I recently read an article on Linkedin about an agency launching a ‘world first’.
Was it something to save humanity?
Nope.
Was it something to help business?
Nope.
Was it something designed to get the agency some PR even though it had no intrinsic value to culture?
Absolutely.
All that aside, I do get the quest for ‘first’ from agencies perspective … they want to look like they’re relevant, creative, interesting and valuable … but the great irony is that all this stuff does the absolute opposite.
So to dear old adland, I ask you this …
Could you please start being as proud about craft as you are about doing something ‘first’.
Craft makes a huge amount of difference.
It turns potential into possible.
It changes how people look at you and what they can do with you.
It creates division between you and your competitors.
Craft might not always get the PR headlines, but it makes people care – and given the alternative is World Firsts like that fucking Peggy Peg from a few years ago – that is a much better position to be in for all of our futures.