The Squid & The Whale at Creative LIAisons

The squid is advertising kid Jackson Harper. His pregnant creative partner Shannon Crowe, the whale. Both are in Las Vegas representing Clemenger BBDO Melbourne at Creative LIAisons 2015.

The sun beats down on Las Vegas. It’s not wobbly-horizon-hot, but it is hot enough for the squid and the whale to appreciate the sweet oasis of air-conditioned conference rooms.

We’re two days down, ten Creative Conversations deep, and starting to see a common theme emerge. Drive. What drives the work? And what drives us, the workers?

Is it awards? Well, sure. We are at the London International Awards, after all. But the big difference lies in whether we’re making ads for awards’ sake, or making ads so effective at solving problems the awards inevitably follow.

“Scam is masturbation”, Ted Royer tells us. “It feels good, but really – what’s the point?”

The work needs to be relevant, clever and innovative. And to achieve this, we need to value our time outside the office just as much, if not more, than we do our jobs.

According to John Mescall, “Downtime leads to amazing uptime.” It’s what feeds our creativity, informs our insights, encourages our curiosity and reminds us that ideas need to be steeped in humanity – especially when working with technology. It’s what drives us to come to work and make ads that make the news.

Two days down, two to go, with a lot of downtime in between. But that’s not always a good thing when you’re a squid in Vegas…