The Value of the Contract Creative: Writers and Other Consultants

There is another inherent value to bringing in strong conceptual contract writers and other creatives than the obvious "we need someone to do this job" factor. This is something I noticed on a recent job. I suppose you could sum it up easily with the phrase "fresh thinking," but that sounds a bit trite without context. It goes like this: Creative agency teams work for a client over time, getting entrenched with the brand identity, living and breathing the brand. No one better understands the brand character than this team. And they learn ways to work that make creating work for their client more profitable (this is an important development for the business). Grooves of process (and thinking) are created. They become efficient. Profitable.

Enter the contract writer. This individual comes from the outside without any preconceptions, but by necessity must quickly learn about the brand and begin producing quality work. The very nature of this process, looking intently at a brand and how to progress it forward, demands a sort of analytic breakdown and rebuilding -- thinking that often has not been done since the team started on the brand. Even if the contractor is not intentionally attempting to point out new ways of looking at brand thinking or process, this process will occur.

Then it becomes an issue of diplomacy. The creative consultant is by definition an outsider. The agency team should be encouraged to invite that outsider, as a project progresses, to share his or her insights on brand thinking and team process. There will be things that that outsider doesn't understand; he or she will have false insights. Conversely, there will be things that the entrenched agency team will think they know -- they've been knowing it for a year already, by god. An open mind is needed here.

So basically, the right creative consultants are good for business. They help agencies rediscover their brands. It's likely, in this case, the contractor will server more as catalyst than innovator. The contract writer will point at an undiscovered path, which the agency team will blaze.

Thinking Like a Kid: Marshmallows and Spaghetti

I just washed a fascinating talk on TED.com about the "Marshmallow Challenge." Teams of four were given 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of masking tape, one yard of string and one marshmallow. The goal is to build, in 18 minutes, the tallest free-standing structure, upon which the marshmallow rests atop.

What's fascinating about the results is how successful kindergarteners were (highly) versus M.B.A. graduates (poorly). The reason is two-fold. First, the M.B.A. graduates have been trained to plan for the perfect solution and then execute, which in this case, as in the real world, leaves them little time to react if that one solution fails. The children simply dove in to the process without jockeying for leadership and were able to execute many iterations and revisions. Second, the marshmallow, when supported by spaghetti sticks is heavier than people realize. So when a single plan uses the assumption of a light marshmallow, and that marshmallow is not placed onto the structure until the end, there is little time to react when the structure collapses. On the whole, 40% of the teams finished the challenge with no successful structure.

I think we all like structure and process. It's a safe feeling place, where deadlines are fixed and people's time is protected. But perhaps the more traditional ad process is a waste of time. Perhaps, what would be more effective is to plan for playtime up front. Playtime by the people building the project, not the executives, not the managers, but the builders, the creative minds. Tell them, here are your spaghetti sticks, your marshmallows, now go try some stuff. Lots of stuff. Go nuts.

Oh, by the way, the most successful group? Engineers and architects. You know, the builders.

Here's the talk.