Why I loved working in advertising, but will (probably) never do it again
I’ve had the good fortune of working in advertising for a while. In my time working as an Art Director with the talented and overal awesome people of Pool Worldwide I learned quite a bit. And although it’s a world I have a bit of a love/hate thing with, it is a really great environment to learn and evolve yourself.
Because the industry demands creativity in a very rapid pace, while working in a very competitive market you really need to push yourself. Always looking for that idea that makes everyone go ‘why didn’t I think of that’.
The reason you didn’t come up with that great idea, is bcause you didn’t think hard (and long) enough. Coming up with ideas is hard, really hard. It takes times and effort, you need to look at the subject from each point of view you can think of. And it get’s frustrating because you know there a couple of angles you’re not thinking of. So think about where is it gonna be seen? Can we do something there? Who will see it? What do they like? How can we tap into that with this brand or product? Is there an event coming up? Is there something going on on the interwebs that we can use creatively? O yeah, and has someody else done it?
What helps is doing your homework, reseach the shit out of that motherfucker. What has the client provided you with? Is there something there? Then go and talk to people about it, google it, what are competitors saying? Did someone make a youtube video of it or is there a blogpost somewhere that you can use as an angle? Is there a group of people somewhere on a forum, Facebook group or Newsgroup that like stuff like this? What are they talking about?
Embrace your inner weirdness.
Next step is letting it al go for a bit, do something else and let stuff come to you as you live your life. Then (because this is something you love to do) on a sunday morning in the shower something pops up. And that’s why I say ‘embrase your inner weirdness’ it has to come from you. Otherwise you’re in the wrong business, you’re the one who has to love this idea. Or at least the start of an idea.
Sell your ideas.
Probably one of the most important things I’ve learned. If people don’t get where you’re coming from the won’t fall in love with the stuff you’re selling them.
Not just to clients but start with your boss and collegues. They’re your first test, sell your ideas there and see how they react. What do you need to emphasize? What’s special about this idea? And how can you make it better with them?
So do this long enough and you can do anything, you’ll learn so much in so little time. And that’s why it’s an awesome job and the people that do it with love are fucking rockstars.
The thing is though in the end you have to create this banner which is an irritating thing in a webpage of someone just trying to read a great article, or an preroll for this awesome video about cats. So there’s that.
That’s why I love to use the stuff I’ve learned in my work as a digital designer for user experiences. And create products and experiences that are both usefull and fun.
