Why Do Great Creative?

At a recent awards show, we were fortunate to bring home a few more Best This and Best That trophies, but the polite applause was soon replaced with whispers throughout the ballroom: "Our clients don't really want great creative;" "We get good awareness and message recall scores. That's what counts. Why waste your time doing 'cool stuff'?"

Why do great creative -- insight-driven ideas that tell the story in surprisingly new ways? It's an age-old question that haunts writers and art directors who want to bring that spark and excel in their craft. It tortures account folks who want to do the right thing (but