Introducing the Pledge initiative

Welcome to the Never Not Creative pledge initiative. Here you will find debate and solutions for a better creative industry.

You see, there have been some strange things happening in our industry. I mean, they don’t seem strange to us, they seem normal and they’ve been like this for a while. Ask any outsider and you’ll see confused looks and frowns when you share what’s deemed to be “normal”.

What’s “normal” in the creative industry?

Here are a few of these strange “normals”.

• More often than not we do free work for the opportunity to get paid work later
• We hand over work before our customer has paid for it
• Quite often, we’ll work late nights and weekends
• We come into work when we’re sick, because we don’t want to let anyone down
• We take calls from our customers at midnight, or even 5am
• We sometimes agree to payment terms of up to 90 days

I could go on….

This all takes its toll. It can come in the form of burnout, breakdown, ultimatums and career-changes. It’s not healthy. It’s counter-productive to what we’re trying to achieve — being creative.

The pledges.

As with most things, there are 2 sides to every problem. There is no doubt, that we have to take a good, long, hard look at ourselves first and decide what we want. We may enjoy perpetual struggle?! But I think the majority of you would disagree. If we want to make things better, we need the majority to stand up, get together and do something about this.

On the other side, are our clients. They are essential in the creative marketplace. We have services to sell. Without them, we have no-one to buy, and no source of income. So we also need them to come to the table. We need them to stand up and work with us to agree what’s fair and what value we add to their brands and businesses.

The Creative’s pledge

Change has to start with us. We need to debate a set of principles and standards that we’ll hold ourselves accountable to. We need to have the courage to say yes to what’s right, and no, to what’s wrong. Join the discussion in our Facebook group about the challenges facing us. Ask and debate what’s realistic to move forward.

Think about yourself. What industry do you want to see in the future? Think about your company, what do you wish they would do and would not do in the future? And most importantly, think about someone else. You may know someone who’s thriving — loving their place in the industry. You may know someone who’s having a tough time. What do they believe, what do they need? What do we need to address for ourselves first?

The Client’s pledge

We also need to ask our clients to stand up and take some responsibility. I’ve become good friends with many clients over the years — I’m sure many of us have. We’ve built respect, dependency and a great deal of trust. It can result in great work and success. Like any good relationship, it can also lead to heartbreak and awkward conversations.

Ultimately, we’re all human beings — it’s just that some are more human than others. I know I’ve had my own share of experiencing inhumane moments both giving and receiving. What I’m hoping we can get to, is a definition of fairness for both sides. Like, is it fair to call your agency at midnight and then chase up with a text at 5am because you haven’t heard from them? Is it fair to be told that an invoice that is more than 100 days overdue isn’t a priority right now?

Ask your clients. Ask them what makes a good relationship. What are the conditions they believe are fair and yet deliver the best work? What is the cause of their sometimes irrational behaviour? What have they noticed is different when working with different agencies and creatives? They (most likely) know the answer.

Some examples

Creative Fair Play

I recently came across this excellent initiative. A Belgian colleague shared a collaboration by Flanders DC and Creative Network. It’s called Creative Fair Play.

Illustration by Charlotte Dumortier for http://creativefairplay.com

The site focuses heavily on what leads to good collaboration. It provides great inspiration for what we’re hoping to achieve with the pledges. When you read it you get a great sense of fairness and reason.

The Scottish Business Pledge

This pledge is more about creating better businesses (in Scotland). It’s a real bonafide pledge. Companies like Deloitte, Barclays, CocaCola have actively signed up to building fairer businesses. I hope that it’s led to change in their companies. Even if it’s a small change, it’s a start and a great way to visualise the effect of a growing network of businesses.

Screen grab taken from http://scottishbusinesspledge.scot

What can you do?

First thing’s first, join us at Never Not Creative. Introduce yourself to the community and let us know what you think could go into the pledges. Share stories of good / bad experiences that you’ve had in the industry.

If you’d like to go further, you could write a follow-up piece to this. You could have a go at writing your own pledge or sharing examples of others that you’ve found.

The point isn’t for one person to make the rules. It’s for all of us to come together and agree what’s fair and what we’re willing to sign up to and defend.

Ask yourself, ask your clients, ask each other. What would it take to be Never Not Creative?