The group creative director of M&C Saatchi believes that creatives simply have to be interested in everything, or they can’t be great. The more input they get, the better their output. Being easily interested is also an asset when you’re judging awards. Andy Flemming has been judging Adfest’s Film entries all morning. He’s still exuberant about what he has seen. That’s a great thing for advertising in the region.
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Andy is excited about:
BRAVERY. “There are a lot of things that are being tackled in advertising from Asia that I don’t remember really being tackled before. And we’re talking about things like the woman’s role and disability. Conversations about these have been running in the west for a few years now, but the societies here are a slightly different so I’m really pleased to see that they’re being taken seriously. I’ve seen work about the Paralympics and Paralympians and that’s something that some Asian cultures sweep under the rug a little bit, so I’m thrilled to see brave work that’s hitting societal problems. The traditionally patriarchal societies are also realising that women shouldn’t just be the maid, shouldn’t just be the one who cleans the clothes. That’s really encouraging and there’s a lot of work that’s doing it. It’s coming from places like China and Japan, Korea and India. That’s a great sign of change.”
CRAFT. “There have always been wonderful directors here. And there’s some beautifully, beautifully executed work here. But some of it’s a little bit long. People want to be grabbed quite quickly. And no matter how beautiful a film is, if it takes six or seven minutes to get its point across, it just doesn’t work. Obviously the Craft jury will see it in a different way, but looking at it and asking, ‘Is it communicating its idea? Is it a fresh idea, a new idea? And are we getting it quickly – as opposed to having to sit through quite a long film.’ There’s a lot of very emotional, beautifully shot, very slow work that is faultless in its execution but it takes just a little too much time to get to the resolution. Maybe what seems to be a bit of a trend (long form work) is a characteristically Asian thing? Perhaps it’s what Asian people are looking for? Definitely in Australia, any film content has to be engaging quite quickly – especially in the Facebook world. And there is so much film content now. You just have to stand out.
EMOTION. “There’s a lot of very emotional, beautifully shot, very slow work that is faultless in its execution, although I’m not seeing too much humour. I think Asian work has always had a certain degree of emotion, but it’s being executed beautifully here and the acting is second to none. Doesn’t necessarily mean that the idea’s right, but from a performance point of view they’re getting very famous Korean, Chinese and Indian actors and producing gorgeous short films. Of course, my jury is about, ‘Are we getting the idea? Does it take too long to get to it? Do we understand it? And has it been done before?’ So there will be some disappointments.”
Andy Flemming (photobombed)
FINDING BEST IN SHOW (PERHAPS). “There’s still a lot of work that is getting the idea. And I think we just saw a piece of work that is Best in Show. Work that I would be honoured to have written. It’s absolutely gobsmackingly good, one of the best ads I’ve seen in the last ten years. That’s exciting – to actually see something that floors the room. Adfest rules are Bronze is excellent, Silver is “I wish I’d done it” and Gold is ground-breaking. I think it’s definitely ground-breaking.”
CHANGE AT M&C. “We’ve had a huge year. With a lot of changes. We’re a very big agency and obviously any kind of change like that has ripple effect. I was sad to see Ben [Welsh] go, because he’s a very good friend of mine and he’s also one of the nicest people. I loved Andy [DiLallo]. He and I got on very, very quickly and I’ve got a huge amount of respect for him. I think he’s a phenomenally talented creative and leader and motivator. He’s got a great gig at TBWA and he will no doubt kick some phenomenal goals. He has incredible judgement.
“I think we’re in a very good place. We’re making money. We’re doing some really great work. We’ve always done very, very big work for very, very big clients and I think it has always been of a very high standard. I’m very excited about some stuff that’s going to come out in the next three or four months, which I think is going to wow a lot of people.”
BEING PART OF ADVERTISING’S TOMORROW. “M&C is an agency that is always looking to the future. A lot of agencies talk big about innovation but we genuinely do it. There is a huge culture here of not just innovative thinking but also reaching out to companies like Magic Leap in Florida, which is at the spearhead of mixed reality. I’m personally interested in mixed reality – I think it’s going to be one of the most significant things that’s going to affect our industry. So I’m doing all I can to know about it.”
WORK THAT MATTERS. “We genuinely do actively look for things that are going to change the world or change the industry. And we walk the talk. We’ve got Clever Buoy and Fire Blanket, which is not being done for awards. It’s going to protect large areas of bushland and it can sniff out small particles of smoke way before a human being can. So it might be the early warning system that a lot of people in the bush need. We’re lucky to have a bunch of guys who can actually start prototyping and examine how things can work, and that’s why we’ve had a very big success rate.”
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FOSTERING ENTREPRENEURIAL CREATIVES. “I think they have to be entrepreneurial. It’s part of being a creative. If you’re a creative, you have to be interested in a lot of things and if you’re a really, truly highly creative person then you’ve always got something happening. You’re trying to use your talent to make things. We have people doing all sorts of things from solving problems in society to writing books. They don’t just leave their creativity behind when they walk out the door.”
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DIVERSITY AT M&C SAATCHI. “We’re arguably one of the most diverse advertising agencies in Australia. We have, I think, one of the biggest ratios in Australia between men and women in the creative department and that has happened through female creatives coming in with wonderful books and us going, ‘We’ll hire you.’ Those interviews are absolutely no different to meetings with male creatives. We don’t care about age either. M&C has also always been a very grown-up agency. The term, grown-up, came from Tom McFarlane, the patriarch of M&C Saatchi Australia and one of the most advertising brilliant minds I’ve ever met. And because M&C has grown-up problems to solve, we have people who can think like grown-ups. If that means they’re in their forties or fifties, we’re not one of those agencies that says you have to be twenty-six and hip or you don’t get a job. If you can solve big problems for big clients like Optus and NRMA then absolutely, you’re in.”
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