Breaking The Myth of How Great Work is Created

We need to break the myth of how the best advertising is created.

The advertising industry has to realise that its value to clients lies in its talented people – not process.

It needs to be confident of that fact, and put it proudly back in the centre of the business.

That means agencies need to stop making out it’s their proprietary process that creates the best solution, and accept that it is talented people that really make the difference.

Agencies have unfortunately become moulded in the image of what they think clients want.

So they over-emphasise process, because they believe it makes clients feel comfortable that the agency can consistently produce the goods.

Whereas, in reality, smart clients know the best ideas come from talented people. 

But agencies seem to find it really hard to be honest about that, maybe because people are complex – they leave, they have bad days, they get sick, and let’s face it – not all agencies have the most talented people.

So they put the emphasis on their process or system.

The truth is, the agency’s most valuable product – brilliant creative thinking that helps clients meet their business objectives – comes from the brains and talents of good people.

Unfortunately, in modern agency set-ups, these talented people are all too often stifled within poor systems.

They need to be freed from the shackles of these counter-productive processes that prevent them from tackling problems effectively. 

An excerpt from our new book ‘How To Make Better Advertising and Advertising Better – The Manifesto for a New Creative Revolution’ is available exclusively at the Design Museum. (edit: although it might be sold-out oops!)