The UK's pervasive culture of cynicism and complaint stifles creative ambition. In contrast, the American market exhibits a relentless, forward-moving energy that is more supportive of risk-taking, even if it appears delusional to Brits.
The moments in a customer journey where expectations are lowest (e.g., a mandatory safety video) are the greatest opportunities for brand building. By turning a dull requirement into extravagant entertainment, a brand can generate immense goodwill and memorability.
As a creative business scales, its operational needs and existing structure can start dictating strategy, stifling the original vision. Founders must actively resist this inertia to avoid simply servicing the machine they've built.
The creative industry is harming itself more through internal cynicism and inaction than from external threats like AI. Creatives spend too much time writing thought pieces about a perceived decline instead of actively making groundbreaking work.
Instead of ads, create physical objects or experiences that embody a brand's story. These "narrative objects," like The Ordinary's "Periodic Fable," generate more lasting impact and conversation because the object becomes the story, not just a vehicle for it.
The traditional client service model is flawed because it forces ambitious creatives to seek approval from clients who often have lower creative standards and care less about the outcome. This dynamic inherently limits the potential of the work.
The success of an experiential event depends on how its story travels online. Every element—from signage to security guards—must be art-directed like a film shoot to produce compelling, self-explanatory images for the much larger secondary audience who weren't there.
A study showed a purely emotional bank ad drove higher scores on rational attributes like "good customer service" than an ad that explicitly stated those facts. Making consumers feel good about a brand leads them to assume the rational proof points are also true.