Telstra’s head of creative excellence, Anna Jackson, has unpacked the creative process behind the brand storytelling component of the telco’s celebrated creative works.
Speaking to The Growth Distillery’s Dan Krigstein on the the Stories (Un)Told vodcast recorded at Cairns Crocodiles, Jackson described creativity as a “very fragile in its nature”.
“It involves taking a lateral leap. Treading into the unknown. There’s no rulebook when you’re truly creative and that’s a really scary thing. Layer in representing a big corporation and it’s even scarier. You’ve got multiple layers of stakholders, timelines, budget constraints,” Jackson continued.
“All these headwinds can really diminish the flame of creativity.”
Telstra’s creative ambitions seemingly know no bounds, however. Working with agency partners +61, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and TBWA, Jackson and CMO Brent Smart have created some of the most talked about campaigns of recent years. And some of the most awarded.
Just this week, the telco’s ads have been front-and-centre in the national zeitgeist after its one-off State of Origin advert and Dragons Winger Sione Finau’s celebration after scoring against the Roosters.
After starting her career as an agency copywriter, Jackson moved into strategy with the hopes of influencing brands from the inside-out rather than outside-in when agency side.
“Having been agency-side, I knew how difficult it was first-hand when you get a brief ridiculous on timelines with no budget. There’s no clarity of thought which is the antithesis of great creative,” Jackson explained.
“It’s not a case of one plus one equals two. You put in a brief and you apply a known method and you get a known outcome. True creativity requires a level of the unknown and the process in that regard can be kind of messy. There are times when you have to hold each other and say ‘We’re going to get through this messy middle'”.
That willingness to commit to the messy middle helped win Telstra a Cannes Lions Film Craft Grand Prix.
But Jackson believes her wisdom extends and is applicable to far more than the creative advertising industry.
“There are so many industries that require the application of creative thinking. I have a degree in architecture and it translated beautifully into this industry because it’s applied creativity… [Creativity] is a muscle and the core tenets of it are to ask questions that aren’t being asked, embrace a level of vulnerability and create those conditions. It’s less of a skill and more a way of viewing the world,” she said.
It’s a worldview that may prove challenging for some, but it’s certainly worth exploring within businesses.
