Why doing the wrong thing can sometimes be the right thing to do.

Australia’s disappointing tally of medals at the recent Cannes Festival of Creativity has sparked a fierce debate that perhaps we’re not as creative as we once were.

Or, a better way to put it might be that we’re not as creatively ambitious as we once were.?

There’s all sorts of figures and charts that have been flying around on LinkedIn that have shown the swift decline of Australian creativity that don’t take into consideration the nuance of changes to the amount of awards a single campaign can win, and the overarching trend of fewer Lions being handed out.

But, I digress. The fact that the creative community’s suitcases have returned home a little lighter than they might’ve in previous years has kickstarted an important conversation about our creative ambition, and our ability to execute against that ambition, which can only be a good thing.?

Australia and New Zealand have always been seen as a hub of creativity because we’re smaller and can take more risks, but thanks to a global pandemic, countless natural disasters and everything we’ve had to endure in-between, we’ve been operating in an environment of fear and uncertainty which has naturally led to clients becoming more conservative whilst their budgets have gotten smaller.?

Consequently, we’re all forced to do more with less, which has led us to a state of creative inertia while we’re all caught in a perpetual state of survival.?

That’s led us to become less brave than we have been in the past. Couple that with an environment that is more project driven, and it’s become increasingly more challenging to build the trusted relationships that create the fertile ground for brave work to flourish.?

As creatives, as marketers, we’re all taking fewer risks, taking the safer path, doing what might be deemed as ‘the right thing’.?

But we’ve always been at our best when we embrace the ‘wrong thing’ - the things that have no rulebooks to follow. The things that make us feel uncomfortable. The things that we know have the potential for greatness if we believe in them.?

Because it’s the ‘wrong thing’ that’s unexpected, that cuts through, that demands attention.?

We’ve lost our edge - and for good reason - but I truly believe it’s only temporary and that this can become a pivotal moment for us.?

For the creative industry, it needs to be a moment that reminds us to be courageous in backing the work that we believe in, no matter how uncomfortable or how challenging it is.?

For marketers and clients, it needs to be a moment to get back to embracing the possibility of failure in the pursuit of business-changing success.?

And collectively, for us all to recognise the moment in front of us, and to have the belief that sometimes, the ‘wrong thing’ is the right thing to do.?