Creativity as a Competitive Sport
Jess Wheeler on why creatives are driven by making, not cutting—and why the industry's suits-led approach misses what actually motivates the best work.
This isn't a "normal job." We don't have a set list of widgets to make, spreadsheets to fill out, boxes to tick, and then clock off. Much like a professional athlete, it's all consuming.
We work on our craft. We watch our opponents. We keep an eye on talent movement. We work hard, we win, we lose, we celebrate, we cry, we quickly move on to the next fight.
Two Ways to Get Stronger: Cut or Create
Capitalism is built on competition. Eat or get eaten. Over time, two ways to get bigger and stronger have emerged:
Cut or create.
Suits cut. Creatives create.
This isn't good or bad—both are sometimes necessary. But as the industry became increasingly run by suits instead of creatives, there's mostly been cutting. Look at the holdcos: acquire, merge, cut, repeat. And how's that been going?
What Actually Drives Creatives
Creatives aren't driven by cutting. We're driven by making, building, creating. Making 2% more quarterly profit by switching photocopy paper providers does not energise us.
We want to:
- Come up with the best idea
- Beat the other teams in our agency
- Beat the other agencies
- Make our brands beat other brands
- Get headlines
- Win awards
- Make shit famous
- Win the game by making the best thing
The Real Competitive Advantage
You can critique the toxicity in awards and PR all you want—and there's validity to that critique. But it still drives the competitive nature of commercial creativity and ultimately drives people to make better work and build better brands.
The best suits and clients will be the ones who find a way to tap into this inherent competitive nature. Because that's what motivates the best people to do their best work.
Read the full essay on Death to Shit Ads: Creativity as a Competitive Sport