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In an increasingly tech-fuelled world that is overloaded with content, where eyeballs become harder to catch and attention spans continue to wane, it is creativity that cuts through the clutter. A standout idea can glue a brand into people’s minds.
In the case of Brisbane-based Caravanning Queensland and caravan park group Top Parks, it was the idea to create the world’s largest Lego brick caravan that spun the business into the international spotlight. Dreamed up by John Cochrane Advertising, the idea was brought to life by Lego artist Ben “The Brick Builder” Craig.
Crowned the largest Lego brick caravan by the Guinness World Records, it comprised 288,630 individual bricks and took five weeks to complete. The caravan consisted of basic amenities such as running water and electricity, as well as some home comforts, including a jar of Vegemite.
In 2009, Guinness World Records launched its consultancy after being approached by numerous brands and businesses wanting to break world records in their campaigns. More than 10 years later, the organisation has helped a number of brands, including Caravanning Queensland and Top Parks, achieve record-breaking campaigns.
Neil Foster, Guinness World Records vice-president of consultancy EMEA APAC, says the consultancy has become a growing part of the business with six offices worldwide.
“The simple idea of being the ‘best in the world’ at something really appeals to brands and agencies,” he says. “The jeopardy of ‘will they?’ or ‘won’t they?’ delights audiences everywhere. For a brand or agency, record breaking is a powerful tool — and it can be used as a platform to deliver carefully tailored messaging which reflects a product truth and has universal appeal.”
Brands come to the consultancy to break records for reasons ranging from anniversary celebrations and product launches to purpose-led campaigns, brand spectacles or pure entertainment.
During the past decade, the creativity behind the campaigns has increased and the reasons behind them have changed.
“Back in 2015, one of our most popular record attempts was ‘the most selfies in three minutes’, powered by celebrity and influencer-led marketing campaigns,” says Foster.
“Fast-forward to today, and one-off records for fun are not as popular. Instead, we have seen a 110% increase in brands wanting to break a record ‘for good’ as part of their campaigns.”
Regardless of the reason for the record attempts, the approach is one that generates huge brand awareness, sparks conversations and encapsulates creativity.
The largest Lego caravan in the world
When it comes to encapsulating creativity as a brand, Vegemite couldn’t be a more perfect example. From the Happy Little Vegemites jingle of the 1950s to its current Tastes Like Australia brand platform, the brand knows how to make a memorable mark when it comes to advertising.
“Creativity has played a key role in Vegemite’s history, from the invention of the product itself, where leftover yeast was used to create the nutritious and delicious savoury spread Aussies still love today, through to its rich communications history,” says Matt Gray, Vegemite senior marketing manager.
“For Vegemite, creativity is about capturing the essence of Australia and being a part of everyday Australian life.
“Vegemite works best when the creativity is as iconic as the brand itself and guides the entire brand, not just the ads.”
The Vegemite brand started to work with creative hot shop Thinkerbell in 2018 and soon after launched the ongoing Tastes Like Australia brand platform.
Gray says everything Vegemite does moving forward will be built on this.
“Just like a jar of Vegemite is a wonderful and unique mix of ingredients, so is Australia,” he says. “So our launch TV material conveyed just that. It featured everything from John Howard stuffing up on the cricket pitch to the ‘yes’ vote and everything in between.”
“When we heard that Marmite was handing out free jars during The Ashes last year, we fired back virtually overnight with a full-page ad in the UK’s Daily Mirror newspaper. This was perfectly timed and written to ignite a media storm which was talked about and embraced across TV, radio, and celebrities’ social channels.”
From introducing limited-edition Bartymite jars as a tribute to Australian tennis star and brand ambassador Ash Barty to inventing the world’s first toast stencils, innovative and creative ideas have been the driving force to building the iconic brand.
The essential
The Oxford English Dictionary defines creativity as “the use of skill and imagination to produce something new or to produce art”. Deemed as one of the top 10 skill sets to have by the World Economic Forum, creativity plays an important role for the economy.
World Creativity and Innovation Day is held on April 21 each year by the United Nations. According to the global organisation, creativity has become a “true wealth of nations” in the 21st century.
The Creative Economy report, Widening Local Development Pathways, co-published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), highlighted why cultural and creative industries should be part of economic growth strategies. The report states these sectors generate US$2.25 billion in revenue and 29.5 million jobs worldwide.
For marketers and advertisers, creativity is essential. The rise in technology and digital advertising has created a sea of sameness leading to more than 90% of ads going unnoticed.
Forrester says chief marketing officers (CMO) now have the fastest-growing tech spend in the C-suite, which is projected to grow between 9% and 11% from 2017 to 2022. This is compared with only 2.4% for agency services.
In its report, The Cost of Losing Creativity, Forrester recommends CMOs “move portions of your marketing budget out of commoditised areas of technology and into creative resources to produce powerful, differentiated, branded experiences and communication powered by the right technology”. It says US$19 billion could be shifted from technology to creativity, yielding a more proportionate approach for marketers.
A transformative power
When it comes to championing creativity in Australia, there is no greater ambassador than PwC partner and chief creative officer Russel Howcroft. Speaking at the Interbrand Best Global Brands 2019 event in Sydney, the regular on the ABC’s Gruen program made a plea for brands to apply creativity throughout their business.
“We need the creative brand to absolutely be at the core of business,” he said. “It’s around brand purpose. It’s around the proposition. It’s around what we do every single day.
“I think those of us in the marketing services business understand that for ourselves. We’ve just got to get out there. We’ve got to get a whole lot better at getting our clients to recognise that it’s creativity throughout the organisation.”
In 1995, Australia sat at 57 on the economic complexity index (ECI). Today it is 93rd. Japan is number one. Howcroft believes a lack of creativity is to blame, calling Australia “constipated” and in need of “collective laxative”.
“Here’s the problem with the creative word,” he said. “In the Australian context, people think creativity is about the arts. You say creativity around a political table — in particular, with a right-wing conservative government — they don’t see it as an economic word. It is an economic word.
“We’ve just got to find a way to get the creative word out of arts and into business because if you’re not creative, how do you possibly come up with wi-fi? How do you come up with plastic money? It’s another Australian innovation. How do you come up with penicillin? That’s pretty good.”
Vegemite stencils
To Howcroft, everyone is creative. At the talk, he spoke about the “three Cs” of creativity: small C, professional C and big C. Small C creativity can be found in everyone, while professional C is attributed to those who have made a career out of it, including those in marketing and advertising. Around 95% of five-year-olds have genius levels of small C creativity. By the time they’re 15, it sits around 25% because, as Howcroft puts it, “we teach it out of people”. Big C creativity, on the other hand, is reserved for the few who are true creative geniuses such as Pablo Picasso. Despite accounting for a small echelon of society, it is often considered as the benchmark for creativity.
Like Howcroft, VMLY&R chief strategy officer Alison Tilling believes everyone can be creative.
“Can everyone be a creative with a capital C? Probably not, but that’s probably because most people aren’t thick-skinned enough,” she says. “But I think everyone can bring creativity to bear on what it is they do and given some of the challenges society faces, it’s incumbent on us all to do that anyway.”
A seasoned strategist, Tilling may not work in a creative “with a capital C” role but it doesn’t mean she isn’t applying creativity in her day-to-day work.
“I know not everybody would agree with this, but I think being a strategist is a pretty creative role,” she says. “For example, when you’re writing a brief or you’re thinking about how a business might grow, there is creativity there. You have to think about that from some different perspectives and in some different ways. You have to pull it apart and put it back together in different combinations every time. So, I think strategy in itself is a creative act.”
Once a thing that only a select few people did, Tilling says creativity is being applied more broadly today to a range of different problems.
While much of her work sits within the marketing science realm where Binet and Field’s 60-40 rule is lauded as the driving force behind effective advertising, Tilling says it’s important to remember creativity is the real power.
“I think sometimes creativity gets a bit lost in that conversation and for me it’s really important that work on effectiveness is in the service of creativity,” she says. “It’s creativity that gives power of effectiveness.”
The modern creative
As noted by Tilling, creativity is no longer an exclusive role reserved for those with it in their job title. But for those who are in traditional creative positions, recent years have seen a shift in their own day-to-day work.
“Creativity is a culture, no longer a department,” says Belinda Lodge, founder and CEO of the recruitment agency iPopulate, which specialises in the advertising and communications sector.
“Most successful agencies now see creativity as everyone’s responsibility and good ideas are welcome from anywhere.”
Today, digital strategists, web developers, social media specialists and data analysts all work in tandem with creative teams.
As the agency model continues to evolve, Lodge says siloed job descriptions are a thing of the past, and it’s those with “a truly integrated skill set” who are becoming desired candidates.
“It is tough out there as client spend is being reduced and redirected,” she says. “Creatives are now being asked to present engaging ideas with smaller budgets, making innovation and commercial acumen core requirements of any creative role.
“Hybrid skill sets are also more prevalent than ever. Both talent and agencies reap the benefits of individuals who can play across multi disciplines, broadening traditional job titles.”
The move towards a desiloed workforce sees more modern creatives joining adland from diverse backgrounds and collaborating across departments.
While everyone in the industry has been talking about a desiloed structure, Digitas creative director Simon Brock still thinks the industry has a way to go before it is truly there.
“It’s become the biggest cliche in this industry,” he says. “Yet when you look at the fundamental structures we use to define ourselves, the very first thing we do is put up walls between departments.
“That’s problematic because we’re now seeing a really interesting generation of creative people coming into this business who don’t fit neatly into one of those predefined buckets.”
For Brock, one of the most transformational moments in his career was when he began to work for Digitas in Sweden. Joining the industry with a background in film, TV and music production, he interviewed for a role which Digitas didn’t feel was quite right for him, however they knew he had something to offer the team.
“I was employed without a department and without a title,” he says. “That was such a massive liberating moment in my career because it changed the game in terms of expectations.”
Nicole Hetherington, co-founder and creative partner at newly-formed independent creative consultancy Abel, says despite the changes happening in adland, the key to creativity is remaining open and curious. Like others, she’s also a believer that an idea doesn’t necessarily have to come from within the creative department.
“Just because our title is creatives, I don’t think that should stop clients, marketers, strategists or anyone else coming up with ideas,” she says.
Hetherington departed Dentsu Aegis Network’s WiTH Collective last year, with fellow creative Simon Fowler, and the duo set up their own creative consultancy. Going from creative in a big agency to owner of a new business has seen her role change dramatically.
Hetherington says rather than be experts in everything, they’re choosing to work with the right experts to meet client needs.
“While we don’t have experts in certain areas sitting right next to us, what we see as an opportunity is the fact we can draw on our partners — the right ones — for the right project,” she says. “It feels like a slightly more modern way of being able to work.”
Recently returning to Australia after working in Droga5’s American office, Leo Burnett executive creative director (ECD) Andrew Fergusson says collaboration is more necessary today as timelines continue to shrink.
“It’s definitely more about being fast-paced and collaborative,” he says. “What’s really needed for modern creatives is nimbleness and a bit of confidence so you can go into those environments and not feel like you’ve lost all that thinking time.”
Once upon a time, coming up with the idea sat purely in the creative department but that isn’t always the case now. While Fergusson welcomes collaboration, he does also note the challenge it brings for creatives.
“Sometimes it is tricky and creatives do lose their voice in this process,” he says. “Particularly for creatives coming up in the industry, it’s harder. As an ECD, I see less of that because I’m in more of a decision-making role. Whereas if you’re a young team, you often never get to follow something through.”
JCDecaux created a sunscreen dispenser for Neutrogena
Saatchi & Saatchi Melbourne ECD Simon Bagnasco says the move to more collaborative work is one of the most interesting changes to his role.
“I’ve had to understand a lot more other parts of the business, more than I ever had to,” he says. “It used to be, as a creative director, you could really sit in your own island and just be in charge of that island and that was it. Now you have to understand data, you have to understand media a lot better, and you have to harness those and work with those people collaboratively.”
This shift brings changes to the kind of work Bagnasco once did. Like many others in the industry, he is becoming increasingly involved in solving clients’ business problems and not just creating campaigns.
“I didn’t realise it at the time, but a couple of years after I first started, I realised what you’re doing is essentially filling rectangles,” he says. “Then over time [the work] has evolved and now it just feels the freest and most liberated it has ever been. The problems clients have are a lot more diverse and interesting and they require different responses each time.”
For adland newbie Stephanie Ryan, a graduate copywriter at CX Lavender, joining the industry changed her perception of what it means to work as a creative.
Prior to entering the workforce, she expected it to be “only big TV commercials and coming up with killer slogans” but soon learned it was much more than that.
“Starting out now, I’m realising you can effectively use creativity in lots of different ways and lots of different avenues,” says Ryan. “So even if it’s something that feels really small or inconsequential, [such as] we need to have this mandatory form that customers need to fill out, there’s ways to make that a more engaging process or pinpointing a particular pain point they might be experiencing and trying to come up with a clever way to fix that and to make the process better for everyone.”
Enjoying the “performative nature” of copywriting, Ryan predicts in 10 years’ time her work will become more focused on technical writing. She cites technology and science communication as areas she believes hold the greatest opportunities.
“Science communications can still be quite confusing for people,” she says. “The same with tech. Anything that needs to be translated before it can go to a lay person, I think there’s always room for copywriting and creativity in those fields to try to help bridge that gap.”
Friend or foe?
There’s no denying the shake-up the industry has experienced as a result of technology’s rapid advancements. Catapulting society into the realms of a 24-hour news cycle, and always switched-on mode, tech significantly sped up the pace at which we work.
As workflow changes, so does the work. While some people have been fearful of what technology brings, others are welcoming it with open arms.
Brock likens technology to the script an actor has in a play or a tool for an artist. Through improvisation and experimentation, he says the industry is able to evolve.
“We have no choice but to take the brilliant craft we’ve made to this point and start thinking of data and technology as new paint brushes on our easel rather than thinking of them as replacements for it,” he says.
“I totally get why there’s apprehension because most examples we see is where data and technology get applied to a traditionally creative output. We see things such as versioning or programmatic media buying — which can be really powerful — but they tend to take the soul out of it.”
On any given day, people are exposed to as many as 10,000 ads, but most go unnoticed as the world becomes desensitised to them. Brock believes if creatives have a better understanding of how programmatic works, as well as knowledge on the power of data and new technology, that it will only enhance technology.
Hetherington, on the other hand, says she understands how difficult it can be for creatives to really stay on top of the latest technology.
“Obviously what technology has unlocked from a creative point of view is very exciting,” she says. “But at the same time, being creative is actually very scary because it feels like you’ve always got to be on the forefront and in the know with everything.
“The way technology changes and the new platforms that are available, it [can be] quite hard to keep up.”
Instead, she suggests creatives take a more general approach to learning these new technologies and platforms, and partner with those who are experts.
Pushing the boundaries
As daunting as raw data can be, many brands are beginning to find ways to use it creatively. Data scientist roles are in hot demand and data’s usage in campaigns is starting to garner more spotlight with awards such as the Creative Data Lions award category at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Music streaming platform Spotify has been using its services to help brands use data creatively in the audio world.
Spotify ANZ creative solutions lead Matt Bryant says tech and data doesn’t have to come at the expense of creativity, or vice versa.
“Tech and data are enablers of creativity. When listeners are served more relevant messaging, it’s a better experience for everybody,” he says.
“For creatives and creative agencies, it means unfiltered guidance to understanding what listeners want and how to get the most out of creative ideas for brands.
“For brands, this means being able to prove both quantitative and qualitative ROI across three key areas: reach, resonance and reaction.”
Spotify has collaborated with a number of brands and agencies on campaigns, proving just how effective creative data in audio can be.
The streaming platform worked with Ogilvy Melbourne and insurer AAMI to deliver the award-winning Warning Spots campaign. It delivered geo-targeted audio messages to dangerous spots along the Great Ocean Road and inner-Melbourne during the Labour Day long weekend.
The campaign utilised data about Victorian road accidents on the most dangerous hotspots on some of Australia’s busiest roads. By using the geo-targeting capabilities, AAMI was able to serve tailored ads to Spotify listeners in precise locations, warning them of potential dangers ahead.
Bryant says great creative audio has the ability to stand out among the clutter of visual assets and content consumers are already exposed to.
“Visual assets are often beautiful but the fact is fewer people are seeing them,” he says. “From an industry standpoint, audio is a massively underestimated channel. Last year, I went out to around 70 creative and media agencies across Australia and New Zealand to talk about [our service]
Spotify for Creatives and discovered there’s little engagement or even interest in audio.
“We have a big education job around what audio can do today.”
Movember "pash rash" detector
Another big player changing up the creative landscape is JCDecaux. In a world where most media formats are seeing declining ad spend, out-of-home (OOH) alongside digital are experiencing growth.
JCDecaux ANZ head of creative solutions Ashley Taylor sees huge opportunities in OOH for brands. Like many others joining adland in recent years, Taylor’s background isn’t in OOH, instead she came from experiential and events marketing.
This background has helped her transform a regular street panel into anything from a sunscreen dispenser for Neutrogena during the Australian Open to an interactive ad using facial recognition to determine the likelihood of pash rash from a man’s Movember moustache.
“For me, out-of-home is just a stage, and then it’s all about making the most of the stage we have,” says Taylor.
When she started in the role, it was just Taylor and her boss on the creative team. Fast-forward a few years and she is now leading a growing team of five and answering 10-20 briefs a week.
They work closely with a team of engineers to ensure they can bring to life what clients are looking for.
“Facial tracking and facial recognition was a really huge focus for us during the past 12-18 months,” she says. “With face tracking, there’s a lot of extra layers that can be executed in different ways. It started with eye tracking, but we knew, as part of that, we can do smile recognition, plus gender recognition, age and sentiments.”
While they aren’t using it to track people at the moment, Taylor says in the future she sees opportunity for the technology to be used as an engagement tool. She sees the possibility for it to test what creative works for a client campaign, measuring the best reactions due to eye gaze, the length of time viewed and the sentiment when viewing the ad.
“We would be able to then code that to optimise the rest of the network from the learnings of those panels where we would do those builds,” she says.
For now, the interactive panels are predominantly being placed in high foot traffic areas such as Sydney CBD’s George Street, Southern Cross Station in Melbourne and at public transport shelters and stations.
Taylor says this is because the work is often deemed as a high distraction for motorists.
One of her favourite campaigns is Pepsi’s augmented reality (AR) bus shelter in London where the panel appeared as a fake window with unlikely objects appearing such as flying saucers in the frame. However, she does think AR isn’t always the best technology for clients to use at the moment.
“The traditional way that we’re seeing a lot of AR is where you actually have a panel with the scene behind and then the scene changes,” she says. “But right now it’s quite expensive.
“It does serve a great purpose for really great content but I think there’s a lot of ways we can get great content that doesn’t cost that much in development.”
Aside from increasingly using facial tracking and recognition, Taylor says live streaming has been another popular format.
In 2017, the team used it for a campaign called Answer the Call to see what Australians would do to win tickets to the AFL Grand Final. The campaign appeared on interactive digital panels in CBDs across the country and featured a static AFL advertisement promoting the finals in the lead up to the Grand Final. At a random peak time, the panel displays were activated, beaming well-known players from teams in each state via a live video stream, enabling members of the public to interact in real time.
Fans were rewarded with game tickets via the screen and the players would sometimes physically appear at the site. Taylor says they reached around 1.2 million people with the work.
“I don’t think it has to be super complex, it just needs to be smart,” she says.
“Creativity for me, especially across our format, is about considered creative and making the most of the placement you have. It’s about how we create emotion in whatever we’re doing.”
The industry weighs in on creativity in their business...
MEDIA AGENCIES
PHD strategy director Remi Baker
When we think of creativity in media agencies, some may jump to thoughts of creative flighting, trading and targeting. Yes, while this is true, creativity plays a much bigger role. Improved tech capabilities, access to data and more diverse talent pools mean that media agencies have the tools and the talent to come up with more meaningful and effective creative ideas. Ideas based on an in-depth understanding of people and their behaviour.
GroupM chief technology and transformation officer Cameron King
It’s tempting to imagine that instinct and art are lost at the hands of data and technology. The robots are going to win, right? Not quite. I believe technology enhances creativity. It gives us detail about consumer attitudes, preferences and needs. It automates the communications process and allows ideas to be tested and refined. It gives feedback about how effective great ideas were at influencing hearts, minds and wallets.
Publicis Media ANZ head of content and sport Patrick Whitnall
Media agencies have always been a creative source for brands. The growth of channels and technology has created an explosion in the need for more creativity and assets across customer journeys, client-owned assets and devices. Media agencies are best placed to adapt to this speed and demand in collaboration with media/tech partners, which is seen across SEO, mobile, six-second ads, long-form written content and personalised digital ads.
EXPERIENTIAL AGENCIES
INVNT APAC executive creative director Adam Harriden
The age gap between key audiences — think Millennials and Gen Zs — and decision-makers on the brand side is widening, so it’s our job as creatives to craft brand stories that simultaneously gain clients’ buy-in and resonate with these tribes. Experiential agencies can’t tell these stories in the physical space alone anymore. The days of the omnichannel brand experience are over. Instead, shareability is key. Brand stories need to be developed with multiple platforms in mind, especially digital and social.
Imagination creative director Michael Reid
Limited attention spans, quick turnarounds and lean budgets — none of these are going anywhere in 2020 so we’ll keep exploring new creative territory to hit the mark. We’re striving to make our experiences more personalised (to grab attention and not let go), authentic (building trust and harnessing our intrinsic desire to be part of something bigger) and unexpected (because it’s kind of fun to be surprised every now and then).
ADTECH
Amobee head of sales and client services Andrew Dixon
Good data should inspire creativity at the planning stage rather than replace it entirely. The adtech industry often confuses the concept of dynamic creative with solving the “creativity + data” problem. Dynamic creative is more about automating the production of creative assets to personalise messaging — which is great for relevance, but not necessarily replacing “creativity”. Creativity is about being memorable, and being memorable is about shared experiences and reactions.
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