The pitch: In marketing, there's method in the madness

By DENIS JOSEPH

There's a story about a guided tour through the hallowed portals of IBM.

The visitor is shown busy executives in earnest confab, working on business solutions for a small planet.

So who's the guy in jeans and a lumberjack shirt, sitting cross-legged on a table and reading a book?

"Oh, him," says Big Blue. "He's a nutcase. We have about six of them and their job is to come up with creative solutions."

The story might be embellished a bit, but at its core it is true. IBM had its own out-of-the-box thinkers.

Question: If IBM can have its creative non-nerds, how come most advertising agencies don't have "mad inventors"?

Sure, the protest paws will go up from organisations claiming a mad inventor in their midst.

He or she is constantly in a frame of mind that's out of whack, earnestly going for broke with a song in the heart.

But critics say that business issues are complex and creativity has no business flying off the cliff edge.

Yup, the mad inventor is up against the wall, and blindfolded.

Sergio Zyman says the role of advertising is to sell more stuff to more people so that the client makes more money.

And a survey of clients reported in B&T echoes the sentiment. It found the top criterion of an agency's standing is its ability to effectively meet clients' objectives, followed closely by advertising that sells.



Creative flair was seventh in the hierarchy of needs. And therein lies the dilemma. Or is there a dilemma? Great ideas sell.

Which is why many countries have their Effies.

The mad inventor still exists in a few agencies, such as the Saatchis, Publicis Mojo, DDB and Colenso BBDO. And it's obvious that their creative ideas are working.

The secret is the agency's total belief that ideas work. That's what drives the mad inventors, and the mad hatters in the other departments of the agency.

And you'll recognise them as the hardworking folk having the most fun because, as John Dryden noted 300-odd years ago: "There is a pleasure sure in being mad, in which none but madmen know."

Maybe he was talking of the future of advertising.

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