A proper value must be placed on ideas and Arabic take its place at the centre of thinking if the region is to move forward in 2011, says Ali Ali, creative director of Elephant Cairo
“What’s next for the region? Well, 2011 may witness the birth of more independent agencies in our region. Clients the world over are slowly gravitating towards the independent/boutique model and shying away from the pre-historic retainer model, where they routinely make payments for mostly routine work.
The notion of paying for what you get is finally starting to make sense. And clients are not the only thing boutique set-ups are attracting. Creative talent is also leaning towards them, simply because they can offer a “comfortable creative space” – the time and space continuum in which ideas happen. For surely ideas no longer happen on the day-to-day battlegrounds of the big network agencies. Creativity doesn’t strike as you leave one meeting and walk into another.
Independents may have a good creative year in 2011, but as is often the case, a not-so-great financial one. It’s official, verified and confirmed: in our region great work and money-making don’t go together. Simply because clients won’t pay more money for better ideas. It is the eternal advertising paradox, that a bad idea is paid as much money as a Cannes-winning one. A lot needs to be done on how we value our ideas. Not all ideas are created equal, and for independents to survive and stick around, they shouldn’t cost the same.
Big budgets
2010 was a bad year for ideas, but we did a good job of using big productions to cover that up. As production budgets grew to record heights in 2010, ideas didn’t rise to the occasion. I saw several big-ass spots from GCC countries with a rather disappointing idea/thought behind them. The trend has sadly found its way into Egyptian TV, where low-budget creative ideas are giving way to an ongoing telecom race of who will spend the most. Big production budgets should mean good news for everyone, but only when we have the big ideas to match them. People tend to think that if you throw enough money (and a foreign director) at a mediocre idea, you can make it great. I’d like to see the low-budget idea make a comeback in 2011. I’d like the next Dubai Lynx grand prix to be won by something that was shot on a 7D camera at home, with bad lighting.
Cannes
June 2010 saw a record showing for our region at Cannes. The upcoming Dubai Lynx awards are yet to prove me wrong, but I feel June 2011 will not hold the same for us. I have yet to see a TV spot or print ad from this year worthy of a shortlist. We’ve got four months to change that and, like I said, let’s hope the Dubai Lynx proves me wrong.
As is the case every year, I expect to see a lot of proactive print and outdoor, one or two good (and real) TV spots, with very little digital, and, unfortunately, very little in the new design section. (We, as a region, need to start taking design seriously). If we stopped doing proactive ‘ghost’ ads, we’d all be forced to take a good look at the real work and make it better. Every year in March, Dubai goes through the striking dichotomy between the work on display at the Lynx and the work you see in the streets on the way there.
Better here than there
Not all ad markets are the same. That much is obvious. But there seems to be a general agreement that we’re in the worst place in the world to try and be creative. The last three weeks have taught me otherwise. I spent them in the Czech Republic directing a spot for Y&R Prague and, guess what? Clients there are 10 times worse than any client I’ve dealt with in Egypt or the UAE.
We need to stop being lazy and blaming everything on the region and how we have unimaginative clients. And now, with everything going digital, there is no excuse for bad work. We share one internet with Fallon London, as well as Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Boulder, Colorado. Digital has come to destroy the ‘creative divide’, and 2011 will witness the beginning of that.
Digital
It’s funny how 2010 marked the birth of digital advertising in our region. Everyone is suddenly talking digital. Digital this and social media that. You see people say words like ‘social media’ and throw Facebook logos and a Twitter ‘t’ into their presentations just to look current. I have three words for them. Digital is old. More than 10 years old now. The first digital advertising seminar at Cannes was over nine years ago. Yes, advertising has gone digital, but that’s not news. The news is we’re behind. Way behind. And the solution is not a web banner. We have 10 years to catch up on. Until then our digital work will look like bad print ads from the 90s. We need to go twice as fast if we are to remain in this business five years from now. Otherwise we’ll see local clients inevitably turn to agencies abroad for their digital solutions.
Local voice
The region needs to take a serious look at itself and try to find its local voice. Egypt is doing a little of that, but not enough. Dubai, Qatar and Beirut need to spend more time digging up local ideas rather than importing creative thinking from abroad and shooting them with foreign directors to achieve a very ‘foreign’ look. But what about the local look? The Arabic idea? Most of the thinking is being done in English then brought back to Arabic, as is very clear in a lot of the headlines you read in GCC airports. Creatives in our region need to think in Arabic first. Only then will the work be going from right to left.”
Finally a Creative Director that’s worthy of the title in this region.