where best advertising happens

i was in Rome in a vacation last year, couple days only, and thought i just pass by our office there, see the place, and meet and greet some people.

Marco Carnevale, a veteran of Italian advertising, creative director at McCann Rome, was the kindest of hosts, and we spent full 2 hrs in his office – jam-packed with books, music records and shining beautiful electric guitars among the stacks of magazines and ad boards and posters – talking about stuff that stayed top of my mind ever since.

i was telling Marco how at a recent Agency workshop we were asked by moderators, in one of those exercises when you say smth and pass the ball to the next person to respond, “why do you come to work?  what do you want your office to be like?”.  and all of us had so different answers:   “I want to have fun”, “I want my team to enjoy themselves”, “I want to do super work”, “I want my Client happy”, and so on.

when i caught the ball, i remember i said “i want to do meaningful stuff.  stuff that matters.  to me, to my team, to the Agency, to the Client, to people who see it.” 

“you know?” i asked Marco.  he picked up the pen and sketched this chart.

“what you talk about is at the intersection of these 3 circles:  of what matters to Clients in terms of results, to Agency in terms of creative ambitions, and to people, who get to see and be touched by your work.”

that’s right.  

“that is where best advertising happens”.  

i didnt keep the original sketch, alas, yet i carry it every day with me pinned up there in my mental “inspiration board”, and i doodled it for you.

truth is, good advertising is so damn rare.  most of the work i see is somewhere else around the chart, where other advertising happens.

1 is the work that Clients seem to be doing for themselves:  playing super safe, pleasing a boss or just being stubborn in asking and approving some shit that neither Agencies nor people care about.

2 is famed festival work which is sometimes clever stuff but really creative masturbation.

3 is something that people are actually super entertained by, but never remember the brand (Client), and Agency will admit it is done by them only if you put a gun to their temple.

4 is similar to 3, so people like and buy, and it actually boosts the Client’s results;  Agency still hates this work.

5 is finally something Agency is super proud aaaand people love it, it’s just that it never converts in anything positive for the Client.

and 6 is either crap conveyor commodity work, that people never notice or care for, or smth that Client and Agency created in the reality darkness of their offices, and has no relevance whatsoever to the “target audience” (pardon my French).

go ahead, play with it.  every piece of comms, it has its place on the chart.   and you can also interpret the areas 1-6 to different filters, from “results” to “entertainment” to “beautiful” to whatever.

just never ever forget to aim for the center, the intersection of all 3.   that’s where most enriching things happen.

oh.

and may i give an example, at the risk of opening a debate?

this EF film series.  1, 2, 3, 4, and recently 5, 6, 7.  i looooooooooove it.  i think it’s super-enriching.  upbeat.  filled with light. optimistic.  it makes me want to learn a new language, travel, experience, meet lots of people.  and i love the stories, so simple and true.   i want to meet these guys, and know more.  and the typography work, and the music… superb.  so lots of cheers to the team who produced it.  it is awesome, guys.  and i am sure they know it, and are proud of it.  and though i dont know the results for the Client, i remember this Monocle story about EF where they seemed to be doing quite alright as industry leaders, or so.  when i make time to learn Spanish, i am calling you EF, for somebody on your team ordered and steered this work.  not to mention that these are great (video) postcards to the cities themselves… etc.  shit, wish i made this!  ))

so there you go.  get in the intersection, please.  do something that matters.  the rest is rubbish.