Creative Is As Creative Does. Part III

The killer question continued…

What kind of creativity is required to be a really good ad media person?

At first I thought it was a simple question and I could just knock it out, post it and be done. Then she said, “I understand the big picture, but exactly what do you have to know to be to be really good at your job? And then what do you have to do to make your ideas work?” That made a simple question a real head scratcher. But I’ll give it my best shot.

THE CREATIVE MEDIA PERSON

These days Media has taken center ring in the circus that is advertising. The prevailing wisdom is that if nobody is paying attention because of the clutter factor, then let’s find another way to get in their face. Let’s put our logo on urinal cakes. And if we can’t sneak in from the side then lets just scream louder until they here us. Which, of course just adds to the insanity.

The true creativity in media is coming from those rare practitioners who are taking their knowledge and expertise of audiences and using it to invent entire new forms of media like the HBO wall spectacular that projected a film of an apartment building that had been somehow sliced in half so that passers-by could witness a different slice of life being acted out on every floor. To say it was riveting would be an understatement.

Brand new ways to engage and intrigue the audience is certainly the cutting edge of the media maven’s world as I see it. That and giving enterprising media practitioners a seat at the creative table with the rest of the kids, so they can cross pollinate and have some fun and the “creatives’ can get out of their own heads in trying to be cool for people just like them and do something that relates to the rest of the world at large.

But after all is said and done, for me, the most creative person in the media department is the one who says “enough is enough.” But since that hardly ever happens, I’ll just leave it at this. Will the last media person to leave Madison Avenue please turn out the lights.

THE CREATIVE CREATIVE PERSON >>Part 1

THE CREATIVE ACCOUNT PERSON >>Part 2