The future of creativity is collaborative

Integrated Creative Art Director at Globo TV Network and D&AD Branded Design and Content Judge Alexandre Tommasi writes here about the radical changes happening in the industry and the opportunites the future holds in the creative fields.
 

There’s been a lot of talk about the drastic changes taking place in the creative industry and advertising market. All around the world there’s a strange feeling of insecurity about what agencies are facing, and what’s coming in the next few years. I also notice a certain nostalgia for the pleasure and freedom that creatives used to have in their professional everyday lives, and which today they believe is over. People say advertising is getting flat, boring and politically correct.

They claim that  the loss of autonomy, the closer involvement of marketing and research departments, customers who have been interfering more and more with the creative process, low budgets, and the overall alignment of brands with a single top-down speech have left advertising limited and less efficient.

I notice students are confused and hesitant as to their professional choices and the future of our industry. It is mainly for them that I share my thoughts.

Anything one does, even if it is done with excellence, has an expiration date. In medicine, engineering or architecture, we can clearly see positive changes and daily progress. Advertising should be no different. Taking the road of creativity means exercising the new, studying all possibilities and converging the progress of all other areas of knowledge into a startling result.

When I started my career as an art director, I could never imagine myself involved in a project like “Powered by Respect” – which meant participating in the construction of a race car driven by thought, for a mobilisation campaign produced by a TV channel.

This was a chance to take advantage of new possibilities in mechanical engineering and design, as well as a challenge for new technology and neuroscience. The project launched at the opening ceremony of the Formula 1 season, and used the public’s passion for sports to talk about inclusion and respect.