009: It's not an idea, unless it's produced

[Before - Session 3] Gearing up for The Supply Chain of Advertising

I first heard the title of this note, “It’s not an idea, unless it’s produced” from Bill Westbrook when he was Chief Creative at Fallon. But I’ve read similar sentiments from many others since. Seems an aphorism.

Yes, the light bulb moment itself is a miracle. And getting light bulb moments consistently is a hard won career. But any idea limited to the napkin is mildly pointless. Now comes the equally hard part—getting others to join the parade, getting a machine humming to convert the napkin scrawl, the epiphany, into something real in the world.

It helps if you can conceive of “having ideas” as a business, and specifically as a supply chain. Take the whimsical luck out. Put some of Pressfield’s War of Art and almost any of Godin’s writing in. When you step back and look at the most successful advertising agencies, you’ll see well-engineered shops with repeatable process. But to be clear: they’re not engineering shops. Don’t look for a spotless assembly line, or Six Sigma as proof of ability.

Tomorrow evening’s class marks the end of the 3-part context setting before we dive into the Future of Advertising’s major themes. We began by establishing the purpose of Marketing. Last week we focused on the history of human behavior and persuasion. Now we’re continuing our pragmatism and examining the ways in which ideas distill through production to become real in the world. I want the students to be able to look at opportunities like the metaverse, or a newfangled social influencer, or AI-generative tech through those three lenses: How can each opportunity 1) create change, 2) leverage and impact behavior, and 3) actually get made?

I’m excited to welcome Ellie Moonen, a producer, to class. We’re going to bounce back and forth from macro to micro—and examine the right side of the How Marketing Functions graph (comms plans, tactics, distribution).

We’ll unearth the various skills that help ideas come into fruition. We’ll talk about team-building (i.e. the Hollywood model). And we’ll look into the fresh, innovative ways creators and agencies are making ideas happen in 2023.

Then I’ll have a “During” post ready for you later tomorrow evening. That’s its very own supply chain.