Simon Shaw

Communications, Architecture & Design

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Creativity and what it means to me

What does creativity mean? I was asked by Campaign Magazine.

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Simon Shaw : @creativeuncle Creative Strategy, Communications & Design  Now - Chief Creative Officer : @HK_London Was - Global Brand Director : Creative Director @ExposureLondon

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Hill + Knowlton Strategies

H+K is a public relations and integrated communications agency with 88 offices around the globe. Our London office is home to over 230 creative strategists, content creators and storytellers and houses our first global ‘Centre of Creative Excellence’.

H+K London is the first and only large agency to structure around sectors to deliver deep industry knowledge combined with specialist areas of ‘ideas + strategy’, ‘content creation’ and ‘publishing’. Behind all our of our insight led ideas and communication strategies is a deep understanding of data and analytics, creativity and master storytelling .

We believe creativity is the singularity around everything else gravitates. It is timeless; it is the author of every idea but ideas only become great when we share them with the world. This is what makes us different; we are expert storytellers and expert at sharing our ideas.

Through strategic counsel, creative thinking and effective activation, our deep sector expertise enables us to truly understand our clients’ perspective and transform our clients’ challenges into effective and award winning solutions. Our senior bench blends the wisdom of experience with significant client side, media and agency experience.

Together they lead some of the smartest people in our industry; consistently giving our clients clear strategic advice, multiple audience understanding and standout creative ideas and industry leading results.

We are H+K. We create ideas to believe in.

H+K is part of the WPP.

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I was asked by PR Week's Jonathan Tilley to join the debate around the role of the CD in the PR industry. Here are a few of my thoughts. The full debate in PR Week 01 August 2013.

Does the PR industry really needs creative directors?

‘Raising the creative bar is one way we can secure the future for the PR industry and is also one of our greatest opportunities in the changing communications landscape. 

We should focus less on the level the creative bar is currently set and more on the competitive landscape. We will need to pitch, compete and win business from other types of agencies for our industry to survive and grow, as well as defending what has historically been our areas of business.

‘I believe that ‘ideas’ rooted in insight, imagination and innovation and should be centre of gravity for all our future communications campaigns. Originality and creativity are proven to lead to cut-through and persuasion with the consumer and the most creative ideas are proven to be the most effective campaigns for the clients.

To leverage this opportunity Creative Directors must be a fundamental part of the future make up of our agencies as indeed are planners and technologists.’

Does it detract from other agency members' creativity?

‘We have to raise the creative bar in our industry. Some of that is about time, some about talent. We should focus on that. We have to be the creatively best and utilise the best creative talent in the market.

Investing in a Creative Director will inevitably raise the profile and value of creativity within the agency. It creates the platform for the most creative members of the team to shine. Of course, as the agency develops its creative muscles some members of the team will gravitate toward this area of the business and others move towards their strengths. So no, it does not detract from other members of the teams but importantly puts in the checks and balances to ensure that only the best ideas live.’

What is the point of a creative director?

‘I can’t speak for other CDs but my role is simple. 1. Inspire market leading levels of creativity in the agency.

2. Deliver award-winning campaigns for our clients.

The most creative ideas are proven to be the most effective so creativity must championed.I have to be the creative ambassador and champion in the agency. I must plan the seeds of the creative ideas, create the environment for them to flourish and protect them as they grow.

I don’t think it has ever been better put that by BBH: ‘Our objective is effectiveness. Our strategy is creativity.’’

How can the industry improve its creativity?

We need to leverage what makes us unique:

Ideas and communications played out in real time – this is something unique to us and something we are expert at. To do this we need to use creativity, insight and innovation to ensure that our ideas and campaigns get the maximum cut through possible and then our PR skills to play the campaign our in real time.

Combine these two things:

Creativity and real-time execution and you have a potent and unique mix.

In order to improve our creativity our ideas need to balance art and science, the creative and commercial, the cultural and the economic and then we must fully unlock their potential using our skills in real-time content led storytelling.

We need to embrace creativity, look outside our industry to understand what is market leading. We need the best planners to root our ideas in insight, the best creative technologist to inspire innovation and the best creative talent to bring our ideas to life.

Let’s not be afraid of creativity and spend too long discussing its role in our business. Creativity is part of all businesses, it can be the differentiator, it can make the complex simple. We need to embrace the task of allowing it to flourish and grow in the PR industry.

Simon Shaw is the Executive Creative Director of Good Relations Brand Communications. @creative_uncle

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Exposure Global communcations agency.

Since 1993 Exposure has been making brand culturally relevant through network, influence and advocacy. We generate ideas and content that spark conversations, are talked about and shared across our network and beyond. 

We create award-winning campaigns for some of the world’s largest brands as well as undertaking cutting edge briefs for some of the most creative and innovative fashion brands. We are passionate about brands, big or small, local or international.  We have offices in London, New York, San Francisco & Tokyo. 

www.exposure.net

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Coca-Cola | Matthew Williamson Collaboration copyright exposure My introduction to Exposure was through these Coca-Cola bottles. I first saw them in a bar in Hoxton and collected the set. Exposure had been set the challenge to re-invigorate the role of the classic glass bottle. They created the now much emulated collaboration between Matthew Williamson and Coca-Cola; they seeded to bottles in bars, on-line and with influencers to spark media and consumer interest. The collaboration was so successful the ripples made it all the way to Atlanta and set the template for the many bottle collaborations that have followed.

A brilliant piece of work that inspired me to want to work with Exposure.

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Role of a creative director

What does it takes to be a creative director in a modern communications agency. 

What do you actually do?

I am the Creative Director of exposure. At exposure my job falls into four main sections; idea architect, creative conductor, talent scout and studio MD. 

Initially it is the job of the creative director to inspire and sketch out a number of campaign ‘ideas’ with the agency planners and art directors. These ideas are then worked up and built out into the skeleton of a campaign.  We then engage our specialist teams; publicists, digital & social media experts, content producers, event producers, media planners and retail specialists all of whom are best at what they do. It is my job to act as ‘conductor’ of these teams and ensure that as the idea develops into a campaign it stays true. I ensure all the teams ‘play’ to the same tune and the ideas gets stronger and not diluted as it develops.  We are a complex agency with so many different specialist teams. It takes a special type of creative to thrive in this environment. It is my job to spot talent, scout talent and develop talent and build the best creative teams possible to respond to our clients challenges. Most of the creatives have been with us for a number of years so we must be doing something right!  The final part of my role is that of a studio managing director. I work closely with our creative services director and studio financial manager to ensure we are operating profitably, managing the jobs as efficiently as possible and maximising creative opportunities for the agency. In my view this is a very important component of a modern creative director’s role and the delivery of award winning campaigns.  The better talent we can afford, the better the studio output. The better the studio output, the more effective our campaigns are for our clients. The more effective the campaigns, the more they are prepared to pay us. The more they pay us, the better talent we can afford… and so it goes on…

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Dr Martens 2 Cannes Lions Bronze Award 2011 Creative Direction Exposure USA - copyright exposure

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Umbro Tailored By England | Energy Space copyright exposure 

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Tailored By Umbro Cannes Lion Silver copyright exposure 

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Virgin Trains | Plane Relief copyright exposure 

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Imagination | Global Creative Agency.

www.imagination.com

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Imagination HQ, Store Street London.

A covered street making Imaginations HQ designed by Ron Herron ex of Archigram - a interesting coincidence given Peter Cook was the Professor at Barlett School of Architecture and my tutor was Christine Hawley, both also ex Archigram. 

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Archigram

In the 1960's a group of architects got together and eventually became what was know as the Archigram Group. The group consisted of Peter Cook, Ron Herron, David Greene, Warren Chalk, Mike Webb and Dennis Compton. They worked as individuals and sometimes as a group and published a magazine called Archigram. 

This is the wiki description of the group:

Archigram was an avant-garde architectural group formed in the 1960s - based at the Architectural Association, London - that was futurist, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical projects. The main members of the group were Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton, Michael Webb and David Greene. Designer Theo Crosby was the "hidden hand" behind the group. He gave them coverage in Architectural Design magazine (where he was an editor from 1953–62), brought them to the attention of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, where, in 1963, they mounted an exhibition called Living Cities, and in 1964 brought them into the Taylor Woodrow Design Group, which he headed, to take on experimental projects.

Peter Cook took over the Bartlett School of Architecture in the early 1990's bringing together the best tutors into a Unit System to rival that of the famous Architectural Association. He attracted the best students from all of the UK and I went to the Barlett in 1992 to do my diploma in Architecture. 

Peter Cook led a time of experimentation at the Barlett. Creative and personal exploration were at the top of the agenda rather than architectural problem solving. I competed a series of projects on 'Perceived Personal Freedom', 'Nanotechnology' & 'Random Number Theory'.

Exciting times.

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