Mike Smock is a marketing strategist with more than 500 marketing campaigns executed in 38 industries over a 25 year career. Therefore, he is taken aback by Mark Fenske’s claim that “nobody ever created a good ad writing to a strategy.”
I don’t get this. I never will get this. I am proud of the fact I don’t get it. Look, advertising is not art. Advertising is weaponry in a battle for market share. If creativity helps me gain more share fine. If not then it is wasted sword motion. If you want to create art, if you want to be an artiste then get out of advertising and go be an artist. Write a screenplay, write a novel, go make another award winning music video but get the fuck out of advertising. God forbid if you work for me and try to create an ad without the strategy.
As we mentioned yesterday, Fenske is leaving VCU’s Adcenter to rejoin Wieden + Kennedy on the agency’s Coca-Cola account. Here’s some of his wisdom:
There’s not that much difference between a creative person at Wieden + Kennedy and one at Ayer.
Many people assume that a creative at one of the great agencies is an entirely different species from the people who work at the big flat-footed dinosaur agencies. I’ve been in both places. There’s not that much difference in the way people think. People working at great agencies would love to believe they’re just better than those other people. And unfortunately, too many younger people at big bad agencies do believe they aren’t made of the same stuff people at Wieden and Goodby are. Crap. If you compared the thought processes, the avenues explored, the wild notions, the actual pieces of paper written on by creatives at big agencies with those of creatives at “creative” agencies, the similarities would be scary. The real difference is, when the big agency creatives have those interesting thoughts and ideas, they put them aside. They don’t have support for them, or the culture to grow them, or the opportunity to fight for them, or the clients who’d buy them. They have no ground for their good ideas to mature in, so the confidence that comes from having your work praised never grows in them.
Not hard to see which argument is more nuanced.
Bernbach sides with Smock.
Both men are right. Creative without strategy has no place in business. Having said that, way too many clients and the agency minions that serve them, are totally clueless about creativity and the creatives who bring it to them.
smock is wrong. the whole notion of strategy is out-dated. strategy assumes a passive audience.
fenske has DONE it. smock has TALKED about doing it.
advertising needs art now more than ever. that’s clearly obvious, no.
I don’t know what Dr. Hans Akkerman is a doctor of… Maybe bullshit, ‘cos to make a simplistic statement like “Strategy is outdated” is fucking stupid! Fenske’s statement “Nobody ever created a good ad writing to a strategy” is equally stupid. Listen Mark, you are going to work on Coke at Weiden… They already have the campaign “Welcome to the Coke side of life.” That’s what they won the account with. You bet your ass that unbelievably unmemorable line is based on a truly fucked up strategy that came out of the hundreds of focus groups they did (you can read all about it on my blog) in conjunction with the client. If you have now sold yourself for buckets of money to execute cute TV spots featuring Polar Bears, NASCAR crashes, football players, pop stars, or whatever. I would love to be a fly on the wall when you walk into the first client meeting and tell them their strategy is shit and you intend to ignore it. Bet that’s one time when Dan says “I can’t.” As an un-named senior WPP executive once said… “Fuck the work, It’s all about the money.” Welcome back to the world of BDA’s (Big Dumb Agencies). And if you don’t think that applies to Weiden, it’s about time you re-read Randall Rothenberg’s epic “Where the suckers moon.” But, who knows, maybe you can make this gig spin out a bit longer than the 9 months you did at N.W. Ayer back in the ninties.
Oh, and Mike Smock is right… This isn’t an art, it isn’t even fun anymore. It used to be, then the bean counters took over and now it’s all about the money. When the Poisoned Dwarf (Sir Martin Sorrel) recently said that more than 60% of WPP’s revenues would come from “Marketing Activities.” i.e. Non-advertising stuff, then it’s time to get that job playing piano in a brothel (homage to the French guy)… I’m done.
Cheers/George
George, where to begin! i would have thought it was clear to all now that the notion of explicit strategy is out-dated. but clearly there is more work to be done in this area.
you seem to harbor some bitterness towards our industry in general and mr. fenske in particular. this somewhat clouds your analysis. yes advertising has been hijacked by bean counters but the pendulum is swinging the other way. see the success of recent startups and surprising large creative account shifts in your america for example.
mark fenske is something of a professional contrarian. but he is undoubtedly creative. and i’m sure dan wieden values his agency’s culture more than he values coca cola’s money. he is smart.
but yes, you are correct when you say that advertising is indeed in peril. it will simply shrink dramatically in the very near future. but this is also very evident one would have thought.
as for myself, i have never created anything interesting by adhering to a “strategy”. creativity doesn’t care about strategy. just like consumers!
George, where to begin! i would have thought it was clear to all now that the notion of explicit strategy is out-dated. but clearly there is more work to be done in this area.
you seem to harbor some bitterness towards our industry in general and mr. fenske in particular. this somewhat clouds your analysis. yes advertising has been hijacked by bean counters but the pendulum is swinging the other way. see the success of recent startups and surprising large creative account shifts in your america for example.
mark fenske is something of a professional contrarian. but he is undoubtedly creative. and i’m sure dan wieden values his agency’s culture more than he values coca cola’s money. he is smart.
but yes, you are correct when you say that advertising is indeed in peril. it will simply shrink dramatically in the very near future. but this is also very evident one would have thought.
as for myself, i have never created anything interesting by adhering to a “strategy”. creativity doesn’t care about strategy. just like consumers!
Dr. Akkerman… On the contrary, I have a greatdeal of respect for Mark Fenske and most of his work. Just as I have for Neil French and most other contrarians. However the nature of the BDA business these days is increasingly stacked against those who are inevitably viewed as Non-conformists. I have seen so many agencies who have brought in Maverick creative talent to change the perception of the agency, only to marginalize these people, and eventually force them to leave. You mention that the pendulum is starting to swing the other way and accounts are starting to move to smaller creative hot shops… There is an element of truth in that, until you start to look at the work these hot shops then start to produce for their new “big” clients. Crispin Porter & Bogusky is a prime example… Brilliant work for the Mini and some (not all) for Burger King. Then you look at the dreadful, soporif shit they are doing for Miller Lite and it makes you cringe (it’s on my blog) It was announced today that they have just lost the MindSpring account ($60 million) If you look at the TV with dwarfs, fairies and giants talking about Internet access and safety, you have to wonder how many of the people working on the account really understood whatever the “strategy” was. I am more than curious to see what they do with VW… Always remember what Jay Chiat said… “I can’t wait to see how big we become, before we become bad”… Maybe, they can break the rule, but I wouldn’t bet on it… Money corrupts.
Cheers/George
Non-conformists have never been welcome at BDAs as you call them. true. and many, including Mr. Fenske have been optimistic/naive/well-compensated enough to temporarily believe otherwise.
as for CPB, their approach is clearly appreciably different enough from that of the publicly-held BDAs for many clients to see them as a better alternative. and their miller lite work is actually proof of my hypothesis that strategy is an outdated notion. miller’s “strategy” (not cpb’s) has been to engage in a political-style smear campaign against the leader: bud light. this tactic has worked. therefore it is beyond reproach. effectiveness is all, i’m sure you’ll agree.
the crispin miller lite isn’t so much distinguished by strategy as execution. it is undeniably funny and engaging. perhaps against the odds given the crude “strategy”. but it is entertaining and that matters enormously on television.
it remains to be seen what, if any, “strategic” direction they have for the brand. but as CPB knows – and not everyone knows this – execution can BE strategy. and ideally is.