Embrace creativity as a green phenomenon amid marketing message overload: Sir John Hegarty

Sir John Hegarty, Co-founder and Creative Director of The Garage Soho and The Business of Creativity, at Cannes Lions 2023, highlighted the need to view creativity as a green phenomenon amidst the excessive production of marketing messages that go unnoticed.

In a session named ‘It's Not Content Creators Or Adland Creatives but Both’ at Cannes Lions 2023, Hegarty and Ashley Rudder, Chief Creator Officer, Whalar, emphasised on what adland can learn from the lower barriers to enter in the creator economy and the opportunities it gives people from marginalised backgrounds.

Hegarty met Rudder, who is also the world’s first Chief Creator Officer, explored what they can learn from each other’s experience in creative services and what are the perceived tensions between creators and creatives.

Hegarty said that he is on a mission at the moment to make people understand that creativity is the best way to save the planet.

“Constantly producing average is screwing the environment and we have got to sell creativity in another way. We cannot go on producing the average that is out there because it is polluting the world. We are all worried about fast fashion but what about fast advertising? We are producing endless stuff. There is no calculation of how much money and how much energy is put into social media platforms and pumping out marketing messages that people aren't watching. So, my argument now to people in business is to talk about creativity as a green phenomenon," he added. 

Furthermore, Hegarty said, "I am trying to give some courage to the marketing directors to say to the board that we can't go on producing all this stuff by wasting money. We have got to have ideas that are more sustainable. The whole of our industry has to think about this that we cannot go on pumping out efforts and the gold line should now be changed to a green line."

Hegarty believes that creativity is about being true to yourself. It finds a way of including and making things interesting and brings people into it. 

"I went to an art school and from there I went to a design school. That is when I realised that I loved ideas and they were the things that drove me. I believe that ideas unify. We talk about markets splintering, dividing and diluting but the point of a great idea is that it unifies. The power of a great idea can almost solve anything and that is the lesson that we need to learn," he added. 

Rudder said that social media has created a space where content creators' appeal can be amplified and they can have an impact on their own communities. 

Hegarty stated that unlike earlier times, today one can go out as a content creator and do what they want and take the responsibility for that. They can develop their audience and then have something unique. 

"When I came into advertising, in the 60s, one of the things I would say about the 60s revolution which certainly happened in America and UK was that it was the first time a creative revolution happened from the ground up. Before that, all sorts of revolutions were from the top down. For the first time, post 1945, we had a revolution that was in the hands of everybody. Therefore, creativity flourished," he added.

While telling her story, Rudder said, "My career started in the beauty industry which was one of the first industries to flourish on social media. Being in that environment I saw voices wanting to be heard and often in the community that representation was lacking. So, people were expressing themselves on the internet and social media."

Furthermore, she went on to say, "As we are evolving, I am seeing slower effectiveness of TV ads and higher effectiveness of creative outcomes from creators. There is a shift happening here and we can always grapple. However, if we can align and combine, evolution can be something really progressive and magical.”