In the bottom drawer
Rejected ideas don’t die, they just end up in the bottom drawer and may one day resurface, as the creatives who spoke to Matt Smith explain in a feature that first appeared in Encore.
Ben Coulson has an extra reason to get along to AFL games these days. While for most the excitement of the sport is enough of a thrill, currently showing on the screen during the breaks in play is an ad celebrating the uniqueness of the game accompanied by the blare of AC/DC.
For Coulson, the chief creative officer of Y&R Australia/New Zealand, the ad represents the hard-earned triumph of an idea that was a failed pitch for six years. Each year for those six years, Coulson presented the idea of people around the world watching a completely foreign sport to the AFL. All it took was one yes to get it made.
“I was really proud of the idea, and every year the AFL knocked me back for different reasons,” he says. “It wasn’t their focus one year, it wasn’t logistically possible the next. It went through more changes until finally the stars aligned, and it all came together for this season.”
“John Mescall, says ideas should be specific to just one client or brand. He says: “If you can attach a pitch to any number of brands, then it isn’t really a great idea. It’s true that a good idea will always live, but it needs to be specific to that client.”
Couldn’t agree more with John on this – and a client can usually smell when an old idea is being retrofitted to their brief.
Well John, you’d better tell McDonalds their James Dean spot was wrong.
@ Meg Did John Mescall really say that? Dumb Ways to Die could have been for any number of clients – pedestrian safety, mobile phone us in cars, the list goes on.
@ 6.52 and 5.31, yes you will sometimes create an idea to a brief which, after the fact, could be applicable to a number of other challenges. Let’s face it, there aren’t that many different briefs in the world.
But to clarify, my point is that you don’t start with your bottom drawer, and try to retrofit an existing solution. Of course, as in the case of the James Dean spot, that can still work… but it doesn’t mean it’s generally the most responsible course of action.
John
No-one said ‘the bottom drawer’ was the most responsible place to start.