Art or Science?

I get to work with several advertising agencies including Boyden and Youngblutt who posted this piece on their company blog this year:

the “art” behind advertising and marketing

Regardless of the business you’re in, I would argue that a pretty good percentage of your success has to do with how good you are at blending the art of your occupation with the science. In my opinion, the people who rise to the top are the ones who master this integration. How much weight you give to demographics, statistical analysis and the like (science) versus your gut instinct, common sense, personal tastes and creativeness (art) is paramount.

In advertising, art and science are on a constant collision course. And you know what? They should be. Too much of one or the other, and you miss your objectives completely. How many times have you watched an entertaining television commercial but had no idea what product or brand it was for? Most times you don’t even realize it until you try to tell someone else about it. All of a sudden you think you have memory loss. You don’t have memory loss. You never knew what the spot was for in the first place. Now before you get all worked up, I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying the balance between art and science on that spot was slightly off kilter. And that brings up a good point. You don’t have to be off by much to miss significantly.

So the question is: how do you avoid these near death experiences? Like most things, there’s no one answer. I believe, however, it is a series of things that, if repeated, will help you achieve success with some certainty.

First and foremost, know what you’re trying to achieve (and if you’re trying to achieve more than one thing, put your objectives in order of priority).

Second, shelve your personal ego and let the best concept rise to the top. Man, this seems to be a tough one for most people in advertising to get past. You have to ask yourself, “Do I like this because I thought of it, or do I not like the other ideas because someone else thought of them?” Sometimes people pretend to be listening to other people’s concepts, but they’re never really fully engaged in trying to follow the other person’s thinking. It’s easier to play the game and fall back to your own idea. Sometimes this will work out, and sometimes it will rise up and bite you like your spouse after a bad haircut.

Third, trust your partners in crime. You do what you do and they do what they do, and the harmonious blending of the two makes everybody a hero. There are plenty of accolades to go around with work that hits its mark.

Fourth, make sure you understand your assignment and you understand your partners’ assignments. By knowing what everyone is up against, you have a better chance at finding that balance I spoke of earlier. Same is true for your partners. If everyone is trying to find a balance, the odds just moved in favor of that happening.

Fifth, put the work up in plain view of everyone on the team so they can see it as it goes through the various stages of completion. This is critical. Because we’re all a little overwhelmed at any particular moment these days, you never know when you’ll have that vision of clarity and spot an issue or a better way to do something. Sometimes it’s when you aren’t thinking about the project that you have your moment of epiphany. You go for your afternoon cup of coffee, see the latest version on the wall and wham! It happens.

Sixth, step away from what you think is your final offering and give it some time to breathe. When you revisit it, do so with a somewhat skeptical frame of mind and the creative brief in hand. Review the work by yourself first and then with your team. If everybody’s still feeling good, you’ve been honest about whether or not you’re meeting the objectives and you’ve creatively cut through the clutter, you may have just found that balance.

Final step. Be as consistent with your process as possible based on the assignment. The more you do it, the easier it will get and the more success you will have. Typically, the assignment is tough enough. Don’t make it worse by not having a consistent working methodology.

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