The positive effects of embracing fear


As individuals - fear shuts our mouth from saying the truth. 

It may be risk aversion or other factors kicking in - but to say out loud what scares you - especially when you know in your heart that what you have to say is true - turns larvae to caterpillars to butterflies and lead them to their demise all in an instant in your stomach and can fuck your brain up.

While most often - silence may seem the unsaid norm - there's great benefit in embracing that fear and speaking one's heart.

Fear is a powerful primal emotion that's rarely used to do good.

There's an interesting parallel to this phenomenon within stand up.

In a podcast with SnG Comedy - Vir Das spoke about the writing arc of stand up comedians

Stage 1 - Comedians start writing about things they think is funny

Stage 2 - Playing to the crowd and mixing it up with what they think is funny and what they know the audience thinks is funny

Stage 3 - They start writing and talking about personal things - beliefs, opinions, etc and find humor in those things

Stage 4 - They start talking about things that scare the shits out of them - but say it anyway - and find humor in it.

If you follow stand up - Dave Chappelle, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Eddie Griffin, Louis CK and Chris Rock are some who have reached that stage 4 of comedy and are elevating that playing field.

In fact - Louis CK in his tribute to George Carlin talks about how when comedians are done talking about the things everyone can experience - begin to go deeper within themselves and expose themselves to their fears and make comedy out of that. 

Digging deeper within oneself, fighting the fearful and nightmarish thoughts that they know is true but are scared to say it out loud to an audience, which is laughing hysterically, but is also made to think, is an experience of unadulterated and pure joy for comedians. That's the undisputed nirvanic state that any stand up can ask for. 

Being fearful yet being funny is a state that few can reach.

But while that fear unlocks creative juices in stand up comedians - FEAR is a key driver in creativity within advertising too.

For that - we need to turn to Fernando Machado - the global CMO for Burger King.

In an interview, probably in Cannes Lions Festival, when asked how he evaluates an idea, he mentioned that if the agency is confident that the idea will win awards - he is wary of the idea. If the agency tells him that they have a fantastic idea but are scared of it - they have his attention and possible money.

It got me thinking - "How often have I gone to a client being scared and confident of the strategy and the idea we were to present?"

He says that "Fear and being afraid are part of the journey to doing something different and great"

In his talk at the Cannes Lions 2018, he said :"We are afraid all the fucking time - but it's producing great work with that emotion is what counts"

For the record - Burger King, between 2015 to 2019 has won a total of 134 Lions! 

I strongly believe that as agencies - we have a lot to learn from this. 

To begin with - I think planners need to challenge themselves and really dig deep within themselves and evaluate where in the arc of their career they are.

Much like stand up comedians - we often start with what we know and have strategies that are by the book. We then get to know clients and almost customize strategies based on client requirements and add a few points on what we think should be done for the brand. 

The third stage is when we starting voicing strong point of views on the brand and work on strategies based on the cumulative experience and wisdom we have amassed.

And unfortunately - I've seen very few planners step over to the fourth stage - have a scary point of view for the brand but one that is right. The strategy may question the marketing head's motives and future for the brand, may risk his/her job perhaps too. But seen very objectively - one would realize that it probably is the right thing to do. Looking at it from the brand's perspective - that strategy and idea is probably the right direction for the brand and will help it scale new heights in the future.

More often than not - we are waddling between the second and third stages. We tell things that the client may want to hear but give it a personal spin to add some value. The strategy overall may help the brand in the short term, but may take the brand a few steps back in the long run.  

We rarely push ourselves to come up with strategies and views that really propel the brand forward. Not for the client's sake but for the goodness of the brand. 

And I'm equally guilty of this.

It's not easy at all. 

And in the course of my advertising life (which is really short compared to the stalwarts rocking the industry) - I've come across very few who have demonstrated this fearlessness. 

Mind you, this will never come with half baked, desk researched, non-committed work by you. It's mixed with one's dexterity of being able to understand, from a macro lens, where the brand stands, who the consumer is, what the business problem truly is to be able to find a powerful yet scary solution.

It's our fear that can elevate the brand's current journey and take it a notch higher. It's this fear that can unleash better creative output for the brand and do justice for what it truly deserves. 

More often than not - we'll see this in the first round of client presentations - but never as the final output. Our conviction behind the strategy and idea were, we believe, no match for the client's fear.

But when the fear is embraced and welcomed by the agency and is shared by the client - great work can happen.

In fact - we've come across many great creative work that was borne out of fear.

Just listen to the On Strategy Podcast and you'll be surprised how so many campaigns have had to fight all kinds of fear to eventually be produced.

Closer home, I believe that recent Tanishq ad is one. It may not have been the most insightful of ads for me within the Tanishq portfolio - but definitely was a brave and bold ad. 

And there are tons of examples that are out there and I'm hoping to hear more interesting stories of times when agencies and planners were in this stage of being fearfully right.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The unforgettable evening with Hari

I fell on to the ground with a droning sound reverberating in my left ear. I was slowly losing sight of my surrounding. I was breathing hard and fast and could feel my breathing on my stomach, but slowly, even that began to fade away. And then... silence. I awoke with the noise of the small crowd gradually getting louder and louder and nearer and nearer. My eyes were open and were having difficulty adjusting to the bright light. I could feel my breathing again but this time - slow and controlled and now, my chest was heaving rather than my stomach. I was sweating profusely and the sudden lack of action was generating immense heat within me and I could feel it on my feet and hands. I felt like an ember emanating heat all over. I could feel the warm floor below me, even though it was wet. I also began to feel the heat below my, on my back, even though I was sweating and my banyan drenched. I moved my arms closer to my hips, folded them to help myself up but somehow, all I could do was th
Read more

Strategic planners, lateral thinking and stand up comedy

 Strategic planners have this innate habit and drive to connect seemingly unrelated dots and try to make sense of the world around them. No wonder that they immerse themselves into so many different kinds of things - and each will find its way into the work they do. Either it's in the brief, in the strategy deck, in the consumer insight, in the quest to simplify complicated thoughts and behaviours, anything. It's almost as if this constant need to connect dots and look for patterns is our coping mechanism to find meaning in chaos. It helps us understand the world better. And we do this so often that most often - it's on auto mode and spontaneous.  While we do this daily with the knowledge we assimilate along the way, we rarely utilize it to generate newer ideas when required. And then, I chanced upon a wonderful video by Mark Pollard, that showed me a new way to leverage this connection seeking behaviour of planners. It was used to showcase the power of lateral thinking, wi
Read more

Planners need to write BRIEFS not A creative brief

I was reading BBH Lab's list of 100 things planners should know, brilliantly captures by Chaz Wigley, Chairman of BBH Asia. (https://www.bbh-labs.com/chazs-100-things-a-planner-should-know/ ) The 10th point in that list is an interesting one. He says - "If you expect creative people to present you with multiple options then you should be ready to write multiple strategies to tackle the problem." I completely subscribe to this point of view. In fact, I think it should be the way we tackle creative briefs. But any look at a creative brief format of most agencies, you'll notice that it strips one of the ability to write multiple ones. The process is tedious, a lot of the columns are unnecessary that makes one question why it was called BRIEF in the first place. I feel a lot of them have too many unnecessary information points for the creative. They, in any case, rarely read it. They don't like briefs, they prefer the BRIEFING. To delve into the difference between the
Read more