Assorted Nuts: Digital and social media can make advertising 'a bit safe' warns former Dare ECD Flo Heiss
Digital and social media can make advertising campaigns “a bit safe”, Flo Heiss, former executive creative director at Dare and founder and creative director of Studio Heiss has said, while discussing how creative ideas have changed through the evolution of digital, questioning where "the soul" was within online campaign work.
Speaking to The Drum’s editor at large, Dave Birss last year, while still ECD at Dare, Heiss, who is one of the subjects ofAssorted Nuts, Julian Hanford’s coffee table book of portraits featuring some of the UK’s finest advertising creatives, talked about his move from working in digital to above the line at Dare and the differences he had seen as a result.
“I don’t think that there is a traditional agency – everyone is trying to do things in a different way,” he explained when asked to define what a "traditional agency" was. He went on to admit that there was "magic" within a 30-second TV spot, which was still missing online.
“We’re so obsessed with doing everything right and that everything is functioning well. Sometimes I wonder - where’s the soul? Where are the things to grab me? Advertising is really good at doing that and there is a beautiful skill in telling a story in 30 seconds and that has been missed a bit in the online world,” he claimed.
Talking about the resulting changes within advertising, he stated that a race had emerged in an attempt to "do things for the first time" rather than best, and that ideas were also changing.
“It’s important to have a big idea, but also the right kind of big idea. There’s also not enough funny stuff around as well. That’s why Old Spice did so well – it was funny and brilliantly written. That it had a Twitter response was not the interesting part – it was that it was funny.”
That led Heiss to state that the emergence of social and digital marketing meant that sometimes campaign ideas could become "a bit safe" which prevented marketers from find out anything new.
“There’s a way of doing things that makes it difficult to step out of that. In cinema you have 3D technology and superhero movies, and then you have art house movies, and that can only happen now against all of the Hollywood movies. We need that in digital, with all this social. I would like to see something that closes it down a bit and connects with people emotionally,” he explained.
“The liveness and vastness of digital works against human nature and this is something we should be aware of for our children. We are probably the last generation that knows how to use Facebook and doesn’t just accept it as a status quo. I’m self-aware that I might be looking around for something to share. There is a difference between sharing something you’ve seen and looking for something to share.
“There’s a slight change as our children are not totally switching off but there needs to be a middle way of educating our children about this. It’s the status quo to them as they open the iPad and watch television - it’s second nature. They are all digital natives but they are going to grow up with online always available to them and it’s something that we have to try and help them with.”
During the conversation, Heiss also discussed how he thought digital communications might develop, admitting to a hatred of emails, and talked about Nike’s creative strategy while stating that a central idea was still the more important aspect of a creative strategy before the platforms that were to be used to communicate the underlying campaign message should be decided.
The full interview can be heard below.
More details on Assorted Nuts, produced in association with The Drum and will be released in the coming months, can be found online.