The hunt for a great idea

John Hunt is passionate about ideas. Sally Burdett spoke to him about light bulb moments, his book and 2010.

John Hunt is a very likeable person. The fact that he is the Worldwide Creative Director (which sounds like a title God should have) of TBWA, flying around the world, inspiring creative teams and driving global advertising campaigns, is not something that hits you in the face when you first meet him. He’s relaxed, friendly and very easy to talk to. And although he has worked on Madison Avenue and reached the pinnacle of global advertising success, he’s still very much a Joburger.

I interview him at TBWA’s fairly new premises – on the other side of Sandton to where they were previously located. His office has a glorious view over the treetops of the city. He says there is something about being able to look out over a view that inspires creative thought. We spend a few moments contemplating the world’s most treed city before we begin.

The Art of the Idea

In an industry that increasingly relies on research, science and analysis to sell, John is adamant that a fresh idea and original thinking have to be the driving energy behind a campaign.

The Art of the Idea is a tribute to the creative process and a guide to good ideas. It was launched in Johannesburg, Berlin and New York in September and October 2009 and has been very well received.

“When I first started in the ‘idea business’ I was under the impression that you just worked exceedingly hard and you forced an idea out,” he explains. “Then I slowly started to observe that there are things that make having an idea easier or not, and there are environments or people that are conducive to great ideas, and there are things, places and people that kill ideas.”

The other reason he wrote the book is because he believes anyone can have a good idea, “I wanted to try to put to bed this fallacy that only certain special people can have ideas, that you have to be gifted. It’s amazing how often the quietest, the most obscure person can have an idea.”

The book (designed and beautifully laid out by artist Sam Nhlengethwa) also has its own Facebook page and has been animated. It’s fitting that it has a life and social network of its own, because that is a central thought of the book. Ideas have personalities; they thrive in open-minded, encouraging, non-critical environments and can be easily destroyed by a ‘sunset’ person. (The first observation of the book – you get sunset or sunrise people, in other words, people who either drain energy or create energy.)

Selling a great idea

A great idea is a critical starting point, but how do you sell it to your client? “Having the eureka moment doesn’t mean from thereon it’s plain sailing,” says John. “Often, because something is different, it’s the hardest thing to sell. The very fact that it is a new idea means that there isn’t a template or reference point, so the client is nervous.”

Come fly with me

He says it’s a careful step-by-step process to get the client on board, “First of all I try, at the beginning, to declare the idea as a thought. Not me selling to you. Then, if you can intellectually leave a trail of breadcrumbs along the way and take the confrontation out of it, it helps a lot. Get the client to buy the idea behind the idea. ‘Do you agree this, and this, and this?’ Then you reach a stage when you have to leap over the cliff together.”

That leap could lead to a fantastic flight or a terrible crumpled heap, and that is why John believes a critical part of selling a new idea is integrity. You have to believe in your idea. It’s a position he has held right since he began Hunt Lascaris with Reg some 25 years ago, “I always believed that what I was selling was genuinely the right and the best thing that I could do. I never in my life sold something I didn’t think was good. That doesn’t mean it was good, but if it doesn’t work at least you have the integrity of saying, ‘I gave it an open and honest shot.’”

A good time for good ideas

A fresh idea, says John, is actually easier to sell in a challenging financial environment, “Tough times, funnily enough, give you a chance to show the client they need to do things differently.”

Clients, who urgently need to boost sales, are more open to new ideas, “Clients won’t care so much how you do it, they want to know pretty quickly what the pay back or result is. The good clients are beginning to understand that change isn’t the enemy; newness isn’t the enemy, because what they’ve got isn’t working either.”

‘You can’t put lipstick on a pig’

Be honest, take risks, trust your instincts. Great advice, but what happens when a client wants you to create a campaign for a useless product that cannot live up to its promises? If you were acting with integrity and honesty, surely you would turn the client down? “Yes,” says John.

Is it realistic to expect an agency to say no to any work, particularly in this economic climate? “It’s a tough call, yeah. But if you take the money and run, it works terrifically once. Second time round that client goes, ‘Didn’t he say he had a great idea three months ago and it didn’t work?’ You are on a slippery slope. Yes, you want to make your margin, but it’s a very quick descent, in our kind of business, if there is no honesty involved.”

The people decide if it’s cool

And there’s someone else to consider here – the market. Consumers are savvy, impatient and want to be amused. People instantly respond to a great idea and tune out the stuff that does not captivate. They also have a nose for truth and don’t like being manipulated. In 2010, these principles will apply even more.

Because we are flooded with information, John believes we edit out details we don’t need. Rather like an internal PVR or Tivo, our minds skip past unwanted information. This has fundamentally changed the way advertisers communicate with their market, “Before we used to pride ourselves on interrupting a person with a billboard, or a television ad. That doesn’t work anymore. What we have to do is create stuff that you choose to want to watch.”

Seeing is not believing

Throwing lots of money into a highly visible campaign does not guarantee success.

“You have to do stuff now that makes the audience go ‘Damn, that was good!’ Hence the need for originality. Just seeing something isn’t being affected by it.”

And great ideas have a life of their own. People talk about them, and spread their message. This was something TBWA witnessed with their recent award-winning campaign for The Zimbabwean newspaper. The billboard read: It’s cheaper to print this on money than paper. The message was printed on real Zimbabwean dollars, something that caught the public imagination.

“This was digitally our most successful campaign,” explains John. “People saw the big billboards and posters and took pictures with their cellphones. The Zimbabwean site went from having 2000 hits a week, to 2 million because the people, the audience, the target market wanted to pass the pictures along. The people decide if it’s cool or not.”

Recovery in 2010

Globally it’s hoped that this year will see the beginning of an economic recovery, something John is cautious about. “I think 2010 will be incrementally better, I don’t think it will be a quantum leap.” And good agencies never forget they are in the business of selling, “In the end advertising is always – how do we move a lot of chickens, cars, takkies. Advertising is an investment. Advertisers are not patrons of the arts. The client wants to see stuff coming back. I think in 2010, even more so.”

As always for John, it comes back to the pursuit of the great idea, and a wonderful challenge for 2010, “Let’s slap ourselves about the chops and come up with something that is really, really different!”

The World Cup overfloweth…

2010 promises to be a fascinating year filled with opportunities for South Africa.

John sees the World Cup as a once-in-a-lifetime marketing opportunity for our country, “The World Cup will have less to do with how corporates advertise in it, and more to do with how we as a collective set of South Africans celebrate our brand.

South Africa will have the biggest spotlight in the world trained on it for those six weeks. People do not understand the quantum of good it can do South Africa. If it were a marketing budget – it would be in the billions to match what we have been given.” He says it will be a critical time for getting a positive message about South Africa to the world, “It’s a very rare time when you get to create millions of ambassadors for SA – where people say, ‘I heard about the crime, but I didn’t experience it’ or, ‘I had such great service.’ If we can embrace it and see it not just as a polishing of our brand, but a fundamental reset of our country, we have a chance to quantum leap the perception.”

He is confident that the hearts and minds of South Africans will work their charm during the event, but says that the biggest opportunities lie after the final whistle blows. “I am not sure SA understands how important the World Cup can be after the World Cup. I hope the government has a plan that echoes after the event.

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