Resilience, radio and a room with a view

On Friday, WPP’s Worldwide Creative Director John O’Keeffe spoke to D&AD’s New Blood Academy at Sea Containers House on the subject of resilience. It was a fitting topic. After all, the recently qualified students are now embarking on their creative careers as the media landscape continues to fragment and we enter the unchartered economic waters of Brexit.

Resilience has always been a crucial characteristic of the creative mind. Walt Disney was told by his first employer that his work ‘lacked imagination and he had no good ideas’. The Beatles were rejected by Decca Records who decreed they had ‘no future in show business’. Steven Spielberg was rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theatre, Film and Television three times. Resilience is as important as talent in the creative industries and the D&AD Academy Alumni should remember this as they have their work critiqued, knocked back, admired and refined over the coming months.

The past decade has seen an explosion of new platforms for brand engagement. Second Life, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Spotify, Snapchat and, most recently, the inexplicably addictive Pokemon Go. Some of these ventures have swum while others have sunk.

Commercial radio is a medium that is often grudgingly commended for its resilience. It has proven its ability to adapt to first its televised then its digitised competition, retaining healthy share of the media day alongside more shiny, contemporary competition. It remains the second largest medium after TV and a rich channel for creative opportunity, not least during a period where we are likely to see marketing budgets cut and clients seek the proven ROI we know broadcast media will deliver.

It was heartening to see the students bring audio ideas into their pitches as they presented to the great and the good of the industry. The proven tenacity of radio as a channel and young creative enthusiasm for it could prove a powerful combination.

Darwinian quotations are overused in media blogs, but the D&AD Academy starting their careers in a competitive industry would do well to remember the meaning behind the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’. The phrase doesn’t mean the strongest or the smartest, but rather the one most fit or purpose: the survival of those who are constitutionally most able to thrive under the conditions they are placed. And the characteristics that underpin this are often very traditional.

Radio’s continued success is down to its continued relevance, its reach and its simplicity for the consumer. Success in a creative context is not only about originality of ideas and execution but down to the timeless skills of hard-work, self-belief and of course resilience.

I wish the Academy all the best of luck as they embark on their creative adventures in advertising.