Courtesy of alicepopkorn Flickr.

It is a big question and depending on who you ask, you could get a multitude of answers.  Adam Cohen, Creative Director at Capstrat and a really smart guy introduced me to a documentary called Art & Copy. Over my vacation, I found it available to stream on Netflix so I pulled out the handy iPad and watched it.  Isn’t technology grand?

The documentary looks at the advertising business by interviewing some of the most influential creative folks in the industry. They discuss many of the most well known advertising campaigns from the early days right up to today.  The documentary is incredibly well done and for anyone in this business, a must watch.

What I found most interesting was the discussions in the movie about what it actually takes to produce great work.  The one theme that really jumped out at me was that it takes a lot more than getting a bunch of smart and talented people together to create truly inspiring work.  A number of these industry giants discussed how the work environment is absolutely critical to foster and incubate work that will be remembered.

David Kennedy from Weiden+Kennedy spoke about that one of his main responsibilities these days is to ensure his company has a conducive environment to create  top-notch work.  I found this amazing and refreshing.  The founder of an ad agency with offices around the world who has developed campaigns for Nike, Coke, and ESPN believes in this so strongly, he has taken on the responsibility himself to ensure his company has the right culture and environment.  How many CEO’s do you know who does that?

Jeff Goodby from Goodby, Silverstein (no relation, unfortunately) and Partners mentions people in advertising are usually insecure because their ideas are more often than not turned down or disregarded.  Think about the creative process, you come up with a whole lot of ideas during a brainstorm, some might rise to the top while other ideas are kicked to the curb.  You present those ideas to others and more get trashed.  You might do focus groups and eventually present ideas to the client.  All during this time, your ideas are being poked, prodded and killed.  I had never really thought about it that way before.

Goodby emphasizes the need to have a work environment that encourages the team to take chances and NOT be afraid to fail.  When a team has that level of comfort, they are free to think outside the box and deliver superior work.  Without that level of comfort, people will not extend themselves and put them in a position to be vulnerable.

I know none of this is earth shattering stuff, but when you live in a fast paced work environment with so many things going on,  you tend to forget the importance of things like culture, vibe and inspiration.

This documentary reminded me that I need to do a better job at creating that optimal environment for my team.  I need to spend more time inspiring people and not always concerned about getting work from Point A to Point B.  I have been thinking about specific ways that I can inspire my team, company and myself.  I am still working on that and will share when I have something of value to say.  In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts on how you inspire and create that optimal environment.  What have you experienced that has really worked?

Ok, well here is the final installment of the Paul Potts story. He won Britian’s Got Talent. The video is below, I think the show needs to not hire the sound guy back next season. It seems since his first try-out the music and sound has never been that good. Oh well, congrats Paul, best of luck.

Special thanks to Meg for sending me this info last night.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Technorati Tags: Paul Potts

I felt kind of obligated to post this follow up after all the discussions and comments that have come from the this original post as well as a response I posted after Seth Godin jumped into the discussions. Below is Paul Potts semi-final performance. Take a look and I will comment after the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My thoughts: Again as everyone can agree on, Paul has an amazing voice. I think, at least for me, they took a little away from the great experience of hearing his voice with all the BS effects, but that is just me. One of the things that I said during my initial post was that what made his initial performance incredible was not only his voice, but who he was as a person. That underdog, the guy who comes out of nowhere to accomplish things that he nor anyone else could of imagined. That’s a story and I just hope they don’t try to change who he is because it would take away from the impact he is having on the public.

What do you think? You think I could get Seth, oh I am sorry, Mr. Godin to disagree with me twice in one week? Woo, I am starting to feel a little weak in the knees..

Technorati Tags: Seth Godin, Paul Potts

One of the TV shows presently on my DVR is The Ultimate Fighter. A show of UFC wanna be’s who for several weeks kick the crap out of each other until there is one man left standing and he is crowned the champion. I just finished watching this weeks episode which included a fight between a guy who the entire season has been talking a great deal of smack and spent the first couple of episodes barking at the other contestants, that’s right, literally barking. He faced off against a guy who had already lost once and was kicked out of the tournament, but was given what most people don’t get in life, a second chance.

So both of these guys had a huge amount to prove and after weeks of talking and chest pounding, they finally had the opportunity to show what they were made of. What happened? When the bell finally rang, they both crumbled. The fight sucked, it was boring, there was no action and neither fighter was fighting to win, they were fighting not to lose.

The reason I bring this up was that I thought this was an interesting comparison to many of the discussions we have been having here on the Hipsters when it comes to marketing. That we as marketers have been doing the same exact thing. We go out everyday and instead of trying to win for our clients, we are just trying not to lose.

It makes perfect sense. We don’t want to be criticized, we don’t want to lose our clients and we don’t want to lose our jobs. So instead of going out and swinging for the fences, everyone is playing CYA so we are not the last one standing when the music stops.

But then I think what is worse, having all those bad things I listed above happen to me or continually wondering after the fact, what if? What do you think the losing fighter on this weeks episode would give up to get those three rounds back?

Technorati Tags: Ultimate Fighter, UFC

I wrote in a previous post, how we cannot forget or take for granted what an amazing time we are living in. How technology has given everyone who wants their voice to be heard an opportunity to do so. I guess it was a coincidence that I wrote that last night and this morning I stumbled upon an amazing video that really drove the point home. I recommend everyone watch this. I know it is a bit long, but if you don’t watch it all the way through you will really be missing out. Many thanks to Sean as I found this video on his excellent blog.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Seth Godin has a great post on How to be Remarkable. My personal favorite as I tend to hang on the side of extremism:

“Extremism in the pursuit of remarkability is no sin. In fact, it’s practically a requirement. People in first place, those considered the best in the world, these are the folks that get what they want. Rock stars have groupies because they’re stars, not because they’re good looking. “

Technorati Tags: Seth Godin, How to be Remarkable