Where I work was responsible for this..
It's actually a simple idea.
Not so simple to pull off.
It took lots and lots of hard work.
That's the truth about innovation, new ideas or general stuff that isn't the usual or expected.
Having ideas isn't easy of course, but it isn't the toughest bit.
The toughest bit is getting them to ever see the light of day.
New ideas tend to look like hard work.
To account handling types who have to get the stuff made, and persuade the client.
To clients who have to sell in plans and stuff to commercially focused people who don't like surprises.
Clients for whom advertising and stuff is about 10% of their entire job.
Clients who want their lives simplified and who live in quarters of years.
So how do you get stuff like the Lego ad break made?
Make it something the client HAS to buy.
Don't make innovation and great work a nice to have.
Make it central to the strategy.
Clients and especially their finance directors don't want nice to haves.
They want stuff that will transform their business.
If you're a planner, this is down to you.
You.
Make it easy to sell into the wider business.
Make it something anyone can explain in 30 seconds.
Because that's what your client will have to do.
Then make it seem easy to actually get off the ground.
Don't make it look like extra work.
If they want it enough, they'll put a bit more effort.
A bit.
The trick of the Lego thing was that the team did the work with ITV and the other brands.
They worked their arses off.
They never expected anything done for them.
They did the work.
They took responsibility.
And then they made sure they could prove the effect.
By building evaluation into the sell.
Not just soft media figures.
You know, views, shares and the like.
Exit interviews in cinemas, to help link those that claimed to see the break and those that paid to see the film.
They wrote an IPA paper on it even.
That's the thing about innovation.
It's actually really boring.
Because it's a slog.
It's not for the glory seekers or 'ideas people'.
It's for the workers.
The folks that won't give up.
Just like any account that people think they would like to work on is usually incredibly hard.
Every time I've worked on something others might call 'sexy' it''s always been hard work.
Because good clients demand the best.
They expect to buy stuff that's not just great, it's commercially watertight.
And they're busy and expect you to do the work.
It's the crap clients that hard work.
Not least because they don't buy innovation.
But then again, they tend not to buy innovation because they haven't persuaded why they should bother.
In other words, creativity and innovation isn't about flashes of innovation and glory.
It's about the long slow grind.
What's with the Dave Trott single sentences?
Posted by: John | August 13, 2015 at 05:07 PM
It's quicker to write that way
Posted by: northern | August 13, 2015 at 05:09 PM
Spot on.
Posted by: Rob Mortimer | August 14, 2015 at 02:28 AM
I'd never thought of that.
Posted by: John | August 14, 2015 at 12:20 PM