A Masterclass in creative thinking

Why does most advertising go unnoticed, and how do you get into the small share people actually remember? Dave Trott, a copywriter and creative director who spent ten years working with John Webster at BMP before founding his own agency GGT, answers in an interview for Marketing Festival Online. He treats creativity as competition: to sell someone something, you have to talk them out of buying something else.

You'll learn why, according to Dave, people in the UK remember only 4 % of advertising, what the Bauhaus rule "form follows function" means for an ad, and why principles beat formulas. Dave illustrates it with Volkswagen in America, the summer 2020 campaigns from Burger King and McDonald's, and Pepsi's ad with Kendall Jenner. He also talks about risk and the fear of speaking up, about planners working alongside creatives, and why he does his best work for companies in trouble.