Trailblazing creative director at JWT Colombo, Johann Latiff puts forth his concepts in relation to traditional Advertising. The blog crew predicts this “game changing” thought to be the next big thing in Press Advertising as it marks a paradigm shift in Advertising.
The crew caught up with our busy Creative Director to make a video documentary. We forced him not to use technical jargon so that everyone would understand this “game changing” thought.
Johann Latiff on Composition
Kumar Sangakkara on Violence against women
Bathiya & Santush on Violence against Women
Professionals, that’s what they call us. Why? Because we are ideators who generate communication methods for brands… professionally.
However, it’s become very interesting to know how through the past few years, in the ad industry, the key question asked at a review has been changed from “does this work for the brand?” to “will this win an award?”
The award-centric people will tell you that this is the most important thing that any ad person’s life should revolve around. Is that true? This is becoming a culture for even the clients who ask: “will this award winning piece of creative work for us?”
It certainly is a matter of opinion on the long run, but I believe that ad people today have become so hungry for awards that they sacrifice their profession in order to make it happen. It seems that along this crazy road of glory, they’ve forgotten why we win awards in the first place. An ad, any ad, can be as creative as it possibly can get, but if you bothered to look into the details of any Cannes winning commercial, you’ll find that while being creatively brilliant, it has also managed to increase market share, secure brand loyalty and give the competitors a run for their money.
Global creative Gurus have said this time and time again and if I were to quote one of the more recent statements, I’m reminded of something said by Farrok Madon. I had the honor of having a rather long conversation with him and I was truly pleased when he said: “I come up with ideas that work for my client, his brand and its product. If I win an award along the way, then there’s a bonus!”
We’re constantly asking ourselves why Sri Lanka is so far behind in the Global Awards game, well (strictly in my opinion) maybe we should start doing work that “cleverly” boosts our clients’ brands to the top instead of trying to boost our own egos.
Think about it, is that the one thing that’s keeping us from that Gold Pencil or Lion?
Have a good week 
