Hegarty on advertising : turning intelligence into magic

223 Pages·2011·3.49 MB·English

by  Hegarty

HEGARTY
ON ADVERTISING
TURNING INTELLIGENCE INTO MAGIC
JOHN HEGARTY
Click to see the key to these images
John Hegarty is one of the world’s most famous advertising creatives. He was
knighted in 2007 for services to advertising. Founding partner and Worldwide
Creative Director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), with offices in London, New
York, Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai and São Paulo, he has received, among
other awards, the D&AD President’s Award for outstanding achievement and
has been inducted into both the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame and
The One Club, as well as receiving a Clio Lifetime Achievement Award.
See John Hegarty’s ‘Hegarty on Advertising’ webpage
www.hegartyonadvertising.com/
Other books on advertising and marketing published by Thames
& Hudson include:
The Advertising Concept Book: Think Now, Design Later
Advertising Next:
150 Winning Campaigns for the New Communications Age
Advertising: New Techniques for Visual Seduction
Advertising is Dead: Long Live Advertising!
Creative Advertising:
Ideas and Techniques from the World’s Best Campaigns
Creative Strategies:
Idea Management for Marketing, Advertising, Media and Design
Visual Creativity:
Inspirational Ideas for Advertising, Animation and Digital Design
See our websites
www.thamesandhudson.com
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
To Anne Hegarty, for being so inspiring
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part One
1 Ideas
2 Brands and Audiences
3 Agencies
4 The Creative Director
5 Clients, Briefs and the Power of Words
6 Pitches
7 Storytelling
8 Truth and Technology
Part Two
9 From Benton & Bowles to 16 Goodge Street
10 Saatchi & Saatchi
11 TBWA: It’s a Bit of a Mouthful
12 BBH: The Agency in a Suitcase
13 First Levi’s 501s, then the World
14 Going Global and the Birth of the Micro Network
15 After 28 years, 7 months and 3 days
16 How Advertising Drove me to Drink
Acknowledgments
John Hegarty, 2008 Photographer: Andy Paradise
Preface
What makes advertising such a fascinating industry and
why does it have so much to teach us?
It is, of course, an essential component of any competitive market economy:
driving growth and dynamism throughout its numerous industries.
It’s also everywhere, you can’t escape it. And it’s unique in that you don’t
have to pay to see it, it’s thrust upon you. And this can be a problem when so
much of it is so poor. I suppose one could say the same about any creatively
driven industry. How many good movies did you see last year?
But, at its best, this unique mixture of art and commerce is engaging,
entertaining and informative. Look at advertising from any era and you get a
unique insight into society at that time: its loves, fears, wants and needs.
It has to capture the zeitgeist. Sometimes reflecting it and sometimes, as with
our Levi’s advertising, helping to create it.
It’s an industry that is constantly moving forward. Yesterday’s idea is exactly
that, yesterday’s. What’s new? What’s next? How can one brand gain
competitive advantage over another? These are the forces that drive us from one
day to the next. And whatever you do in our industry, from creative, to planning,
to account handling, to media thinking, you’ll find exciting, funny,
knowledgeable and stimulating people. It’s an industry made of entrepreneurs.
It’s also an industry that will prepare you for almost any other business: it’s fast
moving, challenging, smart and inquisitive, built on the need for competitive
advantage.
It’s also one of the most egalitarian industries in which you can work. No one
cares where you were born, where you went to school or who you do or don’t
know. Just think, two boys born in Baghdad to Iraqi Jewish parents became two
of the most powerful people in the UK. You’ve all heard of Maurice and Charles
Saatchi. It cares for only one thing: ideas. And have you got any?
It was Andrew Sanigar at Thames & Hudson who suggested I embark on this
endeavour. Initially, I said, ‘You must be joking, I’m an art director not a
writer’. No problem, he said, we’ll only need about 60,000 words. 60,000 words,
I exclaimed, I’ve spent most of my life trying to make things shorter, not longer.
Creativity in advertising is all about the power of reduction. Write less, say
more. 60,000 words does not sound like less to me.
As you can witness, I succumbed. I remembered some wise words from the
author Frank Delaney, who, after meeting me, said, ‘So, John, when are you
going to write your book?’ I replied with my stock answer, ‘I’m an art director, I
do the pictures’. Frank looked at me somewhat puzzled and said, ‘But, John,
writing is just describing pictures’. I was reminded of these words of wisdom as
I said yes and put pen to paper. Writing is really just a series of linked-up
images.
After 45 years in the business I’d seen and experienced a fair amount that
might just be interesting to the odd student of advertising. And not just
advertising but business. I was at the forefront of the creative revolution that
swept through the boardrooms of our industry, destroying many and promoting
others. A unique period of change and innovation, which broke down barriers,
captured the public’s imagination, creating famous brands and making and