COMPARING THE CREATIVE TO THE BOXER. (PART 2)

PREPARATION

Before any fight you train, you study your opponent, watch videos of his fights, 

jog in the early hours of the morning, 

take on sparring partner after sparring partner, 

stay on a strict diet to make the weight for the fight, 

and never lose focus, training far from human contact, far from a social life.

Just you, your mind and your body.

You see the famous Rocky training montages, 

that is a perfect example of a fighter preparing, 

the different methods, training routines.

Specially the catching the chicken scene, Micky, an old-fashioned trainer, 

setting Rocky an old-fashioned task to work on his pace.

Tony once said to me, that a fit body makes for a fit mind, 

he would tell our class to stay away from the pub, 

not to drink during the working week, not to indulge in food too much, 

being hungover or simply having food baby would defiantly affect us coming up with ideas.

It would explain why Tony jogged, kept active, ate healthy, 

it would simply keep his mind going to come up with ideas for scripts,

or just to keep at the pace of the class helping with ideas etc.

But preparation isn’t just about warming up the mind, keeping it fit, 

it is also preparing for a certain client, 

understanding a brand, 

so when you have to answer the brief you will have a great insight/truth, 

an attack plan to deliver a great idea to win the client over, and get some live work out.

In boxing, you train a certain way for a fight/fighter, 

whether it be to increase your pace to counter a fast opponent, 

or your power to take the wind out of a defensive type, so they open for a clean shot.

Anthony Joshua had four sparring partners,

each one did 4 rounds and then they swapped. 

So, Joshua was sparring for 15/16 rounds in prep for a 12-round fight with Wladimir Klitschko. 

Because most of Klitschko’s fights had went the distance, 

with his clever boxing ability, to slowly pick off opponents with his jab.   

Joshua won the fight by knockout in the later rounds.

POWER

Mike Tyson was feared for his knockout power. 

Joshua is now carrying the torch with 19 win by way of knockout. 

Power, knockouts is what people pay to see in a fight, 

it’s what makes it exciting, 

whether fighter runs out of steam and is finally silenced by TKO (technical knockout). 

But it’s those flash knockouts that really make you stand up.

Tony told a team on this year’s course to be more Mike Tyson, was it to be bolder, 

or simply have more impact in their execution?

I feel power in advertising is summed up by the feeling of “I wish I came up with that”, 

that jealous feeling you have when you see a real great idea. 

That feeling is the knockout. 

Great ideas are powerful, they make an impression, you remember them, 

you talk about them to friends.

John Hegarty remembers when Ross Cramer and Charles Saatchi came up with the 'pregnant man'.

Hegarty thought he had won the brief for the Health Education Council,

with idea involving a pregnant school girl smoking a cigarette, 

but along came Ross & Saatchi with the pregnant man, 

and Hegarty felt completely disarmed, it was a knockout.

One great idea can be remembered for a lifetime, 

but some creatives strive to beat it with an even better idea, 

in fear that they are summed up by that idea for the rest of their life, like a one hit wonder.

Lennox Lewis had a series of great fights from beating Frank Bruno in a big British clash, 

to destroying the beast Mike Tyson in Vegas, 

he didn’t have one great fight, he had series of them at the top.

That’s why these sort of people are remembered, 

they made an impact, they made a statement, 

they entertained, they excited, they took your breath away.

COMPARING THE CREATIVE TO THE BOXER. (PART 1)

Last weekend I witness an epic clash between two great heavyweights.

Anthony Joshua of Great Britain got off the canvas in the 6th round,

to TKO (Technical Knockout) Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine.

This was a unification fight for the heavyweight championship of the world,

in a record breaking attendance of 90,000 at Wembley Stadium!

It was truly intense, and amazing to watch!

Even my girlfriend, who wasn't even a fan of boxing, was on the end of her seat!

This epic fight inspired me to write a post about how a creative and a boxer,

stand in terms of heart, skill and entertainment etc.

This is something I have been meaning to write for a long time,

since I decided to pick a career in advertising,

I have been treating it as a sport, a boxing ring, fighting against the best creatives,

for the prizes and the recognition to get to the top!

This is why I enjoyed One Minute Briefs so much,

head to head against your opponent, to out think them in a minute,

while everyone watched in anticipation!

I can't think of it nothing less then my sport,

so I have decided to show this feeling in a comparison,

of the two professions.

So you can feel how I do about this career!


STYLE / TECHNIQUE

A boxers style could be determined by the gym they trained in,

who he was trained by, or simply down to his attitude.

Mike Tyson's peek-a-boo style, was designed and perfected by his trainer Cus D'Amato,

this technique was the reason Tyson knocked out nearly every opponent,

ducking and weaving, coming up with speed, landing a clean haymaker out of nowhere.

Tony Cullingham of Watford trains all his students in a certain way,

finding the insight and truth in the brand,

capitulating it into a idea/line with no more then 8 words to sum it up,

getting them to execute on the hardest but simplest medium, the poster.

You could say the Watford technique is an orthodox (traditional) approach,

compared to SCA (School of Communication Arts) which is unorthodox (untraditional).

However some fighters are already training themselves.

When Muhammad Ali discovered boxing, he was obsessed!

He would get his brother to throw stones directly at him,

dodging the stones with his head movement, improving his speed.

This obsession payed off, Muhammad Ali became known not just as the greatest,

but one of the fastest fighters who ever lived, in his prime you could hardly touch him!

There is quiet a lot of creatives in the industry that didn't even go to advertising school,

and trained themselves, taking everything they could at book critics,

and processing that into a more affective way of getting better ideas.

Muhammad Ali was a idol of mine, and before I went to Watford,

I used cover and cover paper, getting my answers with my stamina and speed.

However when I came to Watford, I gradually moulded into a more untraditional style,

with my thinking, tackling briefs more executional,

working backwards towards the line to sum it up.

The way I saw it was to simply answer the problem with a solution,

we are problem solvers at the end of the day.

This could be seen weird for someone who trained under the Watford banner,

in terms of approach, but I like to think of myself as a boxer who can switch styles.


HEART / CHIN

"You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit; It's about how hard you get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!" - Rocky Balboa

The heart in a boxer's arsenal is what makes champions,

the engine to win when your back is against the wall.

To get knocked down and get back up again!

Tony would call this 'passion and energy', the formula for any great creative.

Because it's the passion, the love for the industry that keeps you going,

and the energy to come back with more and more!

Until eventually your at the top,

whether it be the best creative in your department,

or the winner of the Cannes Grand Prix.

Like Paul Arden said's "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be.".

I also found that heart is how much you can take in criticism, and keep coming back with more.

Advertising is an harsh business, a subjective business,

with heaps of criticism flying from everywhere.

Tony would prepare us for this by constantly destroying our ideas,

he can be a tough man to please, but it was for our best,

because if you really had the heart for advertising you would come back with more.

Again, and again, and again.

I had a dark patch during the beginning of my second term at Watford,

where everything I brought in for Tony to critic was shit; everything!

So I began to work on finding myself, what inspired me in advertising,

I searched myself and got off the canvas with bigger and stronger ideas,

that best symbolised me as a creative.

The result showed as I was hand picked to go to Google.


SHOWMANSHIP

Some boxers have a show when they come to the ring,

flashing lights, dancers, singers, fireworks!

Some wear flashy robes, with tassels,

even shorts with their name engraved in diamonds.

The nicknames they have, Floyd 'Money' Mayweather, 'Dr. Steelhammer', 'Ragamuffin Man'.

Some with simply their lively attitude, mouthing off in the press conference,

building up the fight with their antics, they build a love hate relationship around them.

Neither way, it works to a extent to get people talking about them and the fight!

Some creative teams self promote themselves with a simple logo,

or go one step further and create self promotion videos, personal projects,

even create names that symbolise their team, instead of something boring like Tim & Joe,

just their normal names.... you are a creative, promote yourself creativity!

I greatly encourage it, my creative team is called 'PotterScotch',

basically me and my partner's second names combined with a sweet!

Also showmanship most importantly comes down to how you present you're ideas.

During my week at Google, a few teams including myself as a single, where chosen out the class.

Google was big, so when it came to presenting our world changing ideas, we did it in style.

Big keynote slides, on a large screen in front of the some of the heads of the creative labs.

Most of my classmates where clean cut, selling the idea inside out from the insight/truth,

right to how it would help people's lives, proper entrepreneurial stuff!

It was very professional.

However mine was the opposite, it wasn't as polished as the rest,

it was just one slide.

It was simply a black and white photo of me,

with a quote from me talking about innovation in ideas and the future.

I was parodying Steve Jobs, and it worked.

I felt more relaxed and interacted more with my audience, like I was at some big launch,

by starting off with a joke, and then bringing my future bending ideas into the fold!

Everyone was laughing and talking about it afterwards.

Memorability is key, I made not just a presentation but a show.


PART 2 COMING SOON.