How to put results above all else in the creative process.
If you haven’t noticed, the “big reveal” is dead.
The “big reveal” is that moment — after someone has gone into hiding for days or weeks to “work”— where he come back with “the answer.”
Strategists do this to creatives with the brief. Creatives do this to strategists with the work. Agencies do this with clients with the creative presentation.
In a world of Google docs, social media and big data, the big reveal isn’t just ineffective, it’s dangerous. So much changes while you’ve disappeared — even if the big reveal is “right,” it’s likely no longer “right now.”
The big reveal and other practices like it are a relic of a broken creative process. One where people don’t work together, things get done too slowly, feelings are coddled and the results suffer.
The alternative, I call “Creative Realism.”
In politic theory, realism refers to acting and reacting based on the way things actually are, not as you wished them to be. Decisions are made according to time-sensitive realities as opposed to finite ideals.
Creative Realism may sound “mean” or “ruthless” — and it can be — but what it really is is process that puts a premium on effective results above all else. Above ego, craft and norm. Ultimately, nice people will implement it nicely. Mean people will implement it meanly. It is intrinsically neither.
Here are it’s principles:
#1. Small debates and decisions
First and foremost is the complete rebuke of big reveals.
Creative Realism is a process of small strategic and creative increments done together. Yes, team members can still go away and think alone, but only after a serious debate and a decision is collectively. If something isn’t working, debate other options. If something is working, debate its implications. If your feelings are hurt, explain why, then move on. Debate and decision must happen quickly, frequently and repeatedly.
It’s important to note that while Creative Realism treats all debaters as equal, all decision makers are not. One decision, one decision maker.
#2. Speed over craft
Wherever possible, don’t make the tradeoff. But given the choice between speed and craft, Creative Realism chooses speed every time. Every. Time.
Mistakes may happen, but they can be identified and fixed quickly. Nothing is worse than spending the time crafting something awesome that is ultimately ineffective, but has taken too long as to be unfixable.
Go with speed. Prototype. Learn. Optimize (or discard). Repeat.
#3. A obsession with the real world
Real success happens in the real world, not within the organization. We — agencies and clients alike — are often so fixated on internal measures of success (e.g. praise, copy testing scores, promotions), that we mistakenly prioritizing over real world success (e.g. sales).
Creative Realism orients all strategy and creative against the real world — the product category, the competitors, the macro-trends out there. The factors that actually determine results despite any internal affairs.
Said another way, any internal success should be treated as an outcome, never the goal. Consumers don’t care about your promotion.
#4. A respect of constraints
With Creative Realism, “more money” is never the answer. Neither is more time, more people or more resources. The constraints are what they are, solutions must exist in the reality of what’s actually possible and available . Everything else (e.g. but we need more X) is just a complaint.
Limitation is liberation.
#5. Path dependence thinking.
Creative Realism puts a premium on implication or “path dependence” thinking. Creative work, ideas and campaigns almost never have clear end — they exists in a “repeated game,” where competitors react and conditions change.
Path dependence thinking factors in what happens next, what happens if and what happens when at the heart of work. How will what we do now affect what we can do next? What doors will it open and what doors will it close? What happens if the works actually works? What ‘path’ will it put us on? And are we okay with that?
At the end of the day, if Creative Realism sounds like common sense to you, congratulations — you’ve been doing it right. And if it sounds new, why not give it a shot?
