CAREERS: Burnett aims to boost creativity in Asia

Leo Burnett has run its first standards-setting workshop - the 7+ creative processes review - in Asia-Pacific as part of the network's drive to boost creative and strategic standards in the region. Creatives from around the region, including Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong, converged on Burnett's Sydney offices for the week-long session that also highlighted award-winning output produced by the company worldwide. Each quarter, Burnett offices submit their advertising output to a Global Product Committee (GPC) that assesses creative on on a scale of one to 10. The first four scores range from appalling to cliche, said Burnett's vice-chairman and chief creative officer Michael Conrad, who conducted the regional session. Instead, the offices attempt to reach a mark of seven to 10; respectively excellence in craft, new standard in category, new standard in advertising and best in the world, bar none. Conrad told the attendees that the 7+ review had arisen because of the need to "find commonality" of standards worldwide for the agency. He added that simply achieving a level like five, innovative strategy, was not enough without complementary attributes that would really make the work distinctive. "An innovative strategy alone will not carry the day. You need a six - a fresh idea. But even a fresh idea will be lost if you don't have a seven. "By concentrating on 7+ we can move forward - the first one is hard to produce but then it gets better and better," Conrad said, adding: "I hope that 7+ will make creative staff probe and think deeper. We need it - is our bar." The Sydney workshop attendees were also advised to examine all options when creating a campaign and not just think about a television campaign first. Conrad highlighted a poster campaign in the US for Noxema skin cream in restaurant restrooms, with the slogan: "It's not the lighting - next time Noxema". He also pointed to Heinz ketchup bottle labels which display the line, "Meatloaf's best friend". Burnett regional creative director Linda Locke and national planning director for Australia, Philip Sheldon, said the GPC process had been running for five years and that the network had discovered a correlation between high-scoring advertising and award winners at a national and international level. They said this sidestepped a potential downside of the 7+ workshop - that of offices creating work merely to satisfy the GPC. Conrad added that studies have even shown there was a strong correlation between ads which won awards and those deemed to be effective in driving sales for clients.

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