I recently watched a video clip of Google Creative Lab's Creative Director, Ji Lee giving a presentation. It started off with him talking about a project that he worked on when he was in a big advertising industry, addressing the issue on creativity and inspiration. The client was General Mills, and the brief was 'to communicate that Cheerios comes in five different flavors'. He came up with this solution - 'Only their holes taste the same.'
They presented the idea to the client, and everyone loved it, saying that it's simple, clever, smart, incredible and funny. Until one of the clients said wait a minutes, you are supposed to be talking about flavor (the corporate language) not taste. This led to a 45-minutes discussion on taste vs flavor. The smart and awesome idea ended up in the trash, muddled in corporate dialogue and ego etc...
The issue raised here is the line between creativity and effectiveness. From Ji Lee's presentation, and a real marketing case from the PBS documentary Frontline: The Persuaders, I learnt that marketer's main concern is to boost sales, which makes total sense because that is what advertising is all about. Whereas the Art Director or CD's concern is to find ways to produce a new and innovative ad creatively and without being cliché. I've always wondered how and where do you find the balance between the two? Through endless meetings and negotiations? Are there really times when both sides are happy?
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