What can we learn from how we respond to art to help guide us on how we should respond to brand creative?
I was having a conversation yesterday with someone in the industry whose opinion I value and they said that whilst they liked most of my article (about the Jaguare rebrand) they were hugely disappointed that I still felt the need to share my personal opinions of the work. It was a fair challenge that we should try to keep our personal opinions on creative to ourselves - to keep them personal as they stop being professional. Obviously my ego was bruised as I do agree with this.
But it also got me thinking about the role of creativity and how it’s purpose is to create something different that can elicit an emotional responses (and then get us to part with our hard earned cash to connect with that brand, product, service or experience).
Therefore responses to creative have to be personal as they are emotional. The work itself, the output, needs to elicit an emotional response. But importantly it needs to do this in a certain way for a specific audience.
Moving away from the world of brands and marketing a good parallel would be the art world.
Frieze, the art fair people, do an amazing job in the UK of managing their portfolio and ensuring that they have the right galleries and the right artists to elicit the right emotional responses to the work - the creative output of the artist and the way in which it has been curated.
For anyone who is not familiar there is both Frieze and Frieze Masters.
Frieze has an amazing array of Contemporary Art Galleries with both renown and up and coming artists creating output that is truly thought provoking, emotionally engaging (in many ways), and often cutting edge in how it comes to life.
Frieze Masters is very different, bringing the best in the classical art galleries with old world masters work. The response is still emotional, but it may not be quite as thought provoking but more awe inspiring and mesmerising in its beauty and craft.
The key here is that Frieze understands the response to art is very personal and that it aims to elicit different emotional reactions with the different audiences.
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Whilst there may be howls of laughter, gasps of shock, or snorts of incredulity at some of the contemporary art, that is often a love or hate thing, the emotional response at Masters is more of quiet appreciation and wonder.
And this is the crux of my point, our emotional response should be based on our proximity or otherwise to the desired target audience and intended response.? I know I am not the Jaguar target audience - by geography, by age, or by mind set - which maybe why it is ok for me to not like it.
But where I think my challenger came from, which is 100% correct, is did I put myself in the shoes of the likely target audience and consider what their response would be.? And the brutal answer was no.? I chose to share my personal opinion, not how the intended audience might react.
The worst thing is we say to clients every time we present - ‘it’s not what you think, or feel, or would do, it’s what your intended target audience would think, feel and do!’
So next time I’ll remember to heed my own advice.
Because every day is a school day and a time to learn.
PS. Out of 965 words only 69 were personal opinion.
Son - Husband - Father - Creative Leader
3 个月FWIW, I didn't take your jag writing as personal, but a measured response to a very notable and buzzworthy piece, that let's be honest, was designed to elicit very personal responses.
Creative Director at 121
3 个月According to Dr. Samuel Johnson, another approach to criticism involves two key questions: Is the good aspect of this proposal new? and Is the new aspect of this proposal good? This reflects one of the greatest critiques in history.
Global Brand Marketer ? Brand Storyteller, Innovation Catalyst, Growth Driver, Capability Builder
3 个月Dear Adrian - I enjoyed both the articles and I think it’s ok to hear your personal opinion as well. Your Jaguar article was more about strategy than creative analysis. You put forth some great points and I felt it was one of the more educated perspectives I have read. You adding your personal opinion (with clear caveats) at the end brought a little lightheartedness and was aligned with your personality (intelligent and considered with a dash of witty). I feel the same about this article, loved the parallel to the art world, your humility and a little wink at the end. I say keep it coming!
Creating an equitable & sustainable future through brands
3 个月Great article Adrian. It would certainly help if our industry could categorise its responses to creative work in the way you describe here; Category 1: You are the target audience - GenPop, and therefore your pov is relevant and important as a direct reflection of the work’s intended objective. Category 2: You are not the target audience, so make extra effort to understand the work’s objective before commenting. As designers, our first step in anything professional should be empathy - understanding before acting; perhaps we can introduce a ‘convention for commentary’ that encourages this!