tone of voice, or a ‘mission’ are more effective (and more modern) unifiers than a tagline. Like Nike and Apple.
By the way, Adam’s not my boss! Though I will admit he is pretty good at getting people to do what he wants them to do…
Not sure about getting a room. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer women. But I’d be delighted to share a coffee.
Hours and hours of creativity are wasted on something that never happens. You get briefed on a 5 year platform, you bend your balls sideways to provide it, then even if you manage to get the idea through, something inevitably changes.
If it’s not the brief, it’s the Marketing Director (then the agency), the logo, the media strategy or the market. Then everyone feels they need to change everything.
Please just brief us to come up with a cool idea and if it sticks, roll with it. Just like Old CD Guy’s 20 year campaign. If not, do something else next time. The only way to truly know if you’ve got a great, long-lasting idea is to trust your agency and run it.
Old CD guy get a room while you are still young enough for new experiences.
In my experience the idea that gets through is always the best one. If you present a bunch together they are regarded as a menu rather than a sequence. When the time comes for a second version everybody is bored with the number 2 one, and a new one is sought. Unfortunately it is usually crap and the campaign dies. I know there are some notable exceptions but they are swamped by the failures.
Simon’s argument turns on the definition of campaign. Is not a series of one offs with the same product, logo and tone a campaign?
Groucho, when you and I worked together at McCanns in the 13th century, every client presentation was a smorgasbord. Remember? “Oh, you don’t like that one Mr Client, what about this then? Or this? Or this?” Etc etc etc through at least five options. And sometimes if the client liked a little bit of each idea, the spot that got produced was a hybrid of all 5 ideas. We called it – as you might recall – a “McCann Muesli”! Oh, those were the days (sigh).
@ old CD guy it was though easier when you were creative, us suits had to work on our knees with those clients.
Oh, and no, Groucho my dear old friend, a series of one offs with the same product, logo and tone is NOT a campaign. That’s Art Direction. A campaign has an attitude which shapes the consumer’s perception of the brand thereby adding value. Surely I don’t need to tell you this stuff. You’re still hawking your wares while I have long since retired. A Lexus is just a Toyota with more sophisticated marketing values. Coke is just a brown cola drink but it represents something far more important and valuable in the eyes of those who consume it – and even those who don’t. That’s why it’s a multi trillion dollar brand. Please forgive me if I sound a bit pompous about this (and I know I do).
I personally cajoled, persuaded, begged and eventually swore a promise to the client that my idea, the one which became a 20 year classic would be successful for the brand. The client management threw every type of research at it to try to kill it, but all that did was guarantee it would be produced because it just kept getting record scores for comprehension of message and, yes, likeability. Oh, if only we creatives got paid for our ideas. I got a morning’s pay for that one. About $300. Simon, coffee?
I wish I worked in advertising when you did.
There was none of this 5 year malarkey, TV led campaigns (not point of sale), there were bigger budgets and longer deadlines, media wasn’t all mixed up, we weren’t competing with the Internet and clients had chutzpah.
Some would say it’s more sophisticated now. I believe it’s overcomplicated. I’m afraid I agree with Simon on this one. It’s being made harder than it needs to be.
@Old CD guy. Are you talking about Toyota?
No Paul Stanley, I wasn’t referring to Toyota, I was thinking back a decade earlier to just about every account at the agency I referred to in a previous post. But now that you mention it, fast-forward to the 4 or so years I worked on Toyota at Saatchis; the multiple approach creative presentation occurred more often than not.