Summer’s finally here! Hurrahs all round. But work continues apace. As I've got further involved with various projects, something about the ad industry continues to be of interest – the amount of interaction everyone has with each other. Maybe it doesn't seem unusual, but it's particularly striking for me, coming
from a background where it’s quite normal to spend weeks talking to nobody but
yourself and the odd librarian. 

Thinking/creating appears to be hugely collaborative in advertising. Creatives seem to work mostly in pairs. They talk to each other all the time to figure out whether things feel right or not. Then there are the reviews, the constant
refinement and tinkering to get things just right. As I said last week, everyone gets involved. Then a client presentation –
more refinement and tinkering, tweaking and so on. It
doesn’t leave a huge amount of room for ego, and it means that the work itself comes first.

I reckon it suits the nature of the
business. The more input from people around you, the broader the appeal. And if you can’t easily explain your
point of view to your colleagues, how would a mass market get what you’re saying? To
me, there’s something cool in the way an industry, centered on connectivity and
relationship-building, reflects what they do in the way they think.

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(Thoughts courtesy of Planning Placement newbie James.)