The creative department is dead
By Eran Thomson (left), creative director and in-house writer/director at TCO and founder of Laugh-Masters Academy
The convention that copywriters and art directors are the sole source, and owners, of ideas is a myth. Everyone is a “creative,” or can be, with the right mindset and training.
As technology advances and timelines tighten, its increasingly important that your ideation process produces real results, quickly, effectively and without prejudice. If you’re still operating in the old-school mainstream model, relying on two-person art director/copywriter teams to deliver the gold, then you’re already in trouble. The good news is its not too late to get everyone in your business thinking, communicating and collaborating as a creative team – and one of the best tools to facilitate that change is improvisational training.
We all know great ideas can come from anyone (and ideally, everyone), but those ideas will only be recognised and implemented if all staff are trained to do so. Is your agency set up to unleash great ideas, no matter who has them? Or do ego and creative “ownership” get in the way? Do you have the tools in your arsenal to build on, and improve ideas, rather than simply critique? What happens when your creative teams run out of steam? When the pitch is tomorrow, but a winning idea seems days away? Or a client wants an ad that isn’t an “ad?”
Improv training will give your whole agency new ways of thinking and working together so you’re always equipped to deal with situations like those above. You’ll acquire skills that make the ideation process faster, smarter, more collaborative, and way more fun. And it will give you real world tools you can put into practice today, to start seeing results tomorrow, not just in your creative department, but agency-wide.
Some of the results you can expect to see include:
INCREASED SPEED
More than ever before, speed in this game is key. We’re not just selling ads anymore, we’re solving all sorts of problems, all sorts of different ways, and to do this well, you need all hands on deck thinking and operating at maximum efficiency. Improv will make it easier to develop lots of ideas in less time.
INCREASED CONFIDENCE
Irrational fears of ridicule or being “wrong” and self editing mean sometimes the best ideas never get shared. This can lead to creative blockages and stagnation. But to paraphrase Thomas Edison, every “wrong” idea gets you closer to the right one. Improv will help you think on your feet, respond authentically, and confidently without censoring. And as trust develops amongst your team, they will take more creative risks, and try new things knowing that any good idea will get the support and development it needs to become truly great.
INCREASED AGILITY
To get new clients on board and keep old clients excited about doing new things at unexpected times, everyone on your team better have the skills to respond creatively on the spot. In today’s competitive marketplace you need to be able to change tack at a moments notice and solve traditional problems in non-traditional ways. Improv will give you the communication skills and agility to stay present and stay creative in every step of your business, not just when the brief is approved.
INCREASED SILLINESS
Improv is seriously good for business, and its also a lot of fun. We all got in this game because its way more creative than being an accountant or dentist (I hope). But the reality is its getting harder and harder to find the time for fun. Sure the Friday pub lunch may offer some relief, but once you’ve had improv training you’ll have the skills to explore the all silly stuff that leads to the golden nuggets, rather than going with the first safe, sellable idea. And you can do it anytime, every time. Even your next all-nighter.
To survive in the modern marketplace you need real creative power, resources, and ideas, not just from the cool kids who roll in after 9am, but from everyone in your agency. By leveraging the power of Improv you can get your whole team to work as a creative team, and soon your entire agency will become a new and improved “creative department.”
Yes, there will always be a role for great art directors and copywriters, but the creative department as we’ve known it is a dying breed. Because when it comes to developing ideas, solving problems, and getting noticed in the new always on, social media dominated world we live in, two creative dudes in tight jeans, cool trainers and debatable facial hair won’t always be enough – no matter how many awards they’ve won.
Follow Eran Thomson: @eranthomson / @laughmastersoz
38 Comments
lol
What about when your reader wants an article that isn’t an ad?
Contentious. But who will do all the 25x4s?
Stop making things dead!
Cool story bro.
When’s the next workshop?
PS – I have facial hair.
Sounds like HHCL from the 90’s
If this article had have been published 15 years ago I may have thought maybe, but then I went no, where I was then and any mainstream agency since has always shared thoughts, ideas, inspiration across all departments.
That’s how ad agencies work.
A good idea can not be taught or trained to occur or be taught to another to know its a genius idea.
A creative mind is not trained to be creative whether you are a creative, a suit or the studio dude. You just know – your gut tells you.
You either have it or you don’t.
By that logic everyone is a CEO, CFO, VP Sales, Lead Programmer, Database consultant and IT Manager. Try to push THAT concept in the C-Suite next time. Everyone in an agency has a vested interest in the success of that agency. But everyone also has talents, qualifications, responsibilities and capabilities in different arenas, that’s what makes a successful team. Not “your job is irrelevant now because everyone is a creative.”
I took an improv course whilst on holiday in Los Angeles for fun and I can tell you that they are less about being funny and more about being authentic, thinking differently and removing your own agenda from the communication process. I’m defo a better “creative” for having had that experience and I think its rad.
Since “everyone” became a creative I’ve noticed the work, worldwide, doesn’t seem as creative anymore.
Two words.
Kit Kat Break Rescue.
@Lost PR Release Couldn’t agree less! Everyone is creative, in one form or another. Fear of embarrassment or getting something wrong can totally make people back out of sharing ideas – some of which could be amazing.
Without the opportunities to share in a positive, playful atmosphere, where divides aren’t imposed upon the agency, some people just never feel it’s their place to have input and the agency is missing out.
As much as many points made in the article make sense to some extent, most of what is said has applied in our industry for quite some time.
But in my experience all this goes out the window when the heat is on and an idea needs to be cracked. Then the accountability of being responsible for the end result means those who “do” make it happen. Pressure to perform does this, and seasoned creative people have to live with this reality and respond accordingly.
Well, I agree that everybody should be involve in generating ideas but the creative dpt is still the only one that really have the time and training to do so. From where I worked in Australia, in big or small agencies, I haven’t seen a concept coming from outside the creative dpt yet. Sure, a receptionist, a GAD or a producer might pass on an idea once in a while and I always listen but it’s rarely conclusive. ( or perhaps creatives are too protective…)
In Australia ( I’m from france ) the problem is not about being more creative, in fact I find OZ agencies really creative and individuals really talented. No the problem is the marketers and middle management in that have the power to say NO but not the power to say YES.
Australia have amazing brands but except NAB few years ago, it seems that no real creatives concepts that can make a difference ( isn’t what’s is all about?? ) can go through the middle management at our clients. Therefore our best concepts and awards come from small opportunities and proactive work as bigger brands seems to be unable to recognise an idea that’s good for their business objectives.
We should be more creative, faster, more agile, confident for sure and have more people involved earlier but with no client to agree on it at the other end, the result will remain the same. It make me sad to see Big brands not communicating at their best potential to stay in the mediocre zone. So much potential down under…
Ok, I’ll bite.
This notion of ‘great ideas can come from anywhere’ is not new. Big and small agencies have been spouting forth this bollocks for as long as I can remember. I’ve worked in Big Multi nationals and small creative hot shops which preached this to clients until the poo was dribbling down their chin.
I’ve worked in an agency where 2 planners worked on a brief and presented a tv campaign complete with scamps drawn by one of their mothers. I’ve sat through countless agency ‘brainstorms’ where everyone from the janitor to the agency coke dealer sat around pretending to be creative and trying to come up with ideas. And the result was always the same: Derivative, boring, uninspiring and cliched ideas that went nowhere. Then the suit would email that afternoon asking if we had cracked the brief as the brainstorm has produced nada.
In my career there has been ONE occasion where a great idea didn’t come from the creative department. That’s a pretty low success rate for a model that you claim is the future. The fact is that creatives, are trained and experienced problem solvers and they are the ones you want working on the brief when the meeting is in 2 days and the rest of the ‘creatives’ have come up with squat. The traditional art director/copywriter roles are blurred, but that’s because the ideas that we are coming up with are more likely to involve building a robot arm than crafting a print ad, so the team has evolved to include creative technologists.
“Everyone is a “creative,” or can be, with the right mindset and training”
Yep, true. Although it’s worth saying that ‘everyone can be a doctor’ too. All you need to do is spend a few years at university getting a Bachelor’s degree, then a medical degree, then completing a residency, then getting licensed and certified. I hear it’s possible for ‘anyone’ to become an astronaut as well.
‘Traditional’ creative teams are people that have spent their careers developing the appropriate skills and experience to come up with great ideas. They also generally (certainly the good ones) have better instincts than most for what makes a great idea great. And they have a unique ability to craft those ideas through their individual skill sets – something that would baffle most other people.
Yes, there are times when different perspectives add value. Yes, there are times when creative teams get it wrong. Yes, everyone has the ability to be creative. But not everyone can be A creative.
Also, as a creative, i don’t wear tight jeans or cool trainers. And my facial hair is not debatable – it’s definitely there, right on my face.
The Creative Department is certainly dead at TCO. Terrible work produced by unprofessional people.
Keep selling the snake oil guys, you’ve probably got another year or so before even the clients stop listening.
We’re all going to die!!!!!!! Good thing I have funeral insurance.
Well done Eran.
It shows you’ve got stones to say what a lot of us are fearing.
But some of the comments seem to be missing the fact that the industry is built on creative solutions to everyday problems. Yes, we all have the potential to be creative. As children, it’s how we process and describe our world. Our ideas are not now, nor ever have been, the sole property of the agency creative department – so in some sense, Eran is just highlighting the obvious.
What I’m not understanding, is why creative people being resistant to challenge. Surely improv training is just another way to unlock the creative mind. To increase its potential. We’re not accountants, people. Our ability to find new ways to generate and express ideas is an essential part of growth.
Inspiration can come from anywhere, so why not look everywhere for it?
Surely if you encourage CREATIVE THINKING throughout the agency it will up creative energy and passion for creative solutions throughout the agency, stimulate more healthy discussion and better outcomes in meetings, encourage more challenging and lateral strategy and planning, inspire people to create more ‘creative briefs, meaning that when you begin conceptualising work, you have more creative entry point. And, when reviewing it people are in a more creatively receptive mindset. That way we can also all keep our roles and jobs, just go about it a little more creatively.
Here’s my issue with this. Let’s say we give everyone a chance to be creative. Let’s say we ask the Finance guy to spend two hours a day coming up with ideas. The result – he is now spending ten hours a week doing something he’s not very good at instead of something he’s great at. Is that efficient?
The ‘everyone is creative’ thing is both true and also nonsense at the same time.
Creativity is something everyone should bring to their role, yes.
But everyone needs to be accountable for what they do to ensure the creative output is the best it can be.
If a suit is spending time thinking about creative executions then that’s time they are not spending creatively making the environment in which the agencies creative output can be bought by clients.
As a planner, part of my job is to evaluate creative ideas, but objectively, on the basis of whether the public are likely to notice and respond to them.
Anyone can have ideas, for sure.
But they wont necessarily be good ones.
Commercial creativity the business we are in.
It’s a team play but the reason that the best commercial creatives can command top dollar is that it is a specific skill that only a few can do very well.
Completely agree with you Eran. The latest work you and the team at TCO did on Kit Kat proves that anyone can come up with great ideas…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l3e94oC4gs
Just because you can come up with ideas, doesn’t mean their right.
It’s the ‘jack of all trades’ scenario – stick at what you’re good at and excel.
I’m all for collaboration but nothing really ever got created well by committee.
I’d also be more inclined to believe in this guy if TCO where continually blazing the trail bad wow-ing us – but they’re not.
I think the headline had a more inflammatory tone than the article itself.
Long live the creative department!
Thanks for all the amazing comments. It was a headline designed to provoke and clearly it has.
As a skinny jean wearing and facial hair having creative – and someone who continues to make a living working in and leading creative departments – all I can say is, improv, in my opinion, is a fantastic tool that can make all of us better at what we do.
Heck, even the snarky comments on here could improve 🙂
If you’re open to the idea of giving it a try, come to a workshop. Here’s a discount code you can use for 15% off: HATERZ
(Yes, the code really will work.)
This article would have more credibility if accompanied by the great work achieved by this ‘new’ way of working.
All good creatives accept good ideas from anywhere. But creating the ad from it is still their responsibility and area of expertise.
So then do we all get to work in the finance department and have a go at creating financial strategies then all move onto the next department and then the next department like a travelling circus…etc etc…..and then end up looking and sounding like the Kit Kat commercial…give me a …….
Yes, the spark of an idea can happen anytime, anywhere by anyone. But good luck rolling it out across 8 channels with people who aren’t able to strategically understand the nuance of tactical messaging with an eye for craft and opportunity. It’s a lame view that keeps agency potential and value to client layered under the vanity of fairness.
Do you all see what he did there? He took the words idea and creation, melded them together & creatinovated the beautifully elegant new word, ‘ideation’. I wept at the sheer wonder of it. Thanks Eran.
Non-creatives should stop dream of doing a creative’s job and instead focus on doing their own job better/properly. If they must think creatively, let it be for the benefit of their own departments which are, more of than not, the greatest barriers to improved creative output.
I’m a creative and I’d like to think I have enough accolades to consider myself fairly decent. I somewhat agree with this.
Setting a good platform and ‘opening it up’ or being open can make a good idea even better. I’ve done it countless times, but only ever after the idea was very much cracked.
But calling the creative department dead is a massive mistake. You need creatives that are outside traditional thinking, that aren’t just writers or art directors. And you need people who can identify and solve business problems.
Think of the genius who wrote ‘rinse and repeat’ on the back of a shampoo bottle. That’s what today’s creative department needs. Not the goose that came up with slow motion shots of hair flapping around on some twenty-something bird the director wanted to shag.
A discount offer to attend a workshop using the code HATERZ.. good luck with that approach.
It’s great that you are challenging the way we work in our industry as there’s not enough brilliant ideas out there on the big projects. And then, rather than keep it to yourself, you want to share it. That takes a lot of balls.
However, I don’t think you are focusing in the right area. I don’t believe the creative dept is dead. Far from it. That’s like a someone from the fashion industry saying, dress designers are dead … or someone from the architectural industry saying, architects are dead.
I think you are creating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
I really don’t believe the problem is a lack of ideas generation in our industry or how we come about them – that’s never been the problem. The problem is getting them sold and made. Find a solution to that and you’ll be a hero.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ideas are everywhere and everyone can have them, and thank goodness they do. But at the end of the day, it’s not about the ideas. It’s about knowing what to do with the ideas. That’s why agencies get hired.
I suggest you all google Eran’s work before you buy a ticket to a seminar.
1. Before you get on your high horse about great ideas, first have them yourself.
2. See above