Finky/proactivity etc.
News reaches my eyes of the interesting genesis of an ad (it’s quite old news, so bear with me if you’ve already heard it):
That is interesting in itself, but what’s more noteworthy is how it happened: the Steve Jobs visual was done by a Hong Kong student. Graham Fink, ECD of Ogilvy China (Coke’s ad agency), was so impressed with it that he flew down to meet the guy to ask if he’d work on the odd project for him. He then gave him the Coke brief, and here we are.
Nice one, Graham. Few CDs would be so proactive, and look how it paid off.
The same thing happened again recently when design student Ricky Richards sent Finky an idea for a chair made from Coke bottles. That didn’t happen, but the Santa ad you can see in his portfolio did, and is now up for Clio and One Show honours.
Lesson: proactivity works just as well for CDs as it does for students.
In fact, it works well for everyone.
The coke Santa ad and the other Steve Jobs guy one are just posters. They’re not shareable so they are officially shit.
I like it because it honours the talent. Lesser CDs would have tried to rip the student off, or come up with a pale imitation of their idea. But to seek out the talent shows creative integrity and respect for real people.
Agreed. It’s CDing of the top grade.
Yeah, does show some magnanimity from Fink. Why not go after the talent wherever you see it?
he wouldn’t have done that 5 years ago.
he’d of nicked it.
but now because of the venom of blogs and twitter.
he now gives credit where it was due.
But GL – think how much Graham HAS changed. After all – he’s now working inside a culture built upon the idea of nicking an idea and making money out of it. And yet he resists. That shows he’s working even harder to do the right thing.
And he’s become Coke’s advertising golden boy in the process.
Everybody wins.
Did Fink himself tell you this Ben?
No. Someone sent me the link.
Are you suggesting it’s untrue?
@Paul It’s definitely true. He was trying to track the guy down while I was freelancing there in 2011. He got his PA to ring every University/College in China, as all he had to go on was a name and the fact he was a student. It clearly paid off.
mister gash – i’m just pointing out that old finky wouldn’t have. but new finky is in a new world. and he understands the story of this is better than the execution. which, to be fair, is average without the story.
GL. Yep. Got that. But a Cannes Grand Prix? Did the jurors know the back story? Not like them to laud the average. Oh hang on…
Mr Gash. Yes the jury knew the back story. There was a none too subtle campaign to make sure they did. As there is this year. Such is the pressure in network agencies to win more awards
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