Pjotr Barakov

Deep inside I want to cry

Over the past month Jacob and I went to eight agencies for book crits. Seeing different creatives and asking about the work they do and the culture of the places was very insightful. I was positively surprised that even at the agencies I considered to be very traditional a lot of stress is put on creating PR stories and using interesting mediums, not just making posters and TV ads. All the people we met were very passionate about what they are going and very nice in general. I’m still waiting to meet those assholes everybody warned us about.

The feedback we got is absolutely priceless. And although it was all different, the general pattern is the same. People seems to like our tech/invention ideas much more than the traditional campaigns – although the consensus is that we should put advertising campaigns behind them. What our book lacks are big game-changing strategies for brands. So coming up with those is our priority for now.

That’s why now we’re concentrated on writing as many propositions as possible in search for those that unlock creativity instantly instead of choosing one brand and trying to come up with a sound strategy for days. That’s a trap we fell into with SmartWater for example. Both of us felt that it’s a very interesting brand that deserves much better advertising. We did research and discovered that dehydration has a direct effect on brain’s cognitive functions. That’s something general public isn’t aware of and works nicely with the brand name. But once we started scamping we realised that executions were suspiciously similar to Snickers campaign. And to the Deep RiverRock TV commercials that were based on the same insight. That’s why after spending quite a while on Smart Water we dropped it. For now at least.

So yeah, now it’s about concentrating on quantity that will hopefully convert into quality that our book needs.