Thanks for dropping by. Today i’d like to tell a tale of coincidence in creativity, and ideas that just don’t make it. Here’s two that  have happened to me. The first took place a couple of years ago involving a Keep The Country Beautiful type charity. The latter, a present day road safety campaign.

You’re comfortable. Good. I shall begin.

Once upon a time a national Keep The Country Beautiful type charity had a problem. They felt the bawdy ‘don’t be a tosser’-esque billboards run by other organisations were not working. They were miss-targeted and tired.

After a little research, we rang our friend Captain Obvious. “It’s simple” he said, “this stereotypical demographic…”

…is harder to talk to about social consciousness and litter, than this:

The latter feels her local council doesn’t provide enough bins and is thus justifed in “tastefully” placing her rubbish in the corner of the bus stop or “carefully” next to her vehicle in the municipal car park.

So after a fashion my creative partner and I had an idea: What if you added the location of every bin in the country as a check in destination on Facebook mobile?

It felt good. We even had a catchy name: ‘Facebook Chuck In’. Funny if you’re from New Zealand right?

Ok, bad pun. Sorry.

Anyway, by doing this when ever you hit ‘check in’ on your fb mobile app it will not only show the pub/restaurant/strip joint you where about to broadcast your affiliation with, but the location of the bins in your local vicinity.

No matter where you were, no matter the reason for ‘checking in’ the app a bin will always show up on the check in list. In effect hacking the the FB check in map functionality.

So the next time you finish that banana, maybe, just maybe you’ll remember your facebook app not only knows the location of your nearest bin, you could also use the nav button to take you directly to it.

So we took it the client.

To work we went. Local governments gave us the database co-ordinates of  bins in their municipality, and Facebook made an exception to their check in terms of use. We were happy.

And then three weeks in to the build Coca Cola Isreal release pretty much the same idea.

At first we were…

All that hard work. Long nights and boring databases.

But then we were…

As if to add insult to injury Facebook subsequently changed their global t&c’s and ‘Chuck In’ never saw the light of day. That was that.

Coincidences happen. There’s plenty of smarter, quicker and better people than I and it happens. It’s not eery or spooky. In a world of 7 billion the probability of coincidence fast approaches 1.

However, when coincidences happen closer to home….

Read on

• The Curious Cases of Coincidental Creative – Part II (theophane.co.uk)

(continued.)

It’s 2011 my creative partner and I are working at small agency network down under. One afternoon we’re approached by the ECD.

He had an idea: ”what if you can show a life flashback using your facebook photos to warn people of the dangers of reckless driving?”

It’s pro-bono, he continued, so you’ll have to work on it in your own time.

We knuckle down.

We come up with a fake online car racing game idea to entice those with the need for speed to face the consequences of their actions:

He loved it but we get busy with fee-based work and nothing happens.

Cut to the end of 2012 and our digital work gains industry traction. It’s quite the turn around for the traditional agency and we go on to contribute 75% of the agency’s award output.

They go on to claim a record year for winning awards.

Fortunes swiftly change and the agency loses a big client.
They need to make cuts.

You’re too expensive. We’ve not got enough digital work. We need to focus on our core business. We’re letting you go.

And that was that.

—Six months pass—

Be productively surfing the internet.

A wild message appears in my inbox: “Have you seen this from X’s sister agency?”

“In a new racing game called Flash, young guys get confronted with the all too real consequences of speeding. The car swerves, crashes, and then something really surprising happens.”

►

My attention is diverted to the credits. The work is from an agency in the same small group where I worked. And lo, the ECD’s name is credited as the copywriter.

So I call ECD, he’s a nice chap. He tells me he spent some time at the sister agency earlier in the year and much to his surprise they coincidently, and unbeknownst to him, worked up the exact execution we gave him…and happened to finish it during his stay. Remarkable.

I listen.

He continues. He only appears in the credits because he also had the idea with them many years ago. This rings a bell. He invites me to contact the sister agency.

So I drop the sister agency an email. Ask for clarification. The ECD acknowledges the extraordinary coincidence, but confirms the work of my creative partner and I played no role in the sister agency’s work, and as such does not require further accreditation.

I believe him. It’s a pretty obvious execution, and the creative team come with a solid reputation.

As a parting gift he left me with this little gem:

In my thirty years in advertising I have come to believe we are influenced by some sort of mystical collective energy.

It often colludes to create the same piece of work the same time in different markets, he continued. And as frustrating as it is, when it happens he and the other ECD agree the best thing do is go in search of the next big idea and make sure it comes to life and gets made.

Fair enough.

Unlike the sister agency ECD I don’t believe in some mystical force governing the creative industry. Coincidences happen.

And instead of having big ideas that don’t get made. I wasted my time making this petty comic of little or no merit.

Related articles

• The Curious Cases of Coincidental Creative – Part I (theophane.co.uk)

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