NYC

What better way to kick off the resurgence of the Curious Creative than with a post on the NYC Experience.  I spent a week in NY with 60 other Ad kids and our professors visiting agencies and meeting with industry professionals.  Some of the agencies, like Big Spaceship and Wieden + Kennedy accommodated all 61 of us, while others hosted groups of 15-30.  I had the incredible opportunity to visit McGarry Bowen, Big Spaceship, Mr. Youth, Siegel + Gale, Rokkan, Ogilvy, Wieden + Kennedy, JetBlue and MediaVest.  Each agency offered us different advice and knowledge, so much that this post could become a novel.  So I'll focus on 2 pieces that really inspired me.


"Get people to try and keep talking about it." -David Weinstock, Mr. Youth.
A friend of mine and I have discussed the differences between marketing and advertising.  He believes they're one in the same but I feel differently.  I tried explaining that marketing is almost always devoid of creativity, which is where advertising fills in the gaps.  Advertising also deals with goals separate from business and marketing goals.  Obviously, the goal of every campaign is to increase sales.  That's where marketing and advertising are the same.  But David Weinstock, a creative at Mr. Youth, gave me a different perspective on the goals of advertising.  A huge part of our job as advertisers is to "get people to try and keep talking about it."  Trying comes first.  Advertising raises awareness of brands and products so that communities can try something new.  The hard part is getting these new consumers and communities to remain engaged and talking with brands.  I feel that this is the area where advertising really holds value.  We all know that word of mouth is the most effective and persuasive form of advertising, so it makes sense that brands want communities to continue talking about their content after the message is over.  In order to meet this goal it's important the strategy and creative are in line with one another.  Good strategy with bad creative content is useless, and vice versa.  Good strategy gets the right people engaged and talking about your brand and a clever creative plan speaks to those right people in the right way.  But I think good strategy and good creative both start with the same goal, that being to get communities to keep talking.

"Always look to surprise people." -Wieden + Kennedy
The best campaigns have originality.  The best ads are ones that give you a new or different perspective than what's expected.  But no matter the direction of the campaign or the ad, you should always look to surprise.  Our group of students had the opportunity to formulate and present a pitch at W+K, which was so freaking cool.  After all the small groups presented their ideas, our hosts picked a winner.  Some of the groups had similar ideas which were probably the most obvious.  The winning group presented a truly original idea and won because of it.  Apparently their idea was most surprising.  It comes to no surprise that this mantra of originality is a alive at W+K.  Their work is always recognized as having the "it" factor, which they explained to us as just being original and surprising.  Like the David Weinstock's advice above, there needs to be a strong connection between strategy and creative to be surprising.  But if you can show a person something new about a brand or product that they hadn't thought about you're likely to win them over.

#25: Cargo Collective Site

Here it is: My Cargo Collective

#24: Fiat's Rebranding Efforts

Fiats are terrible cars. That's why you don't see too many of them in America. But despite this common knowledge, they are going full speed ahead with attempts at rebranding. Along with this new Charlie Sheen ad, they also had the intriguing Super Bowl spot with the attractive Spanish woman taking the Joe for an emotional roller coaster of guilt then vulnerability.

Fiat is brave to try branching out in America because so many people know that their cars are sub-par. But maybe younger generations, who statistically know less about cars than the previous generations, will fall for Fiat's sensuality.

#23: Thoughts from Experienced Ad Man: Rory Sutherland

He talks about brands doing what people need. He also talks about keeping things simple.
He's British and charismatic, and he says some smart things about finding solutions to problems through different processes. Often there's a simple solution to a problem that seems like there has to be a complicated one.

#22: More Outdoor Fun

I just love outdoor ads. This is probably the 10th post I've done about outdoor advertising. But you know, there's just something so cool about a time and place specific ad. So here's a couple more examples of great outdoor ads:

Outdoor ads 1

Outdoor ads 2

Click through and enjoy!

#21: Good Brand Thinking

Allstate has really impressed me with their ads from the last few years. Starting with "The Allstate Guy," David Palmer, their ads have continued to hit hard with powerful concepts and a strong brand identity. I think right now, "Mayhem" is my favorite ad series on tv. The concept is perfect and the character is unforgettable. He's the gross embodiment of every unforeseen potential accident. For an insurance company it's okay to play with your customers' fear because fear sells more insurance. "Mayhem" is simply pointing out that there are more ways to be screwed by not having insurance than just the regular ol' fire, flood or tornado. Also, Allstate has some great radio spots to go along with this campaign. Here's a few examples:

Mayhem radio 1

Mayhem radio 2

Mayhem radio 3

#20: The Importance of Good Photography

Click Here to see why good photos make good ads.

#19: Watch Where You Step

Here's another clever example of outdoor advertising. These adhesive ads were places on busy sidewalks and got stuck to walking passerbys. When the "victims" noticed they had something stuck on their shoe, they read that it was an ad from Unicef saying that if it were a real landmine they would probably be dead.