Twist or Stick - Krow’s co-founder and creative director Nick Hastings discusses what it takes to make it in advertising
What does it take to make it in advertising? The Drum and Twist Recruitment catch up with Krow’s Nick Hastings, who advises young creatives to avoid thinking that technology on its own is the idea.
A lot has changed in the advertising industry since Krow co-founder and creative director Nick Hastings’ career began, and his advice to hopefuls today is to resist getting swept up with technology and remember that the idea is the single most important thing.
Hastings was a late starter in the industry. While he took his first role at Bates Dorland when he left university, he lasted all of three months and walked out in the middle of a telephone call with a client because “it really wasn’t for me”.
And when he later joined CDP, he was given a full month to spend solely on one brief, something he says is “unheard of” in today’s industry.
“We all seem to assume that everybody can have great ideas within two days, and I think that makes it very difficult,” he says. “There’s not enough intuition, there’s too much research and I think there is a danger that ideas get trampled on by technology.
“People think the technology is the idea. Well, it isn’t. It doesn’t matter whether the technology is incredibly innovative and hasn’t been used before, the idea has still got to be great, and I think sometimes people get so excited about the technology that’s being used that the quality of the idea is almost secondary. We need to be careful about that.”
Interview by Paul Wood, words by Angela Haggerty
This interview is part of The Drum’s Twist or Stick series in partnership with Twist recruitment. Read the full piece in the latest issue of The Drum by subscribing here. Subscribers can download a copy here. In the next instalment of Twist or Stick, we profile Kevin Doherty, client services director at Fitch. Got a question for Kevin? Tweet us using the hashtag #twistorstick and you could see your question answered in The Drum on 28 May.
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