THE EXCITEMENT OF CREATIVE
Gerry Graf
Founder and Chief Creative Officer , Barton F . Graf 9000
“ The internet has swallowed everything . It swallowed TV , it swallowed print , it swallowed newspapers , music and books . But it didn ’ t and it won ’ t ever swallow Out-of-Home .”
Last year I spent some time down in Florida speaking at the annual USA Out-of-Home ( OOH ) media conference and judging the OBIE Awards . The speaking part was fun . The judging is always hard . You have to sift through all the bad work , and worse , all the mediocre work . The bad at least gets the blood flowing . You notice the bad . The mediocre is mindnumbing – a slow punch to the face that makes you want to quit advertising . But then you get to the great .
I really hate it when other people do great work . When I see great ideas I get really mad and really jealous . It makes me feel like a failure . Thankfully , low self-esteem has always been a great motivator for me .
After my ego has been completely destroyed , the good part starts . I get to talk about the work with talented creative people . We just sit around at lunch and discuss what we liked and why we liked it . I love those times ; it ’ s like going to school with very talented teachers . And I see things I didn ’ t even know were possible in advertising . My creative mind expands and I feel like a kid in a brand new playground with new toys and rides . I saw work that combined an OOH digital screen , motion sensors , and some really crafty use of data , and I started laughing . It dawned on me that OOH is the oldest form of marketing . I think it was Jeff Goodby – Co-Chairman and Partner of Goodby Silverstein & Partners – who said that cave paintings were the first OOH ads . ‘ We Got The Best Mammoth Just 5 Miles Ahead . Exit 5 ’ to translate the Lascaux Caves into modern-day language . This literal Neanderthal of a medium is now where many of the digital , mobile and technological breakthroughs are coming from . And it ’ s just the beginning . Pokémon GO was out for just a week before I started getting client requests to begin concepting Augmented Reality experiences out in the real world .
The internet has swallowed everything . It swallowed TV , it swallowed print , it swallowed newspapers , music and books . But it didn ’ t and it won ’ t ever swallow OOH . I guess it ’ s hard to swallow the Earth . Unless you ’ re Galactus . But only Galactus is Galactus . You simply can ’ t replicate , on a small screen , the grandeur and real-life experience you get from great OOH advertising .
OOH has always been a showcase for brilliant creative ideas . The best ideas are simple . And OOH forces you to think simply . When someone is walking down the street or driving by at 60 mph you need something that will grab their attention in a second . Now that OOH is connected , the creative possibilities are endless . And its impact is even more massive .
Don ’ t get me wrong ; there are still painfully mediocre OOH ads . But when creative minds work together with creative media people and creative technologists , using all the new and old tools to breakthrough , OOH does stuff you can ’ t do anywhere else . It lets you be contextual and interact with your location . It can be visually stunning and epic . The availability of real-time data has made for some incredible pieces . I saw some work from Canon that instructed amateur photographers ( that would be all of us ) on the best way to take photographs based on current weather conditions and time of day . Everything is integrated now . Everything is multiplatform . OOH has embraced this . It ’ s a creative person ’ s playground .
But let ’ s not forget the good old-fashioned poster takeovers . My old boss , Lee Clow , would love to talk about ‘ owning a city ’. He would always launch a new campaign with OOH . He ’ d buy up all the key OOH locations and have the whole town talking about his campaign . Apple continued that tradition this year with the fantastic Apple TV ( p . 86 – 87 ) and iPhone 6 work ( p . 10 – 19 ). I actually saw someone taking a picture with their iPhone of an iPhone ad that was about pictures of things people shot with their iPhones . Brilliant ! All major marketers now understand that creativity and breakthrough are the most important parts of a marketing plan . Five years ago I decided to start an agency because I noticed a trend . I was working at a big global network at the time and saw huge marketers like Procter & Gamble and General Mills pushing for more ‘ creative ’ work . This was not always the case . Traditionally , these two powerhouses were about as conservative as they come . But they were now giving assignments to agencies with great creative reputations . Old Spice was moved to Wieden and we all know what happened with that . Conservative brands had finally figured out that no one had to look at their advertising anymore . There were a million ways to skip their commercials , ignore their free standing inserts and block their banners . They realised that you had to create advertising that people wanted to watch , click and share . ‘ Creativity ’ – the ability to make people actively want to engage with advertising – was now more valuable than anything else an advertising agency could offer .
The desire for creative work and the creative opportunities OOH now offers excites me . I can ’ t wait to be even more mad , jealous and depressed at this year ’ s show .
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