Chief creative officers of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa, Chris Gotz believes that it is essential for creatives to gather "primary evidence" and not rely on the pre-curated content that we consume online through our phones and screens. He goes on to explore the concept of "accidental poetry" and the unexpected collisions that can result in new ideas.
Our ability as creative people to pay attention to the world around us is shrinking. And a lot of the time we miss these little moments of accidental poetry because our heads are in our phones and we don't look up enough. We've got headphones clamped to our ears and we don't hear enough. And I think we need to get out there and look at stuff more. We are suffering from a deficit of primary evidence, he says.
Gotz also shares how their approach to creating campaigns have shifted from storytelling where there is an explosion of messaging to one of story making which is a layered approach to telling a specific story. He goes on the show the Carling Black Label Cup Be The Coach campaign where they leveraged the massive social currency generated by the two main South African soccer teams Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.
"Social currency is really important, he explains. "With Be the Coach we knew that if you owned an event like Kaizer Chiefs against Orlando Pirates you already have massive resonance sitting inside that story. What do we with that story to makes it much more engaging for people."
Advertising at its very best can change society and not just a sales curve, he concludes.
Watch the Talk with Chris Gotz
