There’s Real Tinsel Under That Tinsel

Perhaps I’ve lived in Los Angeles so long that the Hollywood mindset has rubbed off on me. Maybe I’ve been too influenced by the creative process revitalization installed at Disney by Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Roy Disney. Whatever the stimuli, I would like to share an alternate perspective on approaching the creative process that can enable all of us to raise the bar on great work and have other industry creatives admire our promotional output.

Our industry is in its infancy compared with the movie industry. But we can learn a lot from Tinseltown on how to produce a blockbuster creative product. Show biz has displayed a resilient knack for reinventing itself and rejecting complacency.

Unfortunately, our industry has never been cohesive enough, or is maybe still too young, to propel creative figureheads like Lee Clow, Tim Burton, Jeff Goodby, or George Lucas into the limelight. These individuals have drawn attention to their craft by capturing the imagination of the public, press, and client. We must not allow ourselves to recycle, repackage, or reshape the same concepts. As a group, and as individuals, we must elevate our creative product and continually raise the bar. For those who do push the envelope, notoriety will propel them to stardom. For the rest, mediocrity will prevail.

Great creative can be tapped only if people are willing to look beyond the obvious and venture beyond their agency’s internal structure. Use the agency’s core creative competency as a base, but use outside resources to realize the true creative vision and capabilities of an idea. There are numerous venues for creative ideas that could become invaluable if you just take the time to look for them.

For example, just imagine if Disney had produced the movie Toy Story using traditional animation. Animation is a Disney core competency. But instead of relying on its own capabilities, Disney teamed up with Pixar Studios and created a movie using cutting-edge, computer-generated animation technology. Both Disney and Pixar benefited by sharing their strengths. Promotion agencies and creative vendors can easily do the same.

Technology today is creating great results at cost-effective prices. For a 30-second commercial we produced recently, we used 2D-over-3D animation for only a fraction more of the cost of standard animation, which can appear flat and unexciting in today’s environment. Cost-effective technology is available if you just look outside your agency walls to find it.

Look closely at the promotions your agency has developed over the last few years. You will most likely find the work will have a sense of similarity. When agency work starts to look and feel the same, open your eyes and immerse yourself in the creative world outside your own office.

A walk on the creative side Where do ideas come from? The world is filled with creative stimuli. You can study other “hot” agency work, visit Broadway shows, walk through Times Square or down the Las Vegas strip, view overseas commercials and promotions, visit technology shows, watch people in subways and airports, study animated movies and great films like Gone With the Wind and Life is Beautiful, visit special effects houses, read The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, study merchandising at retail stores like The Gap and Hugo Boss, attend a fashion show, read junk mail, surf the Internet.

Reinventing creative should not be limited to client work. It’s just as important to present the unexpected at a new business pitch. An agency lives or dies in the few hours it takes to make a presentation.

Develop a presentation that will stimulate and intrigue the prospective client. Show them that your creative product is vastly different from the norm. Last year, we hired a male model to pose as Rodin’s The Thinker. He held that famous pose in the corner of the boardroom throughout the presentation. You can imagine how the audience kept peering over to the model, intrigued. At the end of the pitch, the model rose from his still position to proclaim, “These are the best ideas I’ve heard this century!” The client was so excited with the unexpected that we won the business.

As we approach the millennium, I hope the promotion community will strive to continually evolve. We have an opportunity to produce great work that could leave even the Hollywood establishment saying “Wow!”