In Fleetwood Mac, no one was bigger than the song.
In Fleetwood Mac, everyone contributed. Is your group like that or is it about one personality?
I think that the perfect ad group is one that everyone feels like they can kick ass when they have an idea and hold down the beat during someone else’s solo.
But most of the time the culture of low expectations makes the work common. Clients with tiny balls and even smaller brains do their best to make their ad look like the category. “It doesn’t LOOK like a luxury car ad, how will they know what we’re selling?” The good ideas get pecked to death by the dumb clients. I find even more get shot dead before they get out of the front door. My mentor, Bob Taylor, used to say, “Some guys take great ads and make them good.” Sadly, that guy works at your agency.
There’s so much cult of personality in advertising and so little real talent. Knowing how to recognize talent is key to being a great creative director. Fleetwood Mac had talent. Check out Rumors and try to say that they don’t with a straight face. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
See, I told you. Everyone except the bass player in that band had a certified classic hit song on that album. And frankly, bass players should never sing, unless you’re a Canadian named Geddy. So how do you form your own supergroup?
It all starts with the org chart. Design your organization the way you design a logo for the fake ad you did for your local pub and you’ll have a hit machine on your hands. For example, instead of a creative department with one creative director with a guitar in his office, an untucked Tommy Bahama hanging over his size 42 waist with veto power over everyone, you COULD try a task force made up of creative rock stars. The secret to keeping them cranking out the hits is the sheet music. Spend your time on a tight, logical brief that the client signs off on and you’ll be whistling all the way to the bank. The brief is the secret sauce to any great ad agency. Spend half as much time on that as you do deciding where to eat when you’re in the edit suite and see what happens.
Think of everyone in your group right now and see if you see a Christine McVie or a Lindsay Buckingham. That dude wails. Every guitar player worth their salt will tell you that Lindsay is sound. And Christine McVie, great singer and songwriter, but can be an ensemble player when she’s got to. Same with Stevie Nicks. The same with Mick Fleetwood. They’re dramatic, they are tight, but in the end Fleetwood Mac realized one thing about them all. That the music meant more than the band. And the band meant more than the bullshit.
Take that look at your group. As a creative director, you need to find ways to love and grow your group. You’re portfolio is your creative people. Don’t be so quick or so ambitious that you forget to fight for your friends.
If your buddy needs to know that his storyboards are holding his ideas back, you MUST find a way to tell him. Offer solutions and help them meet the challenges the agency business presents. Teach him how to draw. Everyone at the agency should be able to draw a little, the art directors BETTER be able to draw! If you can pull it from swipe, it’s probably not an original thought. If that’s in the way of one of your team, then it’s your job to remove that obstacle.
Be a slave to the work, to the creative. If you remember that it’s about the work, you will get your rewards. As Bob also said, “Some guys are in this business for good meetings, I’m in it for good work.”
The good news is, if you took the time to pre-sell your brief, the ‘what to say’ part of the advertising, you’re a lock in selling the ‘how to say it’ execution that is novel and breakthrough. Give it a shot. It can’t be any harder than kissing clients asses and apologizing for crappy work.
Mick Fleetwood rockin' the truck nuts. Check out those nuts by clicking here.
Make sure everyone in your group has what they need to bring a hit, a classic, to the group. Be their psychologist, their coach, their cohort, and their best friend. But above all, be their creative director and direct the creative. Give them what they need to sing. Be the Dr. Dre to their Marshall Mathers. Realize that the better their reputation, the better yours.
One last thought. Don’t hire your friends just because they’re your friends. Hire the best. If you know the best, get them. After all, who do you want singing in your band? A stranger who can sing or your buddy that cannot? When you make your living making music, get the best. And then pay them. Don’t screw them over a couple of thousand bucks.
October 17, 2009 at 1:16 am |
brilliant scott. you know i’ve always marvelled at fleetwood mac for exactly that reason. the tension must have been unbearable. you know they could all have fronted bands in their own right. kind of like the eagles. but better. and hotter!