by Brad Dessington (@braddessington) I often get requests from newbies in adland on what the best route is for them to build careers in advertising and branding. I know what to tell them, based on the structures of the industry as it is today. But, every time I finish an email or phone call, I feel as if I’ve sent someone to the slaughter.
I left advertising and branding after 12 years in it. I was fortunate enough to be able to grow a business that employed a decent number of great people, and even more fortunate to be able to sell a profitable agency. I owe the industry that gratitude. But there is a part of me thinks I should have done something differently.
Wrong way around
I fundamentally believe that advertising and branding are the wrong way around. Many believe that they’re the lure at the end of a line. And, in some ways, they are. But, for the most part, the lure is the product of business itself; that’s where the core value lies. The industry attracts young creative minds with the proposition of an unfettered playground for ideas, a place where you can create anything, amazing things, things that can change the world, and so on. The entrenched will believe this for a long time. Yet, while that’s great for keeping youngsters motivated and, to a degree, to inform their attitude to the craft, it’s grossly misleading. Advertising and branding are not, in their current form, the way businesses change industry conventions.
Brand purists will argue that the brand is all encompassing, the lifeblood throughout a business and DNA for behaviour, product development and overall direction that links to the company core. But is it, really? Is the industry really applying all its creative might to the theoretical principle it holds most value in?
The truth is that the power we place in brands and the method of delivering that power is misplaced, entirely. If brands are so much more than logos, advertising and communication, then why is the creative capital, agency structures and revenue methods all geared to delivering this tiny part of it? And why is so much of it superfluous noise that actually doesn’t mean anything anyway?
Problem goes a lot deeper
The industry has for years debated its relevance and sustainability. It’s overlaid integration, digitisation and automation as a way to keep up with client’s immediate needs of an old problem. I propose the problem goes a lot deeper — creative talent is used at the wrong end of the brand’s proposition.
If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt about good creatives, it’s that they have an empathy and intuition for what feels right. That may sound soft but apply that to designing products, simplifying engagement, designing service experiences and, for me most importantly, continuous innovation, then real value is created.
Some may argue that “creatives” don’t have the skills or experience to be embedded into the bowels of the technical value chain. Not yet, I agree, not before change happens. The advertising and branding model, ironically, is a beast that is hard to change. But, surely, if the market for advertising is screaming for value, the industry should redesign itself to deliver on that need.
Creation, not packaging, of value
Yes, there is still a place for traditional brand communication. But I believe it will play servant to a creative model that is tangibly connected to the creation of value — not packaging of it. Then, maybe, the industry can be rewarded handsomely, once again, for creative that actually changes the world. Methods will need to be created for IP transfer, costing models will need to be overhauled and agency structures will need to incorporate more business analysts to direct creative minds — this is hard work. But the industry owes it to itself to at least try.
Hopefully then the aspiration of budding young minds won’t be stifled every time they hear: “Make it pretty.”
Brad Dessington (@braddessington) is an experienced business and marketing strategist, leader and former CEO of Rogue Brand Agency, which was bought by House of Brave in 2016. After founding the latter, he successfully grew the company into a multimillion profit business and later sold the business to focus on his aspiration to open a tech startup for business innovation, Nectir, of which he is CEO. He is currently on sabbatical in Australia, consulting to multinational businesses, NGOs and bodies while executing Nectir’s launch into the global market.
“Motive” is a by-invitation-only column on MarkLives.com. Contributors are picked by the editors but generally don’t form part of our regular columnist lineup, unless the topic is off-column.
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