(Thanks, G.)

I’m reading a book called Moneyball.

It explains how baseball started using statistics to recruit players instead of just relying on a scout’s instincts. Apparently, these instincts were completely unreliable and gave very little real insight into which players a team should draft. Then, around the late seventies, nerdy types started accumulating proper observations to create statistics that were a much more accurate reflection of a player’s worth. But it wasn’t until the turn of the century that a poor team (the Oakland As) started to use this information to tilt the talent pool in their favour and compete with the super-rich New York Yankees. I haven’t reached the end of the book yet, but I assume that now the cat is out of the bag, all teams recruit on this policy.

It sounds fucking dull, but it’s actually really interesting and very well written.

But could its lessons be applied to advertising?

Could an agency recruit far better creatives for a much lower budget just by analysing what they were really good at rather than going on reputation?

For example, a creative might have their name on a few pieces of highly-awarded work, but then a bit of digging might reveal that he or she had little to do with the actual creativity. Then again, they might have managed to schmooze the edgy cut past the client, thus saving all the good work of his or her partner.

Then again, maybe there are some really good creatives languishing in agencies that don’t make the most of them.

Of course, it’s virtually impossible to analyse the parts of a creative’s ‘game’ in the same way one can for a baseball player, but something similar has been done twice in recent ad history: 1980s GGT and 1990s Simons Palmer both used an incredible talent pool of raw youngsters to complement a couple of seniors, and with the guidance of great CDs the work was brilliant on a smaller budget. Creatives such as such as Henry, Chaldecott, Grubb, Waters, Damon Collins and Mary Wear (GGT), and Paul Silburn, Dave Dye, Gary Martin and Tim Riley (Simons Palmer) maximised their bosses’ cash outlay because they were ‘drafted’ and shaped by some of the keenest eyes in the business.

Nowadays, however, I think this is less relevant. Agencies don’t seem to care about great creativity to the same degree and a creative’s ability to be ‘client-facing’ can be as valuable to an MD as his ability to win a Pencil. Also, the relegation of creative quality to the back of the list of priorities means that a good young creative may never get the chance to display his or her best stuff on a regular basis.

For what it’s worth, when Daryl and I hired junior teams, we looked for hunger (inclination to work hard) and an auto-didactic interest in great creativity (trans: given half a chance they inhaled award annuals). That meant that when we tried to point them in the right direction they knew what we meant and were happy to put the work in. D&AD entries and nominations followed and now all are doing well elsewhere.

Now, whether they’re all good with clients or not is another matter. But we thought they’d learn that later. After all, if you’re shit at ads but good with clients then you’re not a creative, you’re an account manager.

(Thanks, P.)

I don’t think anyone’s done this with an ad before: taken a brilliant commercial and extended it by adding scenes both during and at the end. So now we know where the moustachioed Andy Williams fan was heading:

I know it’s only Monday, but the vernal equinox meant that I didn’t do a SFTW last week, and I have a bunch of shit in my inbox that needs curling out onto the blogosphere.

First is this excellent promo from MIA. If you are of the ginger persuasion it might strike a chord deep in your heart (thanks, D).

Then there are a couple of blogs you might want to check out:

Steve Paskin’s art-directionally based round up of interesting visual stuff.

And then Diccon and Al’s snogdogfrog. Wider subject matter but with no less depth.

Last, I should point out that Kate Moss, the one who ruined many an ad blog with her foul musings, is now on Twitter. Don’t Follow – you’ll only encourage her.

Why is this good?

Well, I might be at the appropriate time of life, and I absolutely love the brand and company of John Lewis, so I can’t help but get a warm fuzzy feeling about this.

But that kind of reaction is rare for me, and I think it has a lot to do with the craft. The direction is perfect (as Andy Gray would say, take a bow Dougal Wilson) and the track is a thing of beauty. The casting is great and the scenarios are compelling and recognisable without feeling cliched.

The technique feels somewhat familiar (I think that one-take thingie has been done a few times, but I can’t think of specific examples right now. Thank you Mr Gin and Mrs Tonic) but I don’t really care. I think originality can be overrated, and I’d definitely rather have something excellent and mildly familiar than something shite and ragingly original.

Well done, people involved.

Have a lovely weekend x

(Thanks, K.)

This week’s death of Guru (do you know that near the end things were so bad he required a Daily Operation?) made me think about the incredible concentration of quality that hip-hop gave us in the early nineties.

Before that time I wasn’t much of a rap fan, although living with a brother who was meant that I experienced the best of what the eighties had to offer (Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, Run DMC, NWA, Erik B and Rakim etc. I remember loving ‘White Lines’ at the age of ten and my mum asking me if I knew what it was about. I had no idea, so she told me. I’ve been addicted to cocaine ever since). But whatever happened around the turn of the decade, there did seem to be a non-stop surge of new and brilliant work that has yet to be matched.

First, I could mention the great artists who produced their best work at that time: Dr Dre’s The Chronic; Nas’s Illmatic; Snoop’s Doggystyle; Death Certificate and Amerikkka’s Most Wanted by Ice Cube; Paul’s Boutique by The Beastie Boys; Don’t Sweat The Technique by Eric B and Rakim; The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest; Daily Operation and Step In The Arena by Gang Starr

Then there’s the 80s MCs who brought out excellent new tracks that matched the best of what they had done before: New Jack Hustler by Ice T; What’s It All About and Down With The King by Run DMC; Juice (Know The Ledge) by Eric B and Rakim; Always Into Something by NWA; Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J; Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince; Headbanger by EPMD; Duck Down and Sound Of Da Police by KRS 1 and So What ‘Cha Want by The Beastie Boys

We also had the breakthroughs of such artists as Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Redman, The Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Digital Underground, 3rd Bass, Main Source, 2Pac, OutKast, Common, The Pharcyde, The Geto Boys, Cypress Hill, Naughty By Nature and Notorious BIG.

And the One-Hit Wonders: Slam by Onyx; Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) by Digable Planets; Let It All Hang Out by A.D.O.R; Fuck Compton by Tim Dogg; I Gotta Man by Positive K; Gangsta Bitch by Apache; Jump Around by House of Pain; Chief Rocka by Lords of the Underground; 93 Til Infinity by Souls of Mischief; Regulate by Warren G; One To Grow On by UMC’s; Flavor Of The Month by Black Sheep; Mistadobalina by Del The Funkee Homosapien, Sometimes I Rhyme Slow by Nice And Smooth etc.

Obviously there are many others that I haven’t mentioned, but for me this era was to hip-hop as the late sixties/early seventies were to rock.

And I don’t think I’m the only one who believes this. When I went to see Fish Tank last year, the main character was a sixteen-year-old girl who practices dancing in an empty council flat. Oddly enough, the only music she dances to is early nineties hip-hop.

I hope you enjoy some of the above tracks.

I know I did.

(Thanks, S.)

It’s funny because it’s true. Integrated campaign films are so often packed with bullshit that I’ve stopped caring.

In other ‘news’, hats off to D&AD for popping their 2010 pre-pencil results online here.

Also, you’ve probably noticed that the vast majority of people think the Orange Cinema ads should now die. Please let it be so.

Perhaps by the time you’ve read this I will have thought of another poll.