The pitch: Go for the big idea and the business will look after itself

By RICK McKINLEY*

Maybe I'm old-fashioned but Rosemary Hume's Pitch contribution last week touched a raw nerve.

Something about ad agencies needing greater depth and insight into their clients' complex business issues and less emphasis on selling the Big Idea. "Many people fail to recognise a great idea, anyway," she went on.

Apparently law firms and accountants are creating just as much magic in presenting their credentials these days.

Hello. Have I missed something?

Maybe I have. It's 15 years since I worked in an ad agency. A sense of humour prevailed back then. Real characters. Even a real lunch now and then.

Ad agencies should stick to their knitting - creating ideas to sell products and services.

Of course they should understand their client's business before writing the creative brief. But advertising is only part of the marketing mix and the notion that advertising should solve all the client's business problems - I don't think so.

In disbelief I read that "great ideas, without the acknowledgment of the complexity of the business issue, are insulting".

Let's apply the Kiss [keep it simple, stupid] principle here and business can be fun.

Witness Toyota's Bugger campaign. Speight's TV commercials. And the delightful spot where a little girl curious about the facts of life gets a sudden trip to McDonald's.

Nothing complex about these great ads. Not even a unique selling proposition in sight.

It's what we used to call a star strategy: when there's no unique product benefit, make the brand a star.

So much advertising today is bland and safe to the point of being boring. Over-analysis will do this. Or too much research.

Another reason is the Mac Operator era. Sadly, computer skills - not conceptual ability - have become the main prerequisite for most advertising and marketing jobs.

I have occasionally lectured on the subject of visualisation and been horrified when students rush to the computer suite without having the first idea of where to begin. The ability to think laterally through scribbles on a layout pad is a lost art.

The computer is a great tool for producing artwork but it won't produce ideas. All too often the work is sterile, relying on Photoshop effects rather than a good idea simply laid out.

The standard of print communication has deteriorated, not improved, with the use of computers. The mouse pad may have replaced the layout pad, but we are clearly failing to provide enough training in conceptual skills.

It's also staggering how many companies are trying to do their own ads. Advertising space is expensive, so why run an ad that fails to stand out from the crowd, let alone produce results?

DIY advertising never used to happen because you had to know how to draw, or order typesetting.

But with computers, everyone's suddenly a graphic designer and many companies spend a fortune to produce mediocre advertising.

DIY is false economy. It should stay in the garden shed.

* Rick McKinley of Creative Direction is a freelance art director and copywriter.

* The Pitch is a forum for those working in advertising, marketing, public relations and communications. We welcome lively and topical 500-word contributions.
Email Simon Hendery.