The barriers to producing great creative

Some of the barriers to producing great creative seem to have been around forever – bad briefs being one example – but others, such as social media and hybrid working, are more recent.

Why it matters

Creativity is a powerful driver of advertising effectiveness. A consultation for Thinkbox, led by advertising strategist and creative leader Laurence Green, involving 34 senior agency and client practitioners, highlights actions that can help foster creativity. At the same time, however, it also suggests that the easiest and quickest way of enabling creativity is to address those things that get in the way.

Eleven obstacles 

• Lack of time spent establishing a common mission
• Talent tilted towards science, not art, with logic squeezing out magic
• A drift towards short-termism, performance marketing, and immediately measurable activity
• A climate of risk aversion fuelled by potential social media backlash
• Short tenures and churn
• The rise of project work rather than retained relationships
• Hybrid working stymieing serendipity
• Lack of access to senior decision-makers
• Bad briefs
• The sometimes perverse incentives of creative awards, with tactical activations winning more than ongoing, strategic brand-building
• The diminution of craft skills.

Key quote

“We need to start with the barriers, because there are many … and because some can be tackled, sometimes even just by raising awareness of them” – Laurence Green, IPA Director of Effectiveness.

Sourced from Thinkbox