Creativity – Freedom vs. Regulation

Or how much regulation does creativity need?

After a few calls for stricter guidelines and rules for submissions in regard to the Veltins 4-pac-Contest, we had a community-meeting and discussed this delicate question.  Origin of this dispute is the submission of ideas in the Veltins-contest, which were not 100% conform with the guidelines of the briefing. Some creatives voiced their wish to exclude such ideas from rating, andt to introduce a new section for “Briefing-Renegades”. This way, those ideas are not emtitled to win any prize money, but they are still presented to the clients and have the opportunity to become  a ‘sell’.

Returning to the question of stricter rules and the wish of some creatives, that the community managment should intervene for regulation in such cases. For us, this is a basic and very essential question, which affects the philosophy of jovoto. To come to the point: We decided clearly against a stricter regulation. There are several reasons for our decision, which are going to be explained after the following quote.

quote semaphor:”….how is that going to work, an extra regulator is going to decide if an idea is briefing-conform or “out of the box”, a jovoto-jury or even the community itself ??? whether an idea is going to be rated or not? … A-note, B-note, ….????!!! …. help !!! … that is nich thought-out, sorry, it is often not easy to give a clear limit, a *regulation-bureaucracy-waterhead* is claimed here…”

We agree here, because…

…Ideas, which are not on the briefing are always going to be an exception.

The chance that the community rates an idea up to the first place, or that a client buys an idea which does not comply with the briefing is quite low, unless it is a very outstanding, very convincing idea. Which appeal (besides a really outstanding spontaneous idea) should you have as a creative, not to work with the briefing? We had numerous ideas, which did not rely on the briefing, but rarely do such ideas get on the winner’s podium. In our opinion the discussion came up, because the idea  in question currently holds the first place. We don’t think it is reasonable to introduce a complex regulation system for this exceptional case, which would cause even more discussions and differences (A/B-grades, in line with briefing, who is going to decide?)

…there is already a regulating device: the rating function. The community itself decides democratically, which ideas win the prizes, and that is a good thing.

You’ve got the voting system as a device, to rate an idea. If YOU think it is important to work on the briefing and this is not be done, YOU can express this through rating. You, the creatives, decide which ideas are going to win eventually. We as the community managment don’t feel responsible in this case, to regulate and influence the contest. We wish that the decisions continue to be made democatrically by you. (Of course, we handle clear violations against the Terms of Use differently. An “out of the box” idea – which stays in context of the contest – to us, does not represent such a violation.) So keep yourself busy by rating, and decide with good conscience and good reasons, which idea belongs to the front.

“… free thinking leads to better ideas” is a principle of the jovoto-philosophy.

We are convinced that a relatively “loose” framework makes it possible for you to create freely and therefore improve ideas. This includes on the one hand, the free decision when and how much work I am going to put into a task, and on the other hand, the approach and the solution for the task. The briefing reflects the wishes and the image of the client and should be the basis for the work of the creatives – which means to create a setting/frame. How far you are going to remove your draft from the guidelines, is your choice, with good reason: every idea can be valuable for the others and the clients, even if it seems “different” and might look crazy and impossible to realize on the first sight. It can be inspiring and may lead to other fantastic ideas or developments, maybe even convince the client through its brilliance. In the end it is your decision and the decision of the client. (In agencies, by the way, it is common that one or two ideas are going to be presented, which are 100% on brief, and one which goes beyond that.)

… the client is happy about “out of the box”-ideas, too.

A few days ago, a client gave us a very positive feedback, about this exact topic. In his opinion, this is the advantage ofcooperating with a creative community. In contrast to agencies (which usually have internalized the regulations and guidelines of their clients for years) creatives in the community present spontaneous and unprejudiced ideas, without streamlining ideas to be 100% conform with the present communication concept. This precisely was the additional benefit of jovoto for the client. This is how new and fresh ideas develop, which open new and interesting ways and suggestions for the client. This certainly differs from contest to contest and client to client.

To prevent misunderstandings and to communicate as clear as possible, we will try to tell you in future briefings, if the client is interested in “out of the box” or “on brief” ideas. Furthermore we wish you good luck and much fun with (free) working in the community.