Why novelty in advertising is over-rated
In this guest post, Eaon Pritchard argues why adland should bring an end to its obsession with newness.
I don’t know if Frank Sinatra ever actually wrote a song in his puff. But it’s hard to argue that, as an artist, his blues-inflected saloon balladeer ouvre (particularly his mid-50s period circa ‘Only The Lonely’) pretty much wrote the book of sharp American masculine cool, and with significant sex, style, subversion and skill to boot.
Sinatra’s ability to interpret a song, and take it somewhere else was his art. It was not necessary for him to have been the originator of the material.
As a young guitar slinger in the early 80s I was the principle tunesmith in several bands. (None of these particularly made it, but that’s not what this story is about.)
I was a big fan of the hits of Burt Bacharach and Hal David for a time, but the prolific nature of that partnership meant there were literally hundreds of their songs that I was not familiar with.
So to write tunes for my band I would often pull out the Bacharach-David songbook, pick a tune I didn’t know, and use the chords to make up something of my own.
I couldn’t read music so all I had to go on were the chord shapes. Nine times out of ten I’d end up with something new based on ‘copying’ Burt and Hal.
In advertising we idealise and revere the novelty or originality of ideas and insights. In fact, we relentlessly pursue the ‘new’, almost at all costs.
We hold aloft the stuff that proclaims ‘this has never been done before’.
Really this is the true advertising conceit. If we are honest, advertising has routinely hi-jacked, jumped upon or otherwise adopted and commercialized existing cultural ideas since day one. That’s what it does, and that’s why it works.
So, is new really always better? Or is it that better, is better?
I’ve absolutely no qualms at all about adopting an insight from somewhere else and applying it to the particular problem I’m looking at.
I’ve equally no qualms about adopting the basis of an idea that may have been used somewhere else and improving it.
Because, and I’ll quote enfant terrible of le Nouvelle Vague, Jean Luc Godard here, ‘it’s not where something comes from that’s important, it’s where it goes to.’
Novelty is over-rated, to be perfectly frank.
We don’t always need new, just better.
Eaon Pritchard is director of insights and innovation for Sputnik Agency Australia
This obvious, somewhat superfluous revelation was delivered in such a way as to make it appear fresh and original.
Well played Sir…
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That’s new… (or, is it?)
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or as a once highly regarded Agency Chief exec used to paraphrase it:
“I don’t care where you pinch it from – just make sure it’s original.”
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Exactly. My model has always been as long as it works and the client buys it, I’m happy.
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I guess there’s creators and users…
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….so Clems Melbourne didn’t agree with this way of thinking then I take it…
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Are you pitching for a gig at The Monkeys as this strategy is right up their street.
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talent imitates, genius steals?
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@mdko: don’t think you get it. Picasso, Bob Dylan, Warhol, Godard, Hirst etc etc get it.
@to be frank: don’t know them but they must be smart.
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i don’t know about this Eaon guy… too many vowels.
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‘Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.’ – Voltaire
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So your saying its okay to reuse ideas now?
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Depends on how you define “newness” i suppose. There’s certainly nothing new in the idea that proven, familiar stories have a more predictable rate of success and impact. Truly original, previously unseen ideas/executions/stories/technologies are few and far between in any field, and they always carry a higher risk of failure than those which rely on a proven formula.
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“Just do it yoooooouuuuuuuur waaaaaaaay….”
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You have to love articles where the most frequent word is ” I “
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@Groucho gimme a break, it’s an opinion piece
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Man are you for real? Let’s just give the hell up on doing anything new or interesting because it’s easier to pretend that’s a clever tactic than to admit you’re just another creatively bankrupt suit disguised behind a pretty job title and canvas sneakers. How about you actually extend yourself a little employ some courage rather than writing this lack apology for a lack of creative output amongst your stale peers?
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@groucho That’s what it’s referred to as an opinion piece, genius.
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Unfortunately the ad industry remains obsessed with itself.
Unfortunately for the ad industry, clients remain obsessed with the sell to consumers.
We need to re-educate our young 20 something advertising ‘gurus and guns’ (and clients) on the role of advertising and produce work that has a real effect on the market. New, novel, stolen or otherwise.
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Eaon is simply making a case against sacrificing effectiveness in favour of novelty, which I agree with… in part.
Novelty > Effectiveness = Bad
Novelty < Effectiveness = Good
Novelty + Effectiveness = Excellent
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@andy it feels like you are, in fact, guilty of re-using and repurposing some stock planner-bashing material and therefore complicit in the theory.
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Genius steals.
Or so someone old, dead and famous once said.
There are lots of tried and true routes and ideas in this 200+ year old craft of ours. To ignore them is stupid… I’m with Pritchard on this one.
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I think people are missing the point; this isn’t a belief that rehashing the mundane is acceptable. Quite the opposite.
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Some fair debate here, but there is no excuse for accepting that the original idea is dead.
The truth is that the industry has lapsed into a lazy laissez faire attitude and is basically presenting itself (and it’s advertised products) poorly.
Perhaps it’s the clients fear of originality or the over engineered campaigns? Consumers just aren’t interested in being teased into the creative. Better to do a creative Carlton than a conceited CommBank.
We’ve got to say it isn’t acceptable and strive for the original.
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Regarding old ideas and revitalizing them, the much discussed CommBank idea was done better in the UK by the same agency in 1999 for BT (as revealed via mumbrella)
No adaptation of the idea, just a less interesting 2012 rehash that was the biggest campaign of the last qtr and the pride of the ad industry.
Perhaps we should all look into the ’90’s for our inspiration, or watch more Madmen?
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The desire for novelty is a basic human need.
Adpersons job is to create a climate of desire.
How he/she resources that is immaterial.
Go forth.
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@ The Accountant that’s what the writer said an hour before you. Eaon you do derserve your break, sorry. Its just every time I say “I”my wife clips me over the ear.
It could be worse, you could be an accountant.
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aren’t we just re-hashing what Kirby knows?
http://www.everythingisaremix......he-series/
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Novelty alone is never enough.
The Sinatra story is about a species of novelty…a novel interpretation.
Rather than talk about novelty I would prefer a phrase like “relevant surprise”. The art is in being both novel/different and relevant at the same time.
That’s exactly what Johnny Cash did with his cover of “Hurt”.
http://www.ownyourbrand.com/in.....our-cover/
Great post by the way, fascinating conversation. Thanks for stirring things up with it!
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@tom @P @Cal cheers
@JKH thanks for those, I hadn’t seen them before. bookmarked
@Mike Wagner – great example, and I think I’ll adopt ‘relevant surprise’, too. cheers.
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As an industry, we are obsessed with originality – at AWARD School, in creative departments, on industry blogs. Yet how much of what we do is truly original?
Even our best stuff, the stuff that’s highly awarded, often borrows from movies, art, even other ads. So I think we should shift our attitude slightly.
I don’t think we should stop looking for something new. I just think we should be more obsessed about creativity, not originality.
Then we can all relax a bit and more stuff would probably get done.
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There’s nothing wrong being a magpie if you take your learnings and take it to a place that makes things better, more interesting and more powerful.
For that reason, I’m more for repurposing ideas/insights for completely different scenarios and categories than the one it was originally used in, but not everyone shares that view.
In short, if it leads to something that moves everything forward then it is good, if its just a replica of what has gone on before, I question it’s validity – let alone its creativity.
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Key take outs..
He used to play a guitar.
New is sometimes good…
Re-fashioning old is sometimes good..
Novelty is sometimes good
Top notch insight.
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