Creativity should always be the means and not the end

Much of the formal as well as informal debate centred around just where the ad industry is headed and how fast it could get there.

Issues like transformation, creativity, branding, integration and image featured prominently. There are many people with ideas, after all it's the ad industry isn't it?

There are different perspectives and different agendas but the common ground is a concern for an industry that seems to have lost its way as well as its bearings.

The awards have been covered in other releases but one bears repeating. There was no ad of the year as "not one matches up to the standard."

An interesting debate as to whether one should award the top ad even if it doesn't come close to last year's winner which was Lowe Bull Calvert Pace with their Dulux paint campaign.

Setting a standard or benchmark and maintaining it is a tricky problem. There will always be those that disagree and there will be mud that is slung. But raising the bar can only be a good thing.

At the risk of sounding philosophical the major challenge is to ask the right questions. In fact the answers are not really important because an industry that thrives on creativity and innovation will stall if it reaches consensus or conclusion.

Richard Block, global planning director, J Walter Thompson Europe, Middle East and Africa, quoted Woody Allen about brands being like sharks, they move forward or they die.

Matthew Bull, chairman and CEO, The Lowe Bull Group, raised the question of just who is killing creativity. He never really answered it but simply stressed the ongoing and constant state of flux that is true creativity.

Business continuity is an IT catchphrase but in the ad industry and communications as a whole it means building ideas and then building ideas and then building ideas.

Ideas that work are often not really new ideas but simply ideas that have been reworked, refined, tweaked, polished and even accidental ones that simply arrived on the scene with impeccable timing.

Questions have been asked many times of the industry and will be asked again. In fact if questions are not being asked about direction it is a natural progression towards complacency.

Tony Koenderman left Financial Mail recently to start AdReview and yet he was there at the AdFocus awards on Monday night. In fact there was a Tony Koenderman award that was given to John Farquhar, editor-in-chief of Advantage magazine, for long-term achievement.

Sounds bizarre having rivals working together, but that is co-opetition. Expertise and insight is not gained studying textbooks and memorising theory, it is gained at the coal-face through hard years of experience.

People that are passionate about media, marketing and advertising are collaborating to stimulate debate. Jeremy Maggs who stepped into Koenderman's shoes at short notice has also asked crucial questions about the industry and where it thinks it is going.

The overall result of the past month with awards and conference and debate is that there is healthy scepticism as well as creative drive. Constantly asking questions and not waiting for conclusive answers is proof that there is a dynamic at work.

Mixing and matching variables to build a workable marketing mix is not and never has been an exact science. If it was that easy then computers would run the show.

Human interaction, frailty, fallibility, weakness, passion, obsession, insight, understanding and judgement are just some of the factors that drive true creativity.

The very act of questioning the health of the industry and searching frantically for a pulse proves it is alive and kicking. Creativity should always be the means and not the end.