The only thing to fear is fear itself (and bland ads)

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought it would be a great time to discuss one of the fears that we face in the creative industry, and how to combat it.

Fear of the unknown is part of life when you’re seeking cut-through and impact. After all, you can never be sure of the outcome if you’re doing something that’s never been done before. There’s always the temptation to give into that fear and not take any creative risks.

So how do you fight this fear?

The right team and environment

Creating an environment that empowers individuals to take calculated risks is crucial. If you don’t have that environment, you’ll always be second guessing yourself. You want a team that encourages each other to push for the really big, daring ideas.

Trust

Even if the whole team is committed to pushing the boundaries, you’ll get nowhere if you haven’t built trust with your clients. You have to respect that they’re the ones taking the biggest risks at the end of the day. For example, we convinced Chatime to create an ad that poked fun at a certain dictator who is not well known for their sense of humour. That level of trust is something that needs to be built up over time.

Feedback

Ensuring you have constructive criticism at every stage of the process, whether it be team members or clients, can help you feel more confident in taking creative risks. By actively seeking feedback, you can address potential fears head on and continuously enhance your creative work.

Acknowledge the fear and take the leap anyway

I find it useful to remind myself that creating something that will be ignored is one of the biggest risks of all. With that in mind, I think about all the creative risks that have paid off previously and challenge myself to top them with something even better.

So this year, I think we should be aware of another monster that’s just as scary as ghosts and vampires: the bland ad – it’s nearly invisible and can suck your will to live.

Happy Halloween everyone!

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