PwC chief creative officer Russel Howcroft says Australia is “constipated” when it comes to branding and creativity.
Speaking at the Interbrand Best Global Brands 2019, Howcroft says Australia needs to recognise creativity doesn’t just lie within the arts if it wants to become the “innovation nation”.
“Here's the problem with the creative word. In the Australian context, people think that creativity is about art or the arts,” Howcroft says.
“You say creativity around a political table in particular with a let's call it right wing government, a conservative government. They don't see it as an economic word. It is an economic word.”
In 1995, Australia was the 57th most complex economy but today it is the 93rd.
Howcroft attributes this to a culture of deflecting and deferring rather than people stepping up with their own ideas.
“We've got to find a way to get a collective laxative. We really do,” he says.
“I don't know what we're all doing. We're sitting back. What are we doing? We're just sitting there waiting for our own Zuckerberg or something. It's all of our jobs to energize the economy.
“It's all of our jobs to grow the top line. That's what we're here to do. If you don't want to do that, go live in Nimbin.”
In an age where budgets are in decline, Howcroft says marketers need to “double down” on proving why companies should be spending more.
While it’s great to be able to hyper target consumers, he says marketers need to be able to concentrate on the top of the funnel too.
“Seriously, can we just widen the aperture.”
Australia’s top industries are iron 14.52%, coal 14.2%, travel and tourism 12.71% and petrol 12.25%.
Howcroft says the nation needs to use these to their advantage and brand them, as opposed to just handing them over to other countries.
“We are a gift to the world. The world needs our stuff,” he says.
“This is where we need to innovate. The opportunity for us to innovate around amazing things like driverless cars in mining. Driverless cars are awesome.
“We're brilliant at making driverless cars awesome in mines. That's really good technology that we can take around the world. We can brand it even and turn that into a growth brand on your chart.”
He says brands like BHP and Rio who have recently made television appearances again are moving in the right direction.
“That's what we need to be doing, build these brands so that then we can position them and then they can move into other territories around the world. My God, it's so obvious,” he says.
Ultimately though, Howcroft says innovation for Australia starts with the education system and the misconception around creativity.
As other nations move on to STEAM for their education systems with A standing for art, Australia is still stuck with STEM.
“95% of five year olds have got genius levels of creativity. By the time they're 15, it's more like 25%,” Howcroft says.
“We teach it out of people, for fuck's sake. Everyone is creative and everyone needs to apply it in business. If we don't apply creativity, then of course, there is no competitive strength.”
In addition to calling for a creativity commission - like the productivity or sports commissions - Howcroft believes businesses need to undertake a pledge to hardwire the idea that creativity is part of business.
“Unless we actually go through the process of doing a pledge, then we're unlikely to change.
“It's like being a church and doing an affirmation. It's incredibly important that we repeat, repeat, repeat the mantra that we need to take creativity from out of the sandpit and onto the spreadsheet.”
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