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JURIES : ANDREW FERGUSSON: NATIONAL ECD, LEO BURNETT AUSTRALIA: “NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE, GREAT WORK IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE TO MAKE.”
Throughout his career, Fergusson has influenced changes to US law. Designed a climate-change-proof house. Made a music video with Beyoncé. Killed a beer brand’s mascot at the Super Bowl. Recreated the internet using plasticine. Turned blood into currency. Created an anger-powered scooter. Persuaded an NBA team to change its name. Crowd-sourced a film from beer coasters. Invented music-flavoured fruit juice. Sold words for charity. Turned used woks into art. Filmed a hot tub talk show with DJ Khaled. Slapped George W Bush in the face. And put nudists on trampolines. And despite his best efforts, he’s also made a ton of regular ads. Who else could we ask to talk about how to get great work created and through to being produced. He also shares his views about other industry issues.
You worked in New York for a number of years. Are there differences in approach (process) or advertising style that you’ve noticed between the US and APAC?
Budgets and scale are probably the biggest difference. When I was in NY, I produced a number of multi-million dollar campaigns that never actually ran. Big brands like Google or Apple can afford to try things out, and just not run them for whatever reason. This can obviously be hugely frustrating, but it’s also quite liberating in the sense that some clients in the US are willing to take bigger swings on creative work and rely less on testing, because it’s not all riding on one asset and one relatively small budget.
The downside of bigger budgets, however, is that people get complacent. In Australia, we hustle a bit harder to make great ideas, regardless of brief or budget. And I think that makes creatives (and directors) from Australia a bit more versatile than your average creative from the US. I think this versatility has led to the disproportionate amount of Aussie creative leaders in the US.
You’ve led creative teams that have resulted in many Agency of the Year (etc awards). Getting great work created and then through to being produced isn’t easy. What does it take?
I’ve been lucky enough to work at some great agencies, and with some extremely talented people. But no matter where you are, great work is always a challenge to make. You need the brief, idea, talent, budget, and timeline to all somehow magically align. So, you need to be willing to pivot ideas when things don’t pan out as expected. You also need a shared vision with the client and agency. If you try to force an idea on a client, it might get made, but it won’t be as good as it could have been.
You also need to have lots of other ideas in the pipeline. The best agencies may produce 3-6 pieces of work a year that actually win awards, but they no doubt have another 30+ ideas that had potential but didn’t quite get there for one reason or another.
What makes direct advertising great?
All advertising needs to elicit a response. And the great thing about direct is, the response is measurable. I think it’s a really pure form of what we do. Put something out in the world and see if it actually makes someone change their behaviour.
What were you looking for while judging Brand Experience Lotus?
We often see ideas in this space that are smart or insightful, but the actual experience is a letdown. So, I’ll be looking for ideas that are smart, but also give the audience a genuinely unique, and engaging experience.
What three pieces of work would you call the greatest of all time?
I couldn’t possibly narrow it to three. I have favourites in every discipline, and it changes depending on my mood. But the following ideas have all been influential to me at different points in my career:
Subservient Chicken. Whopper Sacrifice. Tap Project. Earth Hour. Wilderness Downtown. HBO Voyeur. Mr W. Canal Bear. Carlton Draught Big Ad. Best Job in the world. Dumb Ways to Die. The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. It’s a Tide Ad. The Swedish Number. #optoutside. Meet Graham. The Superhumans. Nothing Beats a Londoner. Stevenage Challenge … I could go on.
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22 March, 2023
