MAD-Blog interviewed TBWA’s world creadive director John Hunt. Here’s a brief portion of that interview, which focused on looking at things differently. Not sure what that means, but pasted below are a few interestingish points.
1. Imagine if the brief was the first expression of Media Arts? Our briefs need to be more visual. They don’t always have to include lots of ticks in boxes. And they certainly don’t have to be done in the agency. Briefs, certainly on big campaigns, should be inspirational. For example, we recently did a briefing for a pasta client in an Italian restaurant, it’s amazing what Italian opera and arabiata can achieve.
Advertisement2. Invite the client to the briefing as well as the presentation.
It sounds a little radical, but it really works. If it’s the client’s briefing, strangely enough, it also becomes their campaign. This way, you don’t meet each other for the first time at the presentation. Adopt this policy and I bet your first-time sell rate will double.
3. Think more about how you package your ideas.
So many great ideas don’t see the light of day because we package them badly. Unfortunately, both in awards shows and presentations to clients, your work is only as good as the way it’s packaged. In South Africa, they did a radio spot for Jungle Oats, a breakfast cereal that’s meant to make kids strong. They wanted it to sound like an old Zulu work song. That’s quite difficult to sell — but not if you ask 100 children from Soweto’s Room 13 to sing it for you.
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