Offset Sheffield - Saturday 22nd October 2016 - Droga5

Droga5 are an advertising agency based in New York. Their talk suggested that what works best within advertising is abstract elements which do not necessarily push the story along, but gets people thinking. For example, Under Armour, Phelps ad uses abstract scenes to communicate a sense of wonder and inquisitiveness. In this, they remind us that people do not love advertisements, they're a disruption and so people are not willing to engage with them and this must be broken in the first instance to create an effective ad. This requires conceptual thinking as an essential element that usually informs every creative decision, and links to their decisions in the production this ad.
Their talk also provided lots of advice in relation to the idea that advertising is all talk. Using a quote from Gerhard Richter "you can only express with words what words are capable of" they provided ways of how to get around the problems of having to talk about your work before it even exists. The first point is in regards to referencing - use visuals and sounds to illustrate mood, how should the ad feel? For example, their ad for Under Armour, I Will What I want, uses breathing sounds and the sound of both positive and negative comments being smacked onto walls, which was very effective in communicating mood and meaning without necessarily talking. Prototyping is also important - you should create something before you show it, get a sense of how it will work. Conceptual thinking - ideas that can be talked about easily, 'to illustrate x we must do y', must be clear and simple as ideas are described and interpreted differently by various people.