Imagination’s Post

I'm grateful to have been selected as a judge for Creativepool's annual awards in the brand category. It's an incredible privilege to review, analyse, and be inspired by the creative talent on display. Having now completed the judging, I have been reflecting. The category is very large and varied (understandably so), with submissions ranging from huge industry giants to up-and-coming boutique studios and individuals. The fees (and consequently the time) these companies and individuals would have commanded are night and day, let alone the resources at their disposal. With all the above considerations, how would you approach comparing these submissions fairly? Creativepool does a great job of sharing a judges' pack and splitting out a separate skills-based category, which helps when contemplating how to approach scoring and commenting on submissions. I tried to take a rounded approach by asking myself how the submission responded to the brief, whether the creative pushed boundaries and was inspirational, whether the creative was well crafted (even though I know there is a separate skills category), how happy the client was, and what results were achieved. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how you'd tackle this challenge. #creativepool #awards #branding #judging #branddesign

Each year, ADWEEK's Creative 100 list recognizes the most creative and innovative professionals across advertising, marketing, media, filmmaking and much more. ADWEEK's editors curate the final list, but it's also open for external nominations. Please consider submitting someone you admire or even nominate yourself – especially if you're someone who doesn't usually put yourself forward for awards. Can't wait to see your picks. #creativity #advertising #marketing

Always energizing when the ATL creative community comes together. Last night we partnered with The One Club for Creativity to bring in students and pros for some good ole networking and a candid conversation about portfolios and elevating your work. IF YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT, WE GOT SOME NUGGETS FOR YA: 1. Don't bury the lede. Make sure your best pieces of work are the first ones people see. 2. Put yourself into to your book. Make it as personal as possible so it doesn’t get lost amongst the others. 3. BRAG! This is your opportunity to give yourself allll credit and call out how you contributed to the work. 4. Make it an experience. Communicate the back story to each of your peices and create a narrative that makes people want to keep reading (PRO TIP: grab a copywriter if you need one!) Shout out to The One Club for the continued guidance, to Suite Serenity for the tunes, and to everyone who showed up and shared their perspectives. 🙏 S/O The One Club for Creativity- Atlanta Chapter, Chelsea Phillips Tafoya, Cleo Bess Williams, Will Benham, Ashley Andrews, Reginald Harrison, Zalika Yavlinskiy, Sydney Toner, Annalisa Mendoza, Sam Fuller, Melissa Withorn, Carmelle Kendall, M.A. #TOCC #ATL #PortfolioReviews #Chemistry #Advertising

Click the article below to explore more about making the most of creative thinking and ideation, and also discover more about Own The Floor, Playmaker Experiential’s dance programme 👇

Attending Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year? Keep 30 mins on Tuesday mng free & come over to the Forum stage. Gautam Reghunath and I ragebait on Pricing Creativity - the karma, curse and cure to our strangely priced industry. On how we got here over 6 decades. On what the employee-hour based pricing has done to us. Why it's at the core of every other issue the industry faces. And what cures for a confident, high-risk, high-growth future for advertising actually looks like. PS - We MIGHT also dish out free beer as part of the act 🍻 https://lnkd.in/gGZfWfUa

Navigating the realm of managing creatives is undeniably an adventure. I speak from experience, being one myself! Within our team brimming with creatives, we're in a perpetual state of refining best practices. The real challenge lies not in generating novel ideas—creativity flows endlessly among us. Instead, it's in the art of execution. Drawing from our journey, here's some guidance: ➡️ Deadlines! Embrace exploration while respecting deadlines. They're pivotal in ensuring tasks reach fruition. ➡️ Pressure! Many creatives thrive under pressure (myself included), but applying it earlier prevents last-minute rushes. ➡️ Mock-ups! Initiate a mock-up stage to visualize rough concepts and discuss the underlying vision. Regular check-ins with our creative minds, witnessing their evolving vision manifest, pave the way for our finest productions.

In the mystical realm of CreativeVille, where ideas spread freely and imagination knows no bounds, there exists a peculiar phenomenon known as the Brief-lacking Clienticus. These elusive beings venture into the domain of creative agencies armed with naught but a whisper of an idea and a glimmer of hope. "Make it pop!" "Do your magic!" "Create the unprecedented!" they decree, as if the elixir of marketing magic lies within those three elusive headlines. Thus, the valiant creatives embark on an epic quest, navigating risky waters of ambiguity and scaling mountains of uncertainty. Through the fog of confusion and the labyrinth of vague directives, they forge ahead, armed with determination and a hefty dose of caffeine. Yet amidst the chaos, a spark of brilliance emerges, reminding us that even in the absence of a proper brief, creativity knows no bounds. #Creativity #brief #agencylife #betweenthelines #btlcreative

Entertain or Die is the modern-day blueprint for stealing Share of Voice. Don't take my word for it, take WARC's. That's the tile of our latest thought piece together. Today, purpose fatigue, atomised attention spans, the rise of new media and a desire for authentic original content means the ‘old way’ of brand building is now being challenged. A new class of brands are defying the odds and winning Share of Voice (SOV) based on creativity, innovation and entertainment. This essay (our second piece for WARC) looks into: 1 / The makeup of the Entertainment Index™ which ranks all of the brands in Entetain or Die (a blended score of owned and earned metrics across social, PR and search). 2 / A breakdown of 3 of the Entertainer archetypes including The Scriptwriter and The Collaborative Cameleon. 3 / The findings of the report, like the fact an entertainment-first strategy can often benefit big brands even more than small ones. You'll need a WARC subscription to read the full thought piece. BUT if you follow me and want a copy I'm happy to oblige. Link in the comments. ✌️ #WARC #EntertainOrDie #Entertainment  

💡A great reminder from Nadja Lossgott (joint CCO AMV BBDO) of the importance of originality of ideas and great craft when it comes to making truly stand out work. And that it isn’t easy but is certainly worth fighting for. Have you checked out this years D&AD award winners? — #advertising #maketing #creativity

#ProTip for anyone in any creative industry: Judge #award shows. There is no faster way to consume a volume of garden-variety case studies of work in the wild that the #client and/or #agency thought was worthy of recognition. Typically, we only see summaries for a few winners in the final event. Judging award entries forces me to apply an objective rating system without the pressure of executing the work for a client. Therefore, it fine-tunes the lens through which I view all of our #creative work at Red Door Interactive: ☑ Is the objective framed right? Does it set the right expectation? ☑ Does the insight catalyze differentiating work? ☑ Is the strategy right? ☑ Does this idea deliver on the objective, bullseye the insight, and pay off on the strategy? ☑ Does the execution maximize the idea? ☑ How will we measure success? I judged 15x the volume of work than I normally do this week. That effort, while time-consuming, will make our work even better next week.