Yesterday I was chatting with a good pal of mine who was whining that he only seems to work on small boring jobs and promos. "Teddy man, this is not what I signed up for." I think he expeceted his job to land him some awards or maybe special mentions on ads of the world. Dude, you have just been handcuffed.
I read this in a really nice book on advertising:
"If you take a job at a big agency, you might without your seeing it happen, slip into a pair of GOLDEN HANDCUFFS. That big agency may be willing to pay you lots of cash to crack out dull ads. A couple of years go by and your book fills with bad ads - ads you can't show without shame or explanation."
Some big agencies in Kenya do this extremely well. That's why nowadays you will find almost the whole creative studio is filled with guys with huge titles like; Associate Creative Director, Creative Director - Copy, Creative Group Head, Assistant Senior Copywriter, Head of Mamase Mamasa Mamakosa, etc.
Titles are handed out like they are going out of fashion alongside words of great motivation like,...you are the most talented Kenyan we know, you are going places, you have great potential. You look back and at the end of the day all your talent does for you is Bandua na....Nyorosha na....Hepesha na,....
Well there you have it. So its up to you to make a decision like the old OMO pick a box show "The Money or the Award." Last time I checked, banks give out mortgages to guys with the cash and not the awards....Last time I also checked, agencies give great jobs to guys with great books. Catch 22.
Hey, that's just my opinion.
Budding creatives might want to try this approach: go and do a great ad or a great campaign anyway! DON'T wait for a brief. DON'T wait for a client to show up. DON'T wait on someone else to lead you to greatness. Go out there and just DO IT.
ReplyDeleteIf it's good enough, a client will be found who will buy it. It may only appear once in some regional magazine on shepherding, but it will run if you work hard enough on it.
In every agency around the world, you will spend a vast majority of your time working on routine stuff. The occasional bit of brilliance is what makes the drudgery worth living with, but you cannot wait on someone to make your life worth living, now can you?
My advise, go and do it, for your own damn sake! Great work won't make itself, so get off your ass or something!