ADV 390 class notes for exam 1 PDF

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ADV 390 Content Creation Tuesday January 15, 2019 ● Email ○ [email protected] ○ Subject line ADV 390: sentence about what email is about ● Evaluations ○ 3 assignments 100 pts each ○ 3 exams at 100 pts each ○ Drop the lowest score of the 6 ○ Class is worth 500 points ● Extra credit points ○ Up to 15 available ○ Occasional opportunities during lecture ○ Think pieces ■ 250-300 words. About a speaker, an ad you saw, etc and how it relates to what we are learning. ■ You can drop off one think piece every Tuesday ● NO LATE WORK. No exceptions. ● Compass ○ Slides are not posted ○ Keep checking compass because hints are given for assignments Thursday January 17, 2019 Introduction to creativity -- creativity is trending ● History of the concept of creativity ○ 3 distinct phases across 3000 years ○ Creativity first came up in the Holy Bible (Roman) and the complete works of Homer (Greek) ■ They pictured the mind as having 2 chambers: a bicameral mind ■ Bicameral mind ● One chamber of your brain is a receptacle for creative impulses ○ God(s), intermediaries “inspired”; Homer’s heroes were told what to do ○ It also houses “madness” ○ Inspire = breathe into ● Other chamber is for ordinary things-- expressing this inspiration through speech, writing, action ○ Part of phase one: the Greek Golden Age (500 BC - 200 BC) ■ Paganism = many gods ■ Ideas were inspired by unpredictable gods who didn’t want to get involved ■ Paganism did NOT have:

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● Churches ● Family allegiances to a single point of view ● Claims of infallibility ■ Paganism did have ● A drive for honor ■ All greeks knew who made the parthenon, but architects of christian cathedral did not put their names on it ■ The greek golden age led to: ● Western politics ● Literary forms ● Medicine ● Art forms ● Mathematics ● Philosophy ○ Phase 2: Renaissance to humanism (1350 AD - 1500 AD) ○ End of the dark ages ■ People start to have self-responsibility ■ Less reflexive obedience to the church ■ Patronage shifts ■ Rise of the artisans ■ Problem solving through your own efforts (Copernicus, Newton, etc.) ■ The renaissance ○ Phase 3: Psychological and contextual influences (late 1800’s) ■ Nature vs. nurture ● Are creative people born that way, or will the way you are raised affect the amount of creativity you have ● Freud decides that whether or not you will be creative will be determined by the age of 6 ○ Current beliefs about creativity ■ Genius is separate from supernatural ● It is not gifted by an outside force ■ (creative) Genius, while exceptional, is a potential for everyone ● Everyone has opportunity to become creative ■ Talent and (creative) genius are different things ● Someone who plays an instrument off sheet music is talented, the composer is the creative genius Creativity is all around Creativity often starts with a problem ○ How to stop a sidewalk ○ Ketchup having watery stuff in it ■ 1. “It really bugs me when…” ■ 2. Background research ● look at existing solutions

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3. Multiple solutions ● 60 designs narrowed down to 5 ● Took 5 to one prototype ■ 4. Make it happen ● 3-D printing ■ 5. Assess results ● People will pay $3, but it only costs .22 to make ○ Super bowl ■ You must have 17,500 quality hotel rooms to hold the super bowl ● Jacksonville only had 14,000. They decided to bring in 5 cruise ships to bring in 3650 more rooms. ● That was a creative solution ○ Millions of people in Africa have to walk far distances to get clean water ■ Hippo water roller, a drum with a screw on lid that allows you to push 24 gallons of water like a steam roller ○ School shootings ■ Putting segments of fire hoses as sleeves over door hinges so they couldn’t open Creativity = powerful concept Creativity within advertising-- have to have a creative peg and then put a spin it ○ Burger King reminding people that their chicken is spicy, show them images where fire is supposed to be, but they are using chicken as the flames ○ Remind people that careful driving leads to cheaper insurance through showing high speed car chases reinterpreted done slowly ○ You can get softer hands from hand cream by showing Edward Scissorhands with smooth hands These advertising and non-advertising solutions all have in common is: ○ A degree of uniqueness ○ A degree of familiarity The trap of familiarity ○ A lot of advertising is filled with cliches ○ Cliche: a phrase, visual, or thought that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought ○ Cliches are all around ■ Not limited to one industry, though ● Fashion magazines ○ Man and a woman in love ● Watch advertising ○ Take a celebrity and have them wear the watch ● Car commercial ○ Car driving on PCH ○ Current cliche trends ■ Prank ads

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LG did it early and well through their commercial acting like the TV is a window and something bad happens outside ■ When it is parodied, it’s probably become a cliche A fresh twist on the cliche ○ Barbie ad where girls are doing adult things ○ Use your instincts on whether things are cliche or not cliche It is okay to start with a cliche (something familiar) ○ It NEEDS to be given a fresh, unexpected twist (don’t end with a twist) A definition of creativity ○ Creativity is taking existing things and combining them in new ways or for new purposes

Tuesday January 22, 2019 The James Webb Young Creative Process P.D.I.I.R. ● Who was James Webb Young? ○ Gifted with creativity ○ Came up w the James Webb Young creative process ○ Worked in advertising art J. Walter Thompson in the 1920’s and 1930’s ○ President of the ad council ○ Advertising man of the year 1946 ○ Responsible for the James Webb Young fund at UIUC ○ Broke advertising taboos, an advertising “bad boy” ○ Acknowledged across disciplines for his insights into idea generation ● His 5 step creative process for generating ideas ○ 1. Preparation (immerse yourself) ■ a. Specific information (learn as much as you possibly can about the product, market, etc. become an expert) ● The enemy of preparation: procrastination ■ b. General information (stuff you have learned from observing the world, life information and inspiration of things along the way) ■ Many ads combine the two and draw from both specific and general information ○ 2. Digestion ■ Take specific information and hope that along the way you will be able to combine everything you have found ■ Organizing ■ Actively looking for a solution ■ Hit the wall → keep looking for new solutions ■ Hit the wall again ○ 3. Incubation ■ Walk away from the problem ■ Happens once you have everything you need, you ignore working on it

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4. Illumination ■ When the solution pops into your head from out of nowhere ■ The Eureka phenomena/ the “Aha!” moment ■ Illumination is (scientifically) different from a reasoned solution ■ It’s a special type of brain activity ■ Remote Associates Test (RAT) ● Test of creative potential ■ Find your zone → everyone has different times that this can happen. It cannot be forced though. Become aware of the best times you think of creative solutions ○ 5. Reality ■ 3 questions: ● 1. Does it solve the problem? ● 2. Does it fit the conditions? ● 3. Is it going to be accepted? ■ If yes to all 3 questions, then you win ■ If you get a no to any/all of the 3 questions…. Start all over again → the hardest creative challenge When looking at creativity you can look at the ○ Person ○ Place ○ Product ○ Process Definition of creativity from last lecture ○ Creativity is taking existing things and combining them in new ways or for new purposes ○ Grape press and coin punch → brought us the Gutenberg printing press ○ Dreams and art → surrealism, type of art by Salvador Dali ○ Tires and the smell of lavender → tires that smell like lavender ■ Not all creative ideas are good ideas. Just because you combined 2 things in a different way, does not make you a creative genius After illumination, the job is not done “I never lose. I either win or learn.” -Nelson Mandela IDEO- global product design firm that operates very similarly to an ad agency IDEO : Deep Dive - the creative process at work ○ Does it follow the James webb young process? ○ Did it result in something “creative” according to our definition? ○ What are important elements of IDEO’s cultures of creating?

Thursday January 24, 2019 ● ●

“Fail often in order to succeed sooner” Big “C” creativity

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○ A person is eminent (famous) within a particular field ○ They have changed the game within that discipline ○ Clear-cut creative contribution ○ Culture changing Little “c” creativity ○ Used in everyday life ○ Often associated with problem solving ○ Everyone and everything else that isn’t the big C But doesn’t this… ○ Diminish the contributions of professional creators? ○ Ignore that something can be novel to a person but not a greater domain? The 4-C model (keeps the idea of little c and big C) ○ ----------------------------------------------> Mini-c Little-c Pro-c Big-C ○ Mini-c: creativity inherent in the learning process; personal meaning ■ Learning that an S looks like a snake and you remember it by that ○ Little-c: everyday activities that non-experts participate in ■ Mom tricking her kids into eating veggies ○ Pro-c: achieve professional level expertise in any creative area ■ Creatives in an ad agency ■ Chef that puts together a menu ■ Someone who plays in a local band ○ Big-C: the culture changers ■ Annie Leibovitz, etc. 6 negative traits of big-C and pro-c people ○ 1. Egotistical ■ Top 3 biggest ego jobs: cooks, CEO’s, art directors ○ 2. Impulsive ■ Impatient, irresponsible, blunt, uncensored ○ 3. Argumentative ■ Defiant, uncooperative, little regard for rules and authority ○ 4. Immature ■ Playful, can see things through a child’s eyes ○ 5. Absentminded ■ Absorbed in the problem at hand ○ 6. Neurotic ■ Anxious, indecisive, weird, don’t fit in, worried nonstop ■ Neuroticism breeds creativity

Idea industry: How to crack the advertising career code ● Writers and art directors

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Copywriters (CWs) and Art Directors (ADs) BERNBACH “CREATIVE REVOLUTION” work individually and in paired teams ○ Use gut instincts as well as insights given to them by account planners, media planners, and account executives, then they turn it into an idea that connects to someone ○ Bernbach → “creative revolution” ■ Revolution was about people and how they work. Creatives now work in teams, and a teams ability to work in sync becomes virtually important to the success of the process ○ Writers and art directors build careers on their ideas ○ Idea is king ○ No matter the pairing or the job title, 2 brains offer a powerful synergistic approach to solving problems ○ Individual creative director is assigned the task of orchestrating the direction of creative work for the agency depending on level/title Interactive is no longer considered new media, so every agency is pushing to have an online presence The job for the writer and art director is to find a concept they both love ○ Once they are happy with the directions they’ve mapped out, it is time to start hammering: headlines, scripts, taglines, and slogans ○ Negotiations. Synergy. Compromise. ○ The art director will often turn the concepts the team likes best into rough layouts for presentation ○ Agencies want to work to bring down the ratio of ideas to produced, seemingly making it more efficient ○ Once the team gets necessary approvals, roughs grow to comps, and comprehensive layouts and computer work w illustrations, etc that really grow the idea Pitching ideas to overlords and clients ○ Clients want to change things sometimes This team thing ○ The real partnership is between the writer and art director assigned to bring life to the work ○ At a small shop, there may be a couple of teams. ○ At a large agency, there might be dozens of teams working on different aspects of one brand and all the agency’s other work as well ○ For such a huge agency, the creative world is relatively small 5 ideas on growing a team ○ Chasing rabbits ■ Random conversations that rarely lead to ideas ■ Advertising is a battle between staying on strategy and venturing away ○ Schizophrenia

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When you fuse 2 brains, inevitable to have mild schizophrenia- don’t fight it, learn to love it ○ Using your new brain ■ Listening ○ Hunger ■ Be hungry. Be curious. Be humble. ○ Formula for success ■ Law of decreasing exponential success ■ 1 in 10 ideas makes it ■ S=x/10,000 Creatives work with a lot of agency people. Account planners, account people, brand managers, producers, buyers, traffic experts for print and video ○ The relationships creatives have w these people affect the work, the quality, and the possibility of great ideas ○ Some creatives say account planners are their best friends. Their approach to strategy and insight can jumpstart ideas and make the work better ○ Give kudos to the client when they have good ideas 5 tips for creatives to make the most of meeting time (esp juniors) ○ Be on time ○ Come prepared ○ Listen to what everyone has to say ○ Know what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to ○ Understand the assignment at the end of a meeting How to know if an agency is right for you ○ Consider the basic details of agency size and mission: who’s doing what there. Read about the greats and pour through the trades Size of agency matters ○ Smaller agencies ■ ~30 person shop ■ More nimble and the boundaries for job titles and responsibilities are more ambiguous ■ Small agencies get more radical work approved ■ Work more closely w the client ■ Mentorship from the visionary founder of the company ■ When they lose clients they have to cut staff ○ Large agencies have better job stability ○ Can this agency give me a chance to grow my talent and make my work better? ○ Leaders and mentors wanted ○ How the agency sees itself ○ Geography matters How to be interesting ○ Take at least 1 picture everyday ○ Start a blog

■ And write one sentence each week Keep a scrapbook Every week, read a magazine you have not read before Once a month, interview someone for 20 minutes Collect something Once a week, sit in a coffee shop or cafe for an hour and listen to other people’s conversations ○ Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music, one piece of TV/ film ○ Make something ○ Read Preparing yourself ○ Nowadays, the learning curve is much faster ○ No time for extensive on the job training ○ Hitting the ground running requires preparation How to use your education ○ The classes outside your major that seem random can be a lot more advantageous than you think ○ Strong conceptual courses mixed with classes in media, strategy, and campaigns help too The get it factor ○ Keep an idea book or journal ○ Observe. Archive. Collect. ○ Get your thoughts and passions down in a book you keep with you wherever you go ○ Know adobe software Portfolio building ○ Portfolio should reflect you: your thinking, ability to solve problems, sense of humor and priorities, passion for work well done, and your attention to details ○ Has to be smart and show how you think to solve problems ○ Contains 15-20 well edited pieces, your resume, and contact info ○ Have a website ○ Should be digital ■ Should also have hard copies for interviews and creative directors 5 ways to check out the creative competition ○ Check out the university program and portfolio program websites. Most have collections of work. ○ Look at award-winning student work on the one club site in the college competition and client pitch competition sections under education ○ Competitions for student work abound ○ Larger agencies have creative manahts attached to their creative departments ○ Some talent representatives and head hunters across the country are dedicated to representing strong junior talent ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

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Does your book show your brain and your ability? ○ Go deep → how do you separate yourself from the pack Your book should show you can think and talk to different people, not just your own demographic. Your ability to understand a range of people, cultures, ages, and perspectives is important 5 great tips for making a strong book ○ Choose interesting products, brands, and issues to include in your collection ○ Remember there should be a mixture of advertising ideas and strong conceptual work you have produced ○ Be a craftsman ○ Work with a partner and a community ○ You are never done Strategy for job hunting ○ Understand your target and make a plan ○ Research your top 10 agencies ○ Find the right person to talk to ○ Calls to agencies should result in the name of the creative manager or the creative director who looks at art portfolios ○ Decide on the form you book will be taking ○ Keep notes on the process/ who you sent your book to/ what was their response 5 rules for working with a talent rep ○ Research your talent rep ○ Tell her about you ○ Make sure you walk into their office having done your homework on the industry ○ Never ‘cheat’ on your talent rep ○ Be appreciative and humble Resume ○ Make yourself stand out ○ Doesn’t need gimmicks- make it a clean connector to your portfolio ○ Keep it simple ○ Make sure to indicate the specific position you are applying for Interview ○ Knowing the right questions ○ Be ready to explain your work and approach Follow up ○ Handwrite a thank you note ○ Send work you have recently tweaked to show you listened to their feedback ○ Send a handmade or memorable postcard so it arrives every week on the same day for a number of weeks ○ Call or mail a card to people you have interviewed w to let them know you got a job and you appreciate their help ○ Write a congratulatory note to those who took time with you Persevere

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Stay inspired Staying creative ○ Good advertising begins by capturing people’s attention: you need to be novel and clear, drawing from the broadest possible references to create never before seen syntheses ○ Good advertising provides a POV you can relate to ○ Look at what graphic designers are doing ○ Spend time at the newsstand ○ Watch TV ○ Don’t spend all your time working ○ Draw ○ Make your own art ○ The best advertising does not feel like advertising. It feels like life. Make sure you have a life before you try to create an ad

Tuesday January 29, 2019 ●

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6 positive traits of big-C and pro-c people ○ 1. Commitment to a personal aesthetic ■ They have a standard for themselves → nothing will stop them from achieving it ■ Seek perfection and don’t stop ○ 2. Excel in finding problems ○ 3. Mental mobility ■ Look at problems in a different way ■ Good at asking questions in different ways ○ 4. Willingness to take risks ■ Risk is exciting and stimulating ■ Risk, because failure is part of the creative process ○ 5. Objectivity ■ You can’t take what you believe as true and accept it as a fact ○ 6. Inner motivation ■ Creatives do not create for the money, they do it because they love it 9 common traits of advertising creatives ○ 1. Fast ○ 2. Prolific ■ Especially at the front end of a project ○ 3. Big aspirations ○ 4. Relentless ○ 5. Self-directed ○ 6. Media-fluent ■ Engage in most media platforms too ○ 7. Collaborative

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8. Trustworthy 9. X-factor ■ Charismatic ■ Magnetic Structure of an agency ○ Overview of different departments ○ Overview of a creative department How do all the pieces of an ad agency fit together ○ Structure of a traditional full service ad agency ○ “Agency of record” - client comes to an agency, and the agency did everything for it ○ Agency side ■ Account management (account service, account executives (A.E.’s)) ● Serves as the agency’s representative with the client ● Client’s representative at the agency ● Goal: get the best po...