Whose idea was that?

Came a brief for The Shower Foam.

The message was simple - to own a category where other brands have not. But what the client wanted to own, is too similar to 89,168,605,321.73 brands out there in the market. Did I mention it was for a capped TV spot? A budget so low that any production house would pretend they didn't know us.

We were working on it for 3 nights. Nothing solid. Shades came to me one night. We spoke a little about the brand essence itself. He gave the green light to look away from the brief. Take whatever that was in it as secondaries. Try a different angle. Look at a bigger picture.

The big idea, that is.

Had a chat with More Than a Cycle the next day. He was more than glad that we can ignore the brief. At least for now. One thing led to another. One idea sparked the other. We quickly gathered as much when we're satisfied with what we have after hours of bouncing off.

Showed them to Shades. "Almost there." It is still lack of that idea. Rethink. Well, the rejection wasn't brutal, really. But damn. Thought we have nailed it. Back to the drawing board. So, we decided to split. And work on it separately. I came up with 3 different scripts based on that one strong idea. A la Yasmin Ahmad style.

Shades compiled everything for the internal review day to the suits. Towards the end, one of my script was mentioned. It was selected among a couple more for the client presentation.

The thing about advertising is, you rarely work alone during the ideation stage. You will be working in a team. The initial first thought will eventually evolve. An idea will overlap another. A thought will generate newer, better thoughts. Up to a point, no one knows who is doing what anymore.

Up to this day, I still hear creatives ask why named an art director in a copy-based ad. Or why is the copywriter in a visual driven ad.

We are not in the golden age of advertising in the 60s anymore. Though your tools of trade weighs more to either side, art directors are not layout artist, and copywriters don't just write. Learn to accept this fact... no, changing trend of the industry.

If you insist, "What triggers that idea?", may sound more appropriate.


• • • • •


On an extra note...

We got the news that all 3 storyboards got shot down. All. Three. Boards. Triple sighs. Client decided to go for their own idea.

They should have just liaise with the production house of their choice directly in the first place. Call us in to supervise the shoot. Rather than asking for a solution when they already had something in mind.

Well, at least I can face myself and loudly say I tried my best.