089: Tim Ferriss and Chris Beresford-Hill on Creativity
And we're one week from the start of the new semester
Before we begin: I’ve fine tuned the syllabus.
For those of you who’ve joined this newsletter recently, buckle up. My practice during the semester is to send out Before, During and After posts for each class. Yes, that’s three per week—starting January 22. My goal is to give you the expectations, reality, and a reflection on each session of AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs.
Two hours wisely spent
As a creative director, teacher and writer, I’m always curious how others succeed in their practice, at the game. A friend pointed me to Tim Ferriss’ January 11, 2024 episode #715 interview with Chris Beresford-Hill (LinkedIn), Incoming Chief Creative Officer of the Americas at BBDO. It’s a pragmatic and inspiring discussion on many levels—strongly recommended, and especially for anyone outside of agency culture, or new to it. Chris and Tim deconstruct the mechanisms, habits and history which fuel advantageous creative agency practice and personal resilience.
Some highlights:
47:40 - Do one more thing
“In creativity … if you can figure out one more thing that—what you’re being asked to do, could do—and you cover everything and that … (your ideas) are more attractive, more appealing.”
Beresford-Hill describes an experience working on Emerald Nuts at Goodby Silverstein where the key was asking refining questions over and over to try and distill some kind of provocative or useful insight upon which advertising could be built. Here’s the result.
You have to keep asking. This is a critical skill in creativity.
To keep asking politely, patiently, with persistence.
Because provocative insights are rarely on the obvious surface.
54:05 — Crazy is rational
“The craziest ad ideas are really highly, highly rational strategies brought to life in highly, highly memorable and surprising ways,” says Beresford-Hill. (And by “craziest,” I take Beresford-Hill to mean “effective.”) This is the singular lesson to be learned if you wish to produce culture-changing, and profit-driving advertising.
Let’s demonstrate with an example discussed in the podcast…a 1997 Alan Pafenbach and Lance Jensen commercial for the Volkswagen Golf, produced at Arnold Worldwide: “Sunday Afternoon” (otherwise referred to as the Da Da Da spot, given the infamous music track by the band Trio).
Watch, and then ask yourself—what’s the strategy for the VW Golf which inspired this creative expression?
Have you ever owned a VW Golf? I owned two. They’re wonderfully practical, and surprisingly roomy. That, in essence, is the highly, highly rational strategy.
Now watch that ad again and take notes (turn the sound off, which helps elevate the strategic underpinning):
Wow, lots of sheetmetal shots. Good grief: four seconds of front end at :21-25 with zero camera movement?! (Who does that—who ever did that?)
That is a big chair. And it fits inside that small car? Hmmm. (That chair used to sit outside my office at Arnold, and it did not smell.)
The truth is, “Sunday Afternoon” SELLS HARD. It is quite literally a :60 product demo. It’s a highly rational strategy brought to life in a highly memorable manner. And proof the most effective creativity is rooted in—but not a mere repeat of—very rational strategy.
I have copy of the “Sunday Afternoon” pitch storyboard somewhere. It is hilariously overwrought with description. I recall either Lance or Alan telling us the client said, more or less, “The team at Arnold has done amazing work for us [in the first 18 months of the relationship]. ‘Sunday Afternoon’ won’t work, but you seem convinced. So here’s $200k. Good luck.”
Crazy is rational.
01:18:02 - “If it feels wrong, you’re probably on to something”
This part of the conversation uncovers another central thesis of successful creativity and agency culture. It boils down to building and sustaining a community where rational and non-rational are in delicate but very necessary balance. By contrast, you absolutely don’t want your dentist to embrace lots of non-rational thinking.
Ferriss notes an indicator, a feeling, which he associates with remarkable ideas, or bets which pay off—i.e. Before they’re fully realized, there are hints which might suggest idea creators are “getting away with something.” Brilliant creativity generates nervousness; it instigates scenario-planning. And importantly, it’s a signal you can tune into. These are clues worth nurturing, and habits worth encouraging.
Because ideas which change the world are rarely rational.
So the job of a creative, as Beresford-Hill puts it, is to, “find the line, to find the edge, and stay there.” And the business of “staying there” is the business of strategy, integrity, attitude, cooperation, and chutzpah.
One of the age-old habits which can help unearth, kindle, and strengthen edge-finding is reductionism. (As another creative once put it, “simplify, simplify, simplify.”)
Beresford-Hill and Ferriss discuss the process of engaging marketer and agency teams in winnowing truths and reasons-to-believe, in order to arrive at “the one thing.” The one reason, the one way in which the brand/product/service can stand apart. Here’s the challenge: When asked, “what’s the one thing?” too many marketers mistake the assignment. They assume the question is about the brand or product on offer. And they can’t resist responding, “but we have six bullets of RTBs!”
The one thing isn’t about the brand or the product.
It’s about the audience.
The more effective way to ask would be: “What’s the one thing the audience might notice, and upon noticing—change their behavior?”
The point is to make something where the audience feels like they’re getting away with it, too.
And in reaction to Ferriss’ final question: “What would you put on a billboard to inspire people?” Beresford-Hill responds, “in the spirit of creativity and living an interesting life…”
(Image via Dall-e3)
Further inspiration
Ferris and Beresford-Hill cite at least six resources to understand the nature of creativity more fully...
1️⃣ Luke Sullivan’s Hey Whipple, Squeeze This — The litmus for anyone aspiring to a career in advertising. If you haven’t read it, you should.
2️⃣ 6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park — A fantastic example of the pressure cooker of creativity.
3️⃣ The Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster (Netflix, Wikipedia) — ditto
4️⃣ Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (Amazon, Wikipedia) — ditto ditto
5️⃣ Bird by Bird, by Anne LaMott — Also in my top three references for learning to write
6️⃣ The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle — A guide to understanding how organizations instill and maintain their creativity
AI+Creativity Update
⚗️ The AI Pedagogy Project at Harvard offers a wonderful resource of GenAI assignments from faculty all around the world.
📷 Midjourney V6 is out, and ArsTechnica has a useful summary of its advances.
🛒 OpenAI’s GPT Store is open (requires a Plus account). My Creative Brief Coach GPT is available, among many many others.
👵🏼 NiceAunties creates the most amazing AI aunties. I can’t get enough. (Website, Instagram and here’s an interview with Wenhui, the artist; and another)
