Maybe I'm Gravy

Side Projects Are The New Main Course

For advertising creatives, side projects are nothing new. But a few factors have made today’s side project more fulfilling than ever.

In some ways, we’re in a golden age of advertising. The projects coming out of ad agencies are more strategic, useful and engaging than ever. Agencies aren’t just making ads, but ad-like objects that deliver utility and entertainment. Agency work is more liked, used, and shared. Technology is running rampant.

That’s all fantastic. But there’s one little factor getting in the way of a golden age.

Advertising isn’t as creatively filling as it used to be.

Agency work used to star Idea and Execution. Now the cast on any given project includes Strategy, UX, Social, Tech and Analytics. The stage has gotten crowded. Projects coming out of agencies are more multi-dimensional and unexpected than ever, but the spotlight isn’t always shining on creativity.

Agency process has evolved to shortchange creativity, too. Budgets and timelines have shrunk. Clients favor decisions backed by data, not gut instinct. More work is project-based, meaning that trust formed by agency-of-record relationships are becoming a thing of the past.

This isn’t a knock on agency projects as a whole. I love what I’m doing now more than when I made retail-based :30 second product-centric TV spots. What it all means is that if you’re a creative, agency projects aren’t offering the same creative high they used to. You need to go elsewhere to get your creative fix. Enter the side project.

Side projects aren’t for the sidelines anymore. 

In the past, side projects were a hobby or afterthought. The writer with the half-written novel in his top drawer. The art director who paints or makes t-shirts on the side. You’ve heard the stereotypes and probably met them, too.

But these days, you can inject the same attributes that clients and agencies covet — engaging, useful, sharable — into a project void of agency or client restrictions. You can make it beautiful. And, do it right, and you can watch it spread on social, just as much as anything by a brand.

Agency work used to have higher budget, production value and superior reach to side projects. But the ubiquity of social and easy access to coding have evened the playing field. Side projects are good for your day job, too. When you put a thoughtful side project in your book, creative directors know you’re a hard worker and they see the way you think.

Side projects come in all different shapes and sizes. Some are made overnight, others turn into full-time jobs.

Side projects can do good. Saneel Radia founded Greatest Good. It’s a platform that allows professionals to offer their services to anyone who wants it, while helping a charity. When Sandy struck New York, Jaime Schwarz created I Stand Buy, helping businesses near his hometown recover.

Side projects can be art. Some people see GIFs as silly. Tim Nolan and Jen Lu saw them as today’s version of pop art. They created cachemonet.

Side projects can tune into the culture zeitgeist. When Banksy came to New York, Damjan Pita and Derek Harms built StealBanksyNY.com overnight, helping people find (and steal) the latest Banksy.

Side projects can solve problems. Brothers Adam and Ben Long noticed that too many writers today have a tendency to overwrite, creating long, flowery sentences that are difficult to follow. So they created Hemingwayapp to help writers write more bold and clear, like Hemingway.

Side projects can offer an unfiltered browser window into your soul. Heather Payne didn’t like how developing was a man’s game so she left her full-time job to found Ladies Learning Code.

All these side projects have a few things in common. People figured out a better way of doing things. And they did something about it.

Don’t let figuring out what to make be your biggest hurdle.

The question isn’t should you make. The question is what to make.

Be yourself. Think of something that’s uniquely you. People should look at your side project and feel like they’re looking at a close-up of your brain and say damn, he/she really likes cats.

Learn something. What’s something you don’t know how to do that you’d like to know how to do? Do that. No matter how the project goes, you’ll end up ahead.

Be realistic. Aim too big and it won’t get done.

Solve a problem. Think of something that annoys you. Do something about it.

Ride the wave. Take advantage of a timely, social phenomenon that people are already talking about.

Forget failure. There is no failure. There is only do or don’t do. Your goal shouldn’t be to get a million hits. It should be to make something real, fun, useful, authentic, engaging. Do that, and you’ll be fine. And it might get huge, who knows. Either way, you'll be one step closer to success.  

If you’re a creative person, you can’t afford to not work on a side project.

Side projects satiate creative mind in a way that a lot of today’s agency work can’t. Do one right, and it quickly becomes the center of attention.

Am I forgetting anything? Leave it in the comments. Better yet, share your favorite side project.

A New Adventure Begins

People get into creative advertising for many different reasons. Some aspire to be creative, some crave fame, some think it sounds more fun or accessible or easier to get into than fields like architecture and engineering.

I got into advertising because I like challenges. For years, my personal mantra has been “Take the path of maximum resistance," which I openly stole from Deutsch CD and my former Chiat partner Jin Park. I loosely translate this to mean that the hardest way of doing something can often be the most rewarding, and at the very least there's more to learn along the way.

In advertising, every project presents a new and different set of challenges. Especially these days, between various platforms and channels, digital and social, mobile and experiential. The industry has never been more fragmented. When I went to portfolio school, there was print and there was TV. 99% of advertising was one of these two mediums. But in today's advertising environment, you can't just take what worked last time and apply it to the next brief. It's not just the piece of art that's different, it's the frame the art lives in.

A few years of doing traditional advertising taught me that I didn't find traditional challenging enough. I wanted to take on digital. So I freelanced on all sorts of digital projects for about a year, until I had the chops to join a strategic, tech-based agency that was all about ideas and innovations. That was over 4 years ago, which is just short of an eternity in advertising years.

After overcoming all types of digital challenges for the past 4 years, it’s time to take on a new challenge. One I think is my second biggest challenge yet, well behind baby. I’ve gone and joined Leo Burnett NY, a small and growing outpost of the storied global network that focuses on branded arts and entertainment. I couldn’t be more excited and scared.

I don't believe in ads, which is why I went digital in the first place. I believe in platforms that have a purpose and content that entertains. After having a hand in creating dozens of useful platforms, I'm ready to join a team that's all about producing amazing content that gets people talking. 

After all, I didn’t get into advertising to be comfortable. And I’m certainly about to start taking the easy route now. Here’s to new things!

----

Here are some of the projects that made me want to join Leo Burnett NY in the first place:

Stage a Broadway play called 8 Million Protagonists.

Launch tech start-up FiLIP, a smartwatch for kids

Help the UN draw attention to World Humanitarian Day.

Collect the most interesting stories from people in the world's most interesting city.

Getting To Know Branded Entertainment

Branded entertainment is one of those topics getting a fair amount of buzz in advertising. BBH recently opened an office in LA to focus on branded entertainment, and more brands are creating content that fits into this category. So what is branded entertainment, exactly?

Erica Sheftman recently covered the importance of branded entertainment on the Percolate blog. It's a topic that's incredibly relevant to me right now. The article uses Apple's acquisition of Beats to lead into a broader discussion on the value and importance of branded entertainment. Here is the final third of the article:   

THE BEST BRANDS DON’T JUST SELL, THEY DELIGHT

“The Game Before the Game” is a subtle reflection of this shift in content direction. Director Elderkin said in a Time interview, “The feeling I got from the get-go was that the whole project was driven by the tight relationships Beats has with these talents. The athletes and musicians worked with us as if we were all part of the same family. It didn’t feel like they were just sponsored athletes endorsing a product.”

The end product is a rich example of branded entertainment, a particular offshoot of content marketing wherein brands create entertaining content to capture and maintain consumer attention for prolonged periods of time. This genre of content marketing enables brands to shift from being mere sponsors, to creators and curators. With “The Game Before the Game,” Beats Electronics, and thus Apple, have become not only publishers but entertainers: destinations for moving, grip-at-your-emotions theater that is culturally relevant, and expertly curated.

We’ve talked before about the need for brands to tell good stories, and they’ve existed long before Beats came along. Other celebrated moments in which brands told compelling, emotional narratives include:

• Intel and Toshiba’s crowdsourced social film, “The Beauty Inside”
• Chipotle’s “The Scarecrow,” showing how a fast food chain can take a stance on processed goods
• Dove’s real beauty campaign, “Beauty Sketches”
• Fashion house Chloé’s collaboration with the New York City Ballet (a personal favorite)

 

  

How The Technology In Your Pocket Can Help Reduce Gun Crime

Every iPhone has a 'Find My Phone' feature. Why doesn't every gun have a tracking technology that registers its movement?

What if authorities knew the location of every one of these lethal weapons after they left the store?

What happened in Newton is the one of the saddest things that has ever happened in the United States. While the tragedy has led to unprecedented online chatter about gun control, that doesn’t mean that privately owned guns are going to be banned or new gun control legislation is going to happen anytime soon. There’s too much history, red tape and bureaucracy in our country. There are too many people who believe that the right to bare arms applies to their handguns and semiautomatic weapons that serve no useful purpose other than to kill. Gun control has been debated before and it will be debated again. But even if there’s new legislation, people who want to get their hands on a gun are going to find a way to get one.

 

We need to stop asking how a person ends up owning a gun or why they want to own one. Sensible people are never going to understand why someone would want a lethal weapon in their house, just like gun advocates are never going to back down that the second amendment gives them gun rights and the reason they want one is none of your damn business.

What if the question wasn’t how or why, but where?

When a psycho decides to commit a heinous crime, the location of a gun is more important than how or why they have the gun. Tragedies like the one in Newton happen when guns enter public spaces and no one knows a lethal weapon is around until it’s too late. Technology exists that could alert the authorities when a gun enters a location, such as a school or a mall, where it could be used to cause harm.

If guns were equipped with tracking technology, the kind that help you find your iPhone after you leave it in a cab, there would be a huge reduction in gun crime. Future tragedies could be prevented.

Even before tragedy struck, tracking would make an impact. People who know or think they’re being tracked would be less likely to commit a felony. People who steal a gun would hesitate to use it because they’re not sure it’s being tracked or not. In the case of people who don't care, like the psycho Adam Lanza, tracking would alert the authorities that a gun was dangerously close to a school and they could respond faster.   

For tracking to work, not only would all new guns need to have the technology built in, all current guns would have to be retrofitted. This would take years. But from day one having a small number of guns being tracked would help reduce gun crime. There are about 200 million privately owned guns in the United States. In 2011, handguns killed over 10,000 people in our country. No matter which way you look at it, any action that reduces this number is a step in the right direction.

Is this a compromise to making privately owned guns outright illegal? Yes. But it's a realistic compromise and a sensible use of technology that already exists. While some people would call this type of tracking an invasion of privacy, I’d argue that it only impedes gun owners’ rights when they try to take a weapon into a place where it shouldn’t be. I’d also argue that if you choose to own a gun, there are certain responsibilities you have to be held accountable for. It’s like clicking the Terms & Conditions box on Facebook. You get some, you give some. Gun ownership needs to be a two-way street.

We have the technology. We use it in our fucking phones for chrissakes. It's time we use tracking technology to save lives. If guns were tracked, the how or why someone had a gun would matter less and the where someone had a gun would matter more.

The how and why people own a gun still needs to be better regulated, but adding a third factor to the equation would contribute to a reduction in gun crime and lead to fewer tragedies. Location matters.

Enough debate. Let technology do what it’s supposed to do. Make the world a better, safer place.

 

Don’t Be Afraid To Fail

 

In the past, brands would rely on complex marketing research and complicated business plans. This system worked like a charm. No one cared that it took forever. Then this Internet thing came along. And everything in the world changed except how companies build their brand.

Many brands continue to rely on market research when they could be turning to market evidence. This is what brands have to gain from social networks. Not likes, not follows, not fans. But market evidence: the massive amounts of real-time data and feedback that people give up for free online.

Google Managing Director Torrence Boone talks about the importance of getting a “minimum viable product” on the market. This is the absolute bare essence of a campaign or experience. It's not perfected, it's not heavily researched. It's built and pushed out of the nest. The important thing is putting something into people’s hands that they can respond to. Launch it, get market feedback, revise accordingly, repeat. Start-ups like Path, Instagram, and Foursquare have done this effectively. And, if you look at their history, their platforms have changed dramatically. And they’re doing pretty okay now.

Part of the problem is that most of the briefs or strategies that agencies work with don’t take iterations, failures and rethinking into consideration. Clients aren’t used to working this way so they don’t allocate time or money for this kind of market research. They can’t afford a failure or multiple iterations, even if it means an improved product in the long run. Because of the ways brands are built, they usually focus on results, not ideas. They don't have time, resources or money to iterate and see how people use their product and why. So they want something that’s safe, something that doesn’t ruffle any feathers. Something that they can put out into the world and forget about.

Problem is, they're not the only ones who forget about it. 

For brands, failure isn’t an option but, due to an outdated process, it's often acheived. For tech start-ups, failure is an understood part of the process. It doesn't guarante eventual success. But it helps more than it hurts. The faster you fail, the faster you can fix what's wrong and get it right.

We’re living in a world where the fast are going to beat up on the slow. That’s why the start-up model has the agency model in a sleeper hold. Failing isn’t the same as being a failure. It’s a natural step in the progression of creating something great.

And that’s perfectly okay.

Building a More Agile Agency

 

Since that fateful day agencies started sprouting up along Madison Avenue, they’ve been modeled after clients. They've been built for process management and stakeholder management. Good business has been the center, even if creativity is the overcoat. But the business of advertising has changed and agencies can't be successful by mirroring how clients work and operate anymore.

Clients want work faster and cheaper and better. To deliver, agencies need to become more nimble, flexible and cost-effective. Which, like most things, is easier said then done.

During Creative Week, Google Managing Director Torrence Boone brought together leaders from three of Google’s agency partners. AKQA/My CCO Rei Inamoto, BBH CEO Greg Anderson and Big Spaceship CCO Mike Lebowitz. Everyone weighed in on their own definitions of agility.

There's no formula for being more agile, so understandably each agency has its own unique process. Based on the Google work each agency has produced (What Do You Love? by Big Spaceship, Chrome spots by BBH, AdWords Thanks You and Google Sandbox by AKQA), they all know what they’re doing.

So… how the hell do they do it?

Reduce logistics.
Rei Inamoto pointed to eliminating the studio department as one way that AKQA has reduced logistics, leaving final design responsibilities to creatives. Removing the studio layer means that creatives are more invested from start to finish – they execute their ideas instead of handing off to specialists.

Operate like a newsroom.
Agencies need to get out of the meeting business and get into the making business. There’s too much overhead, too much process, and too many barriers getting in the way of an agency’s #1 goal: producing work. Greg Anderson talked about getting his creative team to operate like a living organism that produces content.

Replace perfection with experimentation.
These days, it’s more important to get the basics of a product or campaign to market. Don’t worry about making it perfect – get the bare essence of your product into people’s hands. Launch it, get market feedback, revise accordingly, repeat. This is what successful start-ups like Path, Instagram, and Foursquare have been doing. And they’re all doing pretty OK.

Switch the agency mentality.
Agencies like BBH built their reputation on creating masterpieces and crafting their work to perfection. This attitude needs to go. Everyone at an agency needs to get on board and understand that it’s more important to create work faster.

Hire doers, not thinkers.
Greg Anderson said that BBH has moved away from hiring idea teams – teams that think but can’t execute. Teams that lack the craft to build the idea they come up with are just getting in the way. Michael Lebowitz added that being clever and having good taste is no longer a job. 


Cast for talent.
Greg Anderson called BBH the land of misfit toys. They look for people with the right mindset, regardless of department or title. With the right people in place, an agency can cast for projects, not staff for them. Interpersonal relationships matter; good working relationships create additional efficiencies.

Deconstruct the process.
Being agile isn’t about quick fixes. It’s about finding a new path to the end goal of creativity. Michael Lebowitz gives his teams a framework instead of a process. This allows each team to bubble up their own unique process that works within the overall framework. His teams almost operate as mini-agencies. Unique processes lead to more unique work and allow each team to focus on their strengths instead of worrying about adhering to an inflexible system.

Integrate every department.
The different stages of each project shouldn’t feel like a baton pass. The brief can’t spend six weeks with strategy before being handed off to the creative department, who suddenly only have two weeks to come up with an idea, who then hand off to tech, who have one week to execute it. At AKQA, Rei Inamoto says the goal is to combine strategy, storytelling and software to build emotional and useful connections with people. This means that technology, creative and strategy work together at every stage of a project. When each team is a stakeholder from the beginning, each team member is more invested.

Work for a company that works differently.
Maybe you're not in a position to change the agency model on your own. But you can support it and put yourself in a better position by joining an agile agency. One that doesn’t just understand the importance of agility but understands how to implement it.

While there's no formula to agility, an agency can make a plan. One that starts at the top and doesn't stop until the work goes out the door. In this agile age, one thing is for certain: the inflexible will be left behind. And when they are, it's best to not be working there.

The Big Idea Isn’t What It Used To Be

This is another post I wrote for Creative Week.

THE BIG IDEA ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE

By NATHAN ARCHAMBAULT

I went to a Creative Week session last Monday at City Winery called THE IDEA MATTERS….STILL. It opened with the panel (a bunch of Deutsch dudes: Jerome Austria, Bud Caddell, Morgan Carroll, Steve Nesle and Liz Gumbinner) talking about what they thought of their topic. 

They asked themselves if it was bullshit. 

And they concluded – spoiler alert! – yes and no. 

Yes, because if you’re a creative, you know that “The Big Idea” still matters. 

No, because while the importance of “The Big Idea” hasn’t changed, what it isabsolutely has.

So how do you know if you’ve come up with “The Next Big Idea”…or something else? 

Here are some new rules for nailing it. 

Don’t mistake a tactic for an idea. This is hard to do with so many gimmicky technologies out there. Lots of so-called Big Ideas are simply cool uses of technology. And these projects can be cool and successful and groundbreaking. While that’s great for technology, it’s not so great if you’re trying to be a conceptual creative.

Remove the glitter. You can reduce the best ideas down to a single sentence – the Deutsch guys talked about writing it down and leaving out the strategy, the visuals, really everything except the thought. Without all the glitter, does is still feel like a Big Idea? Or is it really an average idea wearing too much makeup?

Don’t perfect your Big Idea. It’s more important to get it out there for people to play with. Then, based on how people interact with it, figure out how to make it better. In digital, it’s easier to experiment with an idea and iterate. The important thing isn’t polishing your idea to perfection. It’s putting it in people’s hands and creating the experience that people want. Look at how Instagram and Twitter and Facebook change every few months. That’s because they’re not worried about being perfect. They’re looking for the feedback it takes to make their experience a better one.

Don’t put it all out there. Now that everything can be viewed or visited over and over again, give people a reason to spend more time with your idea. People are looking for experiences they can play with or learn from. They don’t want everything placed on a silver, pixelated platter. People like to debate online, so let them. Hold something back and give them something to talk about. The Deutsch guys talked about their online VW video The Bark Side – the one with dogs barking The Imperial March from Star Wars. The script called for dressing up all the dogs as Star Wars characters. At the last minute they decided to leave costumes off half the dogs. Instead of making it obvious which dogs were which characters, they let people debate who was who. There’s an Ewok, and Chewbacca, but is that Obi Wan or the Emperor? If you can’t tell, watch it again!

We’re still creatives looking for the next Big Idea. 

But as you go hunting for it, remember that it’s not just “The Big Idea” that matters – it’s how you get to it.

 

What Week Is This?

I wrote this piece for Creative Week. Check it out on their blog.

 

WHAT WEEK IS THIS?

I think it’s Creative Week. 

Or maybe it’s Advertising Week. 

It’s definitely not Internet Week – that’s coming up next week. 

SXSW Interactive happened two months ago, so it can’t be that – and I’m pretty sure Cannes is still a month away. Is there an award show this week? Maybe someone will win a Clio or a Webby or a Pencil or an Addy or an Innie or an Outtie.  

What week isn’t Creative Week? 

Last week, this week, next week. They’re all creative weeks. 

We’re not creative because we’re in advertising; we’re in advertising because we’re creative. 

Because 99 percent of advertising really isn’t all that great – and it’s up to us to make it better. Maybe we can add to the 1 percent of advertising that’s truly amazing. Start by building it to 2 percent. Then 5. Then 20. 

Then who knows? 

Anything’s possible.

Because we never stop being creative. And creating. And coming up with ideas. And coming up with cool new ways to bring those ideas to life.

We don’t need more Weeks with a capital W. We need more time in the day to make things happen.

Here’s to Creative Week.

This week and every week.

 

What I Learned at SXSW Interactive 2012

This year I went to SXSW Interactive for the first time. While there, I talked to people and I saw people speak. Then I crammed what I could into a lightweight, handy Keynote. This is what I learned.

SXSW Interactive 2012: a collection of learnings, summaries and takeaways

View more presentations from Nathan Archambault

The keynotes, presentations and panels covered in this deck:

Ambient Location and the Future of the Interface
Presenter: Amber Case
Summary: We’re already cyborgs. But the technology isn’t inside of us. It’s in our pockets.

How to Harvest Consumer Intent from the Social Web
Presenters: Mullen CIO Edward Boches, Difference Engine Founder Farrah Bostic, Vayner Media co-founder AJ Vaynerchuk, and Springpad co-founder Jeff Janer
Summary: Brands try to insert themselves into our social graphs. But there’s a much more seamless and natural fit into our lives: interest graphs.

Create More Value Than You Capture
Presenters: Andrew Mcafee Principal Research Scientist MIT and Tim O'Reilly Founder, CEO O'Reilly Media
Summary: Jobs are being outsourced not just to low-wage countries, but to machines. We need to rethink how our economy works.  

The End of Business as Usual
Presenters: Rock God Billy Corgan and Altimeter Group Principal Brian Solis
Summary: People have made the model change. But business leaders can’t bitch about it. They have to do something about it.

Why Your Car Will Be the 5th Screen in Your Life
Presenters: Tina Unterlaender, Director of Mobile, AKQA and Anupam Malhotra Manager, Connected Vehicle Audi Of America Inc
Summary: The time we spend in our cars shouldn't be wasted time connectivity-wise but it can't disrupt the driving experience.

Epic Battle: Creativity vs. Discipline in Social
Panelists: Mekanism CEO Jason Harris, 140 Proof Founder John Manoogian III, Barbarian Group Director of Earned Media Kristin Maverick and Story Labs Founder Sarahjane Sacchetti 
Summary: There’s creativity. And there’s analytics. It seems like they don’t like each other. But we can make them get along.

Why Ad Agencies Should Act More Like Tech Startups
Presenter: AKQA CCO Rei Inamoto
Summary: The agency model isn’t working. So what can we learn from successful start-ups that would revitalize the advertising business?

 

10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy

Here's some wisdom from advertising legend David Ogilvy. On September 7th, 1982, Ogilvy sent the following internal memo to all agency employees, titled “How to Write":

 

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

 

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

 

David

Advice that's short, concise and useful. This, and much more of Ogilvy’s timeless advice, can be found in The Unpublished David Ogilvy: A Selection of His Writings from the Files of His Partners,