All things retro are not equal
While I'm the first to admit I love a good old run at an Atari console, Duck Hunt or a Back to the Future tee, there's a pervalence in the creative industry that makes the idea of Retro'ing... problematic.
Retro's Rad. Retrofitting, Sad.
To take a page out of the Book of Potus. Retrofitting is SAD. WRONG. DEEP STATE!
This is the trap that we have all fallen into, and continue to fall into (often without trying) where we come up with a killer, cool, crazy, quirky idea that's just too much fun for us to do and then to get it across the line we jam that sucker into the brief in any way possible.
"What do you mean, is it on brief? Of course it is! It's...it's... it's a digital disruption that'll attract the attention of our audience, and then we'll add more copy later to get an action, and stuff"
Retrofitting.
Yeah, but if we just change the graphics to brand colours, and we use their brand voice - it'll totally work.
Retrofitting.
Who cares? It's a cool idea. We'll make it work.
Retrofitting.
The act of adding on a strategy after the fact, to suit the tactic we're wanting to use.
This rarely ever actually works.
Sometimes, by sheer act of doing something, a result occurs - but we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, as creatives, whether this is an effective use of our ability to change behaviour towards a measurable, effective result, or if it's purely a self serving ego driven want to push forward our own idea because we think it's the best in the world, ever ever with rainbow sparkles.
As creatives, we owe it to our clients, our industry, our peers, and ourselves to be disciplined in the opportunities to be infinitely creative. We need to step aside from the "I only want to draw outside the lines" mentality and realise boundaries are not necessarily a bad thing; they're a tool to hone our focus, sharpen our axe, and allow us infinite exploration.
Being creative is easy. Solving the problem is the hard bit.
- Know your audience
- Know your problem
- Discover your opportunity
- Plan your approach
- Get creative about it.
- Make magic
- Change the world.
The trick is to not forget that last one.
This sounds like a familiar discussion we had today!