SCABs

Steve Harrison Week – By @_ElliotL

By Elliot Lee

 

 

Steve Harrison Week

 

I’m going to start this SCAB a bit brash. Sometimes you read and hear about people in the world and there’s an expectation to say how great they are because of the things they have achieved… but how can I make a judgment with how someone truly is without meeting them. Arse licking, without ever meeting and understanding what truly makes someone great, and seeing how they’ve got to where they are. However, for me, praise has to be screamed from the rooftops for this man.

We were lucky enough to have Steve Harrison for a week, and genuinely, we were so lucky to have him.

Single handedly, one of the best learning experiences in the most bite sized and simplest of teaching methods. Steve articulates himself in a way that wants to make you learn, and he is able to explain the true value of problem/solution without all this new advertising and strategy jargon. As students, especially at the SCA we’re in this limbo state where the type of work we create needs to have this balance. Sometimes you make work to show how creative and disruptive you can be for ‘creative’ sake, and other times you’re making advertising that can run, and hit your target audience perfectly. If you manage achieve both, you’re golden. Mainly though, you try and tend to make work that demonstrates both you and your partners ability to think completely different to what you think other people are making. This doesn’t always necessarily mean that the ad however will shift product and appeal to your consumer. Steve Harrison made it clear that sometimes we make-work for other advertisers. To impress the creative directors and client, and in the process lose sight of what truly matters. Benefitting the people… e.g your consumers with a product, brand or service.

What I think became clear is that I need to really start asking questions on the type of work I want to make before portfolio day, and who I’m going to make the work with. Time will tell. What I can take is that the SCA gave me an amazing learning experience with a humble and dedicated person in Steve Harrison.  I’m going to plug his book ‘How to Write Better Copy’, because I need to chip away at it most nights this week.

Cannes is due Wednesday… so Monday and Tuesday is going to be a stretch to the finish line. Coming up with ideas is fun, so I can’t complain.

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