Well, well. The US election just got interesting. Trump’s slam dunk is now in doubt. Even if he wins, the likelihood of Trump making America great is remote but it’s a very fine campaign slogan. So The Stable has borrowed it for a series that also borrows, without shame or apology, from the attention that the US election race is getting.
Here is its premise: You’re running for president of Adland. Your campaign slogan is Make Advertising Greater. What would you promise? What would you like to make happen?
Maybe it’s something from the past that Adland has forgotten was wonderful. Maybe it’s something that hasn’t been thought of yet (except by you). Maybe it’s just a frustration you could live without or an opportunity it pains to see being missed.
Some of Adland’s smartest creative leaders have already put forward their campaign promises (come back to read them). All of Adland’s smartest creative leaders are welcome to add theirs. (Email candide@thestable.com.au to do that.)
Here is the Make Adland Greater campaign platform of Rob Morrison, creative director, morrison.collective:
First, a clarification. I may share a surname with the brick shitter from Engadine Maccas, but I’m no relation. In fact, I’ve never run for any kind of public office. The closest I’ve come was delivering a controversial ANZAC Day speech as primary school captain. “War is stupid, but the soldiers are not.” Wasn’t too well received.
So, in a way, I’m very similar to my friend, Lord Buckethead. I’m a bystander who’s happy to make some noise but has no real chance of winning.
That said, I love this industry. And I am sad we are where we are. So, if I can be an agitator and make people with real clout wake up, then I’m happy to try.
Here’s where I’d start.
1. Give an industry association real teeth.
This is a drum I’ve been banging for a long time. Full-blown creative pitches will be the death of the industry. No other business does a year’s worth of work for a 1 in 5 shot at getting paid. It’s a massive waste of time, effort and energy.
The ANA (or someone similar) needs to rally the agencies and clients together and say, “This needs to stop.” Credentials presentations? Fine. ‘Chemistry’ meetings? Knock yourself out. But you shouldn’t get to dangle your annual budget over the heads of half the agencies in town for 3-weeks.
To solve it, we need a new accreditation – for agencies and clients. An enforceable code of conduct. Break it and none of the major players will work with you personally. Not the company, you as an individual.
2. Make unpaid internships illegal.
Honestly, I can’t believe this still happens, but it does.
My 22yo daughter was looking for her first job in Adland recently and heard, “Do a 3-month unpaid internship with us and it will probably turn into a job.” Probably? Seriously? The only young people who can afford to do 3-months unpaid are still living at home. The cost of living crisis is bad enough without Adland making it worse.
If your agency is getting paid, then FFS pay your people. Period.
3. Outlaw listening to loudmouths.
No doubt, I’ll lose every vote from researchers and planners for this, but I don’t care.
The industry reliance on focus groups has to stop. The system was flawed in the 1950s when it was introduced and is still flawed. It’s not statistically valid. You only get customers with nothing better to do on a Thursday night. Plus, no matter how good your moderator is, the results get skewed by the loudest in the room.
Yet we make million-dollar creative decisions based on focus groups. Not if I’m in charge.
4. Force award shows to amalgamate or die.
There are just too many award shows. Local. Regional. Global. Vertical. Horizontal. Creative. Effectiveness. We think employees care. We think clients are impressed. We think, we’ve spent so much on the Case Study film, we’ll just enter it again. It’s madness.
Entering is time consuming. It’s expensive. And on award night, the same handful of campaigns clean up (sometimes with the odd colour correction – gold here, bronze there). Award shows have two jobs – reward the great work from last year, inspire the great work next year.
We don’t need 200 different shows to do that.
5. Retrain industry training.
Again, this will be controversial, but AWARD School should not be a ‘rite of passage’ for every Australian creative. It’s so expensive that, again, we’re only attracting one demographic – Eastern Suburbs and North Shore private school kids.
Plus, it perpetuates two false expectations. Finish top 10 and every Adland door will open. Finish outside the top 10 and your career is over. Neither are remotely true. It’s why I admire Rocky Ranallo and Matt Smith for setting up Western Sydney Ad School. A genuine, affordable alternative which spreads the net wider.
But there’s still more we can do. We need to re-launch the AFA Graduate program. We need to train the next Planning genius, the next Account Service star, the next leader in Finance, HR and Project Management.
It’s our industry, we should be growing our own.
6. Force every marketer to use ChatGPT.
Honestly, the more people use it the more they see its flaws – like Google Glass. Far from being the death of copywriting, clients quickly see the output is awful. I’ve recently taken multiple briefs on putting ‘Real Intelligence’ into copy the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ delivered.
The sooner clients see it fail, the faster they run back to the agency.
So, that’s the ‘Not-Scott-Morrison’ platform to Make Adland Work Again. With the right backing it might just work.
Or maybe I’m just another monster raving looney.
