Creativity Squared: Sam Moore on Why Deep Insight = Memorable Ads

Nothing kills creativity more than trying to be creative. That’s why, after ingesting the brief and doing a bit of research, I tend to try and distract my mind, either by going on walks, watching something obtuse to the brief, or just talking with colleagues. Letting the brief and my research marinate in the back of my mind, and trying not to put too much pressure on it helps ideas come more naturally for me.

I also like to keep things simple, the simpler the insight, the simpler the idea and the more effective the creative idea will be. I think this comes from my copywriting background, where you need to distil a lot of information into a simple headline or paragraph of copy, because no-one out there wants to read an essay from a brand (unless maybe it’s Nike or something).

Once you start this type of job and if you love it, you’re constantly thinking about it; proactively I am always looking for problems out in the world the brands I work for might be able to help solve.

I judge the creativity of a piece of work by my immediate reaction to it, the same way a consumer will judge it. If the ad doesn’t annoy me, or have me hovering over the countdown toward SKIP, then it’s doing a pretty good job. And those types of ads are more often than not based on something really insightful. 

I do think in this age of social, and shortening attention spans, a lot of creative I see is moving away from insight and more towards visual trickery, which can definitely get quick views, but it doesn’t stick in your memory. The most memorable ads, the ones that really stick in your brain, are the ones with that deep insight.

Work like ‘Dumb Ways to Die’, or another Australian favourite of mine that has stuck in my memory for all these years (before I ever thought of advertising as a career), the RTA commercial ‘PINKY’. Based on real problems and true insights, so that if you are the target audience it really speaks to you and stays in your memory.   

One of the most important parts of a successful creative idea is the brief. The brief is so important. So the first thing for me is to interrogate the brief with my creative partner and see if there are any holes or things we think don’t make sense, if there are issues then we need to talk to strategy or accounts and our CD to figure it out together.  

If it’s all good, from there, my creative partner and I go our separate ways and do research / ideation before coming back together to share our thoughts and ideating together. Being in a partnership means being able to throw ideas across to each other to see what sticks and what doesn't. And the more ideas and thoughts the better, sometimes you can come up with something random that you don’t think is right, until someone else sees it, and they see something completely different. 

At the end of it, it’s just about writing down everything in your mind and then going back and filtering through it with the help of other creatives. 

For me, great creative directors are the main external factor that have helped shape me as a creative. And at the same time, they really are what can make or break a creative project. I’ve been lucky enough to work with great creative directors across both Australia and in Amsterdam. 

A great creative director guides, they don’t simply give you ideas, and they help you to understand what a good idea and a good insight looks like.

They also help you form relationships with clients, which is another major thing that can make or break a creative project; building trust with clients is so important, if they trust you, a partnership forms and great things can happen. And that might mean, with a new client for instance, that the first couple of creative ventures are safe until you establish a sense of confidence in the client to trust you further and push the creative further too.   

Great CDs also protect you from being overworked and the pressure that can come from the job. Sometimes pressure can help, most times it can burn you out, and burnouts definitely destroy creativity.