TV should not be considered as the main screen and creatives should not allow technology to dominate their ideas and instead focus on creating human connections, according to decorated adman Mark Tutssel.
Leo Burnett’s worldwide chief creative officer is in Sydney this week for the agency’s quarterly Global Product Council, where top creatives from the network assess and score all the work by the different offices.
In a wide-ranging interview with B&T for The Brief he talked about his creative vision for the network, Creativity Without Boundaries, why brands must become more useful to consumers, the future of the Cannes Lions festival, and why Australian creativity is so highly regarded in the world.
When asked whether he felt the age of the big TVC was dead he said: “I never think about television, we live in a screen age. Be it a mobile, TV, cinema or a screen I the street. People have a fascination with film, we love film, and moving pictures have this incredible ability to move people.
“If you look at the work from the last two or three years they’ve all been films. Look at the success of Southern Comfort, Dumb Ways to Die and Old Spice, which is probably one of the game changers in our industry over the last few years, started as a film.
“But it was a film which wove its way into popular culture in such a prolific fashion because it was a brilliant idea.
“Obviously television itself is not the primary screen any longer, the primary screen is a mobile screen. We’re looking for ideas which connect with people on any type of screen and reward people accordingly. We’re always looking for film ideas, as we say film is everywhere.”
On the challenge of making compelling creative for mobile screens he said: “It’s an exciting new era for all of us, we’re all learning and constantly evolving and looking for this ideas that resonate.
“In the next year or so somebody will do something remarkable on the mobile screen , and it will be that a-ha moment. Maybe that’s one way of operating and one way of creating content for that channel.
“I’m excited that technology is fuelling human connection, but we’re not looking for technology ideas, we’re looking for human ideas that create human value. We’ve got to find ways of leveraging the channel and the connective tissue and fill it with content to make a channel.
“I don’t think we should be focused on technology, technology serves a purpose.”
To see more of the extensive interview with Mark Tutssel catch the first of a special two-part The Brief on Monday.
