Bring down the creative silos, says John Hunt

Let's hope the City of Cape Town and Eskom realise the importance of this significant event which is expected to attract 1 500 industry creatives, including a significant contingent of international guests, and keep the power connected! The Design Indaba runs until Friday, with the Design Indaba expo opening Friday and continuing over the weekend.

Said Hunt, shedding some light on developments in the creative industries: "No matter what part of the creative community we represent, the essence of our jobs is selling an idea. Whatever that advertising, art form, or communication is, we end up in the idea-selling business."

Hunt added that he was glad to see so many clients at Design Indaba today. "In my experience in the last couple of years, the lines between the different creative disciplines have begun to blur. And here's the real cherry on the top: it makes for much easier selling of the idea... It's death to silos for me..."

Hunt said clients take comfort from the fact that this 'blurring' means creative egos aren't tearing each other apart and in the robustness of the idea being endorsed by more than one creative discipline. He used Apple as an example, where Steve Job's calligraphy course at college informed the end-design capabilities of the Mac and the extensive fonts it carries.

"It's about how you can genuinely polish your brand through some of its parts," Hunt explained.

He used the launch of the Apple iPod which featured U2, as a case study. "Steve Jobs said to us: let's blur the line between marketing, movies, design, advertising... was the Apple ad a movie, a music video or an ad for iPod? Who cared...! U2 borrowed from the Apple brand as much as the Apple brand borrowed from them. It was a very cool way to promote the new U2 album and the new iPod.

Today, everything is the brand

Today, everything is the brand, said Hunt. He sited a recent South Park episode in which the new Sony PSP was used extensively in a storyline, including a line that 'God invented the PSP'. The advertisers didn't pay for that, but a series such as South Park which promotes creative anarchy, was perfect for the playstation target market. "South Park dipped into brands to make their programme content better. It's a perfect sign of an end result of where marketing, advertising, design etc, is going. It's risky, but if you let your brand breathe a bit, you have a wonderful chance of this happening!"

Hunt, who entertained the audience in the main Indaba hall at the Cape Town Convention Centre, flew in especially to present his speech and then rushed back to Europe where his agency is in the middle of a pitch for the Orange account.

He made a final appeal: "An event such as Design Indaba brings the silos down between the creative disciplines. My wish and my plea is this: I would like the silos between the creative disciplines to come down faster. If we are really in different businesses, at least I know I get my creative inspiration from looking outwards, not inwards..."