MANILA – Talent is a must-have to make it in the advertising industry, but more than that, one must also have the creative stamina, IdeasXMachina CEO and RAW School principal Third Domingo said.
“You will always hear this idea that you know, in order to be a good creative, you have to be first and foremost a brilliant creative brain. That’s not entirely true. A lot of the most brilliant ones, of course they had the talent, but most of all, they had the hunger, they had the determination and the will to learn,” Domingo said.
Domingo explained that it is common in the advertising industry to have ones ideas shot down by the creative director and the client. The best creatives, he said, are those who keep going even after a series of rejections, and allow disapprovals to feed their determination even more.
“Out of your 100 ideas, perhaps your creative director will like only one of your ideas. So you think of another hundred, and then from there, he’ll only like one. The best creatives will not stop there…And we’re only talking about what’s inside the agency. Once it gets out, and you present it to clients, clients will not like most of what you present,” he said.
“It is this undying and unending energy that keeps you going and that keeps you growing as a creative person,” he continued.
He also advised young creatives to do away with a sense of entitlement, and prove themselves first before they start complaining about work.
A lot, if not all of the best ones work very hard. They never gave up. Sometimes what creatives lack is the creative stamina. “Creative stamina is one very important attribute that young creatives should have. Why? Because out of your 100 ideas, perhaps only one, your creative director will like only one of your ideas. So you think of another hundred, and then from there, he’ll only like…one. The best creatives will not stop there. That in fact all of these disapprovals feed on their determination to come up with the best idea. And we’re only talking about what’s inside the agency. Once it gets out, and you present it to clients, clients will not like most of what you present.
“It’s a lot of work, and you kinda need to prove yourself, that you are brilliant, that you have the energy, and most of all, that you have the creative stamina,” he said.
And while an education is important, Domingo said that a lot of the learning in the advertising world happens by experience.
“I don’t think there is a school out there na after you graduate, you know exactly what to do in the advertising world…when you get into an ad agency and you become a creative person, or you become part of the accounts team, still much of the learning happens in the doing..You have to think of a lot of ideas, you have to think of a lot of strategies that the client will like, you have to actually work,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of having a life outside of work.
“When you’re doing advertising, it spends a lot of energy on your end, so in order to recharge, you should do a lot of non-advertising stuff too,” he said. “I always tell this to my students, that you know, the first step to writing is actually riding the jeepney… Improve on your reservoir of experiences so that there is in fact something to write about.”
Ultimately, according to Domingo, creativity is fed by experiences: “Yes, you have to work hard when it comes to advertising, you have to have creative stamina, but at the same time, you have to have some sort of a balance because these things recharge you, these things make you more creative. Nothing comes out of your brain that does not enter through the senses.”
