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Don’t fly into a rage. Don’t rant on LinkedIn. Don’t be passive aggressive. Neither, be manic depressive. Don’t comfort eat. Don’t hit the bottle. Don’t do drugs. Don’t kick animals. Don’t rage quit. Don’t unalive yourself. Don’t unalive your CD. Just, don’t. Simply, be. 



It’s not a personal attack. Yes, we pour ourselves into our work. But our work like our children, comes through us, and this is an important but, it is not us. 



Like our children, our ideas can be quite charming, alternatively, sometimes, they need manners taught. And here’s the thing. Unlike children, sometimes, no matter how good an idea is, it’s not the right one for the task at hand. 



This, is what separates the children, from the adults in the creative department. 



Yes, creativity is a thing that we worship at the altar of. And yes, ordinarily, a gorilla on a drum kit waiting to crash into the cataclysmic solo of Phil Collins’ ‘In The Air Tonight’ ought not to be anywhere near a brand. Least of all Cadbury. 



However, when it is and please frame this word, ‘relevant’ then it could be the only thing you need. 



A good creative leader knows when the bridge between a consumer and a brand can be crossed. And when it can’t be. And when the idea you have on the table, is magnificent from a purely creative point of view. And yet, it will simply not, Worli and Bandra, link. 



So when your creative director is saying no, even when you have a fantastic idea, see it from his or her eyes. Understand what they’re seeing and trying to show you. Anxiety is a thing among all generations in Creative, I don’t see why Gen Z alone should have the monopoly on it. Any creative endeavour by virtue of us offering up our work for scrutiny is enough to trigger the butterflies in the best of us. At any and every point in our career. So when they’re saying the work doesn’t work, trust their judgement. They’re trying to guide you to a better place. 



If you see it from your Creative Leader’s point of view, a few coffees later, you should automatically recalibrate and find a whole new horizon that leads into entirely new thoughts and ultimately, ever more powerful ideas on the creative scale and the perfectly working one on the ‘does it work for this brief’ scale. 



That’s the hardest one to swallow for most mid to senior creatives and the rejection has to be done with a fine mix of empathy, passion and inspiration. You can’t critique it randomly, you have to persuade the creator to see where it’s meandered off brief and simultaneously create a new flight plan for a new runway of possibilities . 



Junior to mid creatives have other issues on the way up. The most common fallacy is thinking what you’ve thought of, is the hottest thing since Bernbach. But, if your Group Head has spent any time at all in this biz, there’s nothing more humbling than realising most ideas were done way, way before you were born, on bigger budgets than you can dream of, with better execution skills than you can dream of (yes, even with AI) and because the trails of creativity are eerily similar from the same start points, your idea is up against every idea, every creative team has created from the 1960s onwards. 



And so, chances are you’ll hear this, ‘it’s been done’ phrase and I know it gets your goat especially for the young ones for whom there simply isn’t this thing called the past. 



Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/inspiraytion-advertising-is-a-discipline-that-uses-many-mediums-37570.htm">InspiRAYtion: Advertising is a discipline, that uses many mediums</a>



But, there is. So be a student of what happened and when. Know that everything builds on continuity. Every campaign that wins at Cannes, builds upon the titans of the past and so jurors see it as a fresh new breath of air. And reward it accordingly. Use the past, to illuminate your future. Find new trails, or forge your own. Doctoral students push the boundaries of all human knowledge ahead one thesis at a time. Advertising practitioners especially creatives, push our collective stories ahead, one imaginative leap at a time. 



Tomorrow when you get into work, lighten up about rejection. One day, you’ll see it for what it is, a stepping stone to stardom. Help your creative leader help you. They want to be a ‘friend of the new’. Be a creative’s creative. You’ll realise ideas are infinite within you and automatically spout ever more where you think things have dried up. And that, will take you places. To the top generally. 



Caveat: I’m talking about the CDs who actually want to grow you, and make you the best version of yourself you can be. The ones who want to stifle you, the ones who are horribly insecure and political animals, tend to be present as well and sadly, that’s a level of pain to be endured for as long as it takes to find good people to work with. Recognising who’s who, will help you considerably in your career path and learning. 



And there’s something I’m going to leave you with. Never delete an idea. Put it in your file, stash it away in your cloud storage. Because one day, each and every one of those ideas will find the perfect brief to be presented for again. And on occasion, they will fly and soar into the world as they were meant to the first time around in your head. But, this time, they will be so so right for the brief. 


My best wishes for you to stick around long enough for that to happen. Enjoy the ride!


Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekend column on everything about advertising and marketing.

InspiRAYtion Seven:  What to do when your creative leader rejects your work

Beyond the next campaign opportunity, beyond the next client won, beyond the next account won, beyond the next award won, beyond the next agency built, is a point at which we as creatives finally get out of our own heads and look to influence the next generation. Nothing matters more than to share everything you know, to light new flames from what seems like an inexhaustible source within you. 



This burning desire came surprisingly early to me. I put it down to my having been the world’s peskiest intern and so everyone in my first agency promptly put me in charge of all future interns right from my junior writer days as some form of payback. 



Over time, I took it upon myself to share everything I knew, with absolutely everyone that walked in through my cabin door. I knew I’d been super lucky to have a set of fantastic bosses from whom I’d learned so much and wanted to pay it forward long before that phrase was even born. 



There was a patch in my life when I’d be giving workshops and chats galore every weekend I could, in colleges and B-Schools even. Then life got busier and I had to stop doing so much and just buckle down to being a CD 24/7/365 rather than influence posterity as teachers are supposed to do. 



Over time, the desire to share came back and while an earlier batch of interns were now such things as Senior Creative Directors and what not (hi Binnita!!!), in 2019 it was a whole new generation out there and a whole new industry out there (hiiii Yaamini, hiiii Valerie, hiiii Sarah, hiiii Johanan!!! ). 



So I was quite delighted when a colleague of mine young Brett invited me to tag along for Portfolio Night. It was just next door from our office, at Famous Innovations / Miami Ad School and I was excited to be among the OGs that everyone can look up to like Pops and Bobby as well as the ones after them like Aggie, Vikram, the Raj’s (both Kamble and Nair) etc, followed by people of my own generation like Amit Akali, Ashish Chakravarty et. al. 



More than the establishment though, I was keen to see the current bunch of industry hopefuls. I wanted to know how they’d be different from their predecessors over the years. After all, millennials are now rather long in the tooth and even Gen Z is fairly crinkly when it comes to starting out in agency land. 



They say Gen X and Gen Alpha are natural allies. I’m not a fan of all this cohort randomness. To slap an arbitrary bunch of values and attitudes on to a generation of people purely because they were born in a certain bunch of years is no more scientific than Linda Goodman’s best attempts to find meaning where there was perhaps none in zodiac signs. 



At any rate, I digress. This bunch was delightfully interesting. Gone was the crippling anxiety and mental health issues of the previous bunches. They were focused on what they wanted to do, they were clear on the path to get there and they were respectfully asking us, the dinosaurs, about the snakes and ladders they’d encounter along the way. (Disclaimer, I was just there in a social capacity not as an official portfolio reviewer, but I did get a wide bunch of bright eyed and bushy tailed enthu kids who came up to chat.)



It is always hard to put yourself through scrutiny and putting a portfolio up in front of legends (yours truly excluded from such august company) is always hard for anyone no matter what stage of this gig you’re at. I found it quite commendable that this bunch was primed, they had their stuff down, their books were all slickly produced and being shown about on shining Macs - a far cry from our modest large black portfolio cases that contained physical examples of our work and sketches of our wild ideas. 



But as I wandered quietly through the halls, taking in the sights of the many interactions, I was quite impressed to see these kids on the ball. While I’m sure they must have had pre-show jitters, when they were in front of giants, they weren’t trembling at the knees. Their body language spoke of confidence, their demeanour that of a desire to learn as much as they could from the precious moments of that tete a tete. 



To the class of 2024 therefore, here’s my two bits. Love this gig. It’s not a job, it’s a way of life. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re going to burn out sooner than you think. And please remember, Advertising is a discipline, not a medium. The fragmentation of the industry may make you think one medium over another is the only way forward, but consider yourself as a Field Marshal, who knows how to harness the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, when, where and in what combination, to decisively win brand wars. 


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/inspiraytion-advertising-is-a-discipline-that-uses-many-mediums-37570.htm">InspiRAYtion: Advertising is a discipline, that uses many mediums</a>


While it’s tempting to earn a few more bucks, don’t change jobs for money. Change jobs when you stop learning. Find a good bunch of people with whom you can laugh and don’t have to watch your back. Win clients, win consumers and win awards. Also, please win serious awards, not the once a week kind of award shows that give you a gong just because you entered in it. Validation is nice, but ensure it comes from places that have high standards. Don’t settle for the easy wins, those aren’t worth the price of the trophies they give you. 



I’m not Steve Jobs, but yes, staying hungry and staying foolish is a remarkably fantastic piece of advice especially for anyone getting into advertising. While your talent may be nascent, the one true superpower you do have is your energy to work harder than anyone else. 



Stay true to your craft, don’t delegate everything and turn into a postman over the years. Actively write or art direct something you can be proud of at least once a day. No matter how many years go by from now, be kind to the kids. When you inevitably get them, help them fall in love with advertising as much as someone on Portfolio Night may have for you. 



And here’s a secret. The dinosaurs learn more from you than you learn from them. The energy of youth, the ability to not have the baggage of the centuries upon you, are what we admire so much about the new kids on the block, year after year. 



Enjoy your time as Young Turks. For one day, you’ll be reviewing a portfolio of some hopeful aspirant. It’s this journey that makes the industry what it is. 



Till next Sunday! 


Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekend column on everything about advertising and marketing.

InspiRAYtion Six: Portfolio Night. Where nostalgia and ambition exchanged glances

Welcome back dear reader (said in James May’s voice). It’s been a nice month, outlining how Advertising is a discipline, not a medium, then a piece for baby Suits, a piece for baby Creative on finding inspiration and for this Sunday, the conflict that is inherent in any agency at the best of times and how to manage it beautifully. 


If you were somewhat awake through school, you’d know about Schrodinger’s Cat. Advertising being at the intersection of Commerce and Art, renders all agencies Schrodinger’s Agencies. 


Why you ask? Because the tangibles of this business are the things that don’t bear measuring. And the intangibles of this business, simply can’t be measured. You just gotta have faith that they’re there and they’ll come through for you. In fact, the very act of trying to observe the intangibles of this business, makes the whole thing fall apart. 


<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/inspiraytion-the-second-coming-of-suits-37970.htm">Read more: InspiRAYtion: The second coming of Suits</a>


So here’s the thing. In the best creative agencies, it’s been agreed that stifling processes impede the best work and so they’ve been done away with. It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken they said, it takes a fantastic Suit to create an atmosphere where the Creatives get the most time within which to create, the most budgets with which to execute and the absolute most support should they ask for it. This partnership, is the only way. Faith in each other, is what makes agencies leap beyond the boundaries of linear logic into quantum magic. 


What happens in places this partnership isn’t balanced?


In the usual suspects, the agency becomes a hotbed of presenteeism. You have to land up at a certain time, you have to fill in absurd timesheets to satisfy the conceit that our time is the measurement by which our revenues should be costed for. You have to work from the office because you will only ever have an idea there, rather than in a coffee shop, or while driving or hell, even while shaving. Then, if that’s not enough to make you scream with the futility of it all, there are meetings, about the meetings, that would not need meetings if the Creatives would be simply allowed to get on with the work quietly with a well stocked supply of Jim Jams and endless coffees. 


On the other side of the spectrum, we have agencies breeding prima donnas. They increasingly make themselves irrelevant to the real world and unlike Steve Jobs, cannot come up with the goods required to win over clients. These prima donnas can be both Suits and Creatives, handle them with abundant care lest you be collateral damage during one of their hissy fits. 


What happens in places this partnership is balanced though?


You get people running in to work on Monday morning simply because the agency is the place they want to be at. You get this electric atmosphere, of minds that are simply ‘on’. No idea is too audacious, no idea is received with a, ‘they’ll never buy it!” Above all else, great ideas come from anywhere in such an environment and they’re built up by everyone in the room, to a point of chiselled perfection. I believe, the Gorilla Cadbury ad came from an intern who walked into the CDs room late one evening and said… what if.. and the rest is history. Now that’s the sort of magic you want firing on all cylinders in your hot shop.
 

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/advertising/inspiraytion-advertising-is-a-discipline-that-uses-many-mediums-37570.htm">Read more: InspiRAYtion: Advertising is a discipline, that uses many mediums</a>


Make no mistake, creativity is like watching for a ship at night. If you look for it dead ahead, you will never spot it. But if you’re relaxed and looking sideways, you’ll catch it. The best agencies are the ones where your days and nights merge into one happy blur of pure energy. It’s a form of meditation to be in the zone for years sometimes decades on end. It’s why some agencies come out of nowhere, rise rapidly in money, fame and respect and then a few years later simply collapse when that delicate equilibrium is disturbed. The bean counters have this particular anathema towards any indulgence of creativity and yet, this whole business is predicated on how your people feel on a Sunday night. 


That which can be measured can be controlled. But it is my submission, that it is that which should not be measured, that will lead directly to the happiest possible outcomes at work. Disband the stifling processes today and see what old fashioned faith and respect for each other brings to the table. There’s no timesheet entry for corridor conversations that have lead to a Cannes Gold. There’s no appraisal sheet on the planet that can predict a Suit’s ability to inspire a team into stardom. How do you measure the value of a dream someone had where a script arrived, fully formed? Let go of all this absurd control freakism and allow the fragrance of creativity to permeate your halls. You may not know how much time your people are spending on things but the client’s cash registers will be singing non stop. As will the awards rolling in. 


Till we meet again next Sunday, you can follow for more inspiration daily on @rayomand.j.patell on the gram. 

Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekly column on everything about advertising and marketing.

InspiRAYtion: Schrodinger’s Agency

INSPIRAYTION