Each with notable campaigns, these eight creative directors share what makes compelling creative. Some share their definition of creativity, others tell how challenges made them more creative, still others give strategy behind how to create share-worthy content.
3. “The [Buzzfeed] creative department is responsible for coming up
with the innovative, inspiring content for advertisers.
“My team’s role is to understand the brand’s goals, aspirations
and initiatives and come up with content that is authentic to them.
“And content with
this in mind earns
the right to go viral,
and earns the right
to be shared.”
7. “It’s interesting, [in Dumb Ways to Die] we never actually say don’t
do it. Never. We allow people to know that’s a dumb thing to do,
and no one wants to be dumb. If we told people don’t do it… that’s
a control model. Advertising is control. Do this, buy this, don’t do
that, own this, do this now, call us now.
Whereas, the content model is all around an experience and the
message, but not telling you. It’s involving you and showing you
and making you feel something.”
11. “Founder Kenzo Takada, who moved from
Japan to Paris in the mid-’60s, also had a
hand in retail. . . . In his prime, Takada
pioneered a fusion of Japanese street
style, Parisian chic, and global ethnic
influences, creating voluminous, colorblocked clothes.”
“Takada was really about designing from a
personal perspective. He didn’t follow
trends, and we’re trying to use the cues of
that personality to make what we think is
modern.”
13. Ramos’ two criteria for eliciting creative work:
1. “Show me something I haven’t seen before (and I see a
lot).”
2. “It should be really hard to make happen.”
15. Because Nike wasn’t an official Olympic sponsor, its ads didn’t
use professional athletes or references to the 2012 games. “In a
way, the restrictions became our advantage—we had to do
something different.”
17. “I’ll tell you what it's not:
Creative is never easy or for the faint of heart.
It is never safe or expected.
And it is not a big fan of the status quo.”
2014 OBIE award finalist