Fortunately, during my trajectory, I learned something relatively early. Something that makes creatives uneasy. Whether new or experienced. I learned to answer one of the biggest questions in the profession: how do I know if my campaign is ready?
For me, the answer came after a series of conversations with people who had more experience than me: the work is done when we decide it is. This means that being creative is having the ability to deal with rejection, especially self-rejection. It is necessary to have a critical and cautious look at ourselves, as the idea only ends when the creative decides to do so.
We are constantly asked by ourselves and, of course, by our customers, whether that creative solution is good enough. From now on, I can say that time and practice will be the main allies in dealing with these issues. But there are two important things to consider in all campaigns to have a minimum rejection, because yes, it will happen: experience and repertoire.
The experience in advertising and communication brings an important baggage to resolve issues in the area. The professional will deal with problems that he or she has already faced and will draw on previous experiences to make a decision.
The repertoire is what professionals build outside the advertising world: life experience, living with other people, content consumption and buying habits. Everyone has a rich and unique repertoire, and there is no other way to deal with this than working in a group.
The individual repertoire helps to solve communication, advertising and creativity problems, but it is by working as a team with a collective and diverse repertoire that we are able to create interesting things and relevant discussions that lead us to have good ideas.
Often, your work will not fit the current world and you need to understand that. The script for “Round 6”, for example, written by director Hwang Dong-Hyuk, was rejected by local film studios and considered “implausible”. The series “Filmes que Marcam Época” shows how classics at the level of “Back to the Future” needed adjustments in the script until they became rounded for the public.
Being open to listening to feedback, especially about a campaign that didn’t please those who were supposed to please, makes us better professionals. It is from this that we can say that “the rejected will be exalted”, because we learn from our mistakes, and with them we do our best.
Domenico Massareto is CCO of Publicis Brasil
