Entrepreneurship Talks organized by the Üsküdar University Department of Advertising continue. This week, the event, moderated by Üsküdar University Head of the Advertising Design and Communication Department Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinçer Atlı, hosted a program titled ‘Working in an Advertising Agency.’ Kadir İnan, General Manager of Grafis DDB Advertising Agency, who was a guest on the program, made evaluations about working and producing in an advertising agency.
Kadir İnan: ‘Advertisers Produce Better Work as They Receive Appreciation’
Kadir İnan, General Manager of Grafis DDB Advertising Agency, stated that when he started his career as an advertiser, he initially faced some failures but never gave up, and that advertisers produce better work as they receive appreciation. İnan said; ‘We advertisers are a bit fond of applause. We are individuals who can create better things as we receive appreciation. At the beginning of my professional life, I came to the brink of leaving the profession a few times, but the feeling of satisfaction experienced after succeeding always guided me to continue. If I were to talk about the operation of advertising agencies, there is no specific formula. Each agency creates an operation based on its own capabilities. As the head of a network agency, we produce collaborative work with different departments such as the strategy team, creative team, implementation team, client relations, and production team.’
‘Launching a Campaign is a Team Effort’
Referring to the intricacies of working in an advertising agency, İnan made evaluations about the campaign preparation process. İnan said; ‘Depending on the size of the campaign, a meeting is usually held where the client explains their requests. The client relations team sends the summary they prepared to the client and gets their approval. Then the work moves to strategy. The strategy team puts forth a proposition including how the desired advertisement’s and communication’s tone of voice will be, how it will align with the brand’s promise, whether it will be with the brand’s general positioning, and details that must or must never be included. That strategic proposition is essentially the suggested sentence that copywriters will work on to turn into a more authentic advertisement. After moving from strategy to the creative team, the creative team works on it and then gets approval from the director. The creative team primarily consists of those who write advertisements and determine concepts.’ he stated.
‘Playing with Words is Like Performing Magic’
İnan stated that art directors have the ability to create a world, and added, ‘Since I come from a copywriter background, I might be able to speak about this more comfortably. A person definitely needs to have a spark. Playing with words is like magic; you are trying to create something knowable from two or three unknowns. In times when digital media was not so widespread, new advertisements were created by combining a few ads taken from abroad, and nobody was aware of it. You were creating something new from little-known sources, but this is no longer valid in the world. Being a bit more original these days is very valuable.’ he said.
‘A Copywriter Who Cannot Present Cannot Be a Copywriter’
İnan stated that an advertiser needs to know their target audience and emphasized that television and newspaper advertising are outdated. İnan said; ‘An advertiser needs to know the audience. Television and newspaper advertising is a form of advertising distant from the audience. It seems close to the audience, but in a way it is distant, it's top-down advertising. In digital, you need to have instant interaction with those people. You cannot interact with people you don't know, you cannot produce content, you cannot work with the right names, that's why one of the things I tell my team the most is not to email everything, but to talk face-to-face. These are very valuable things. We do people-oriented work. What I must definitely tell friends considering copywriting is; you have to develop your presentation skills. For me, a copywriter who cannot present cannot be a copywriter. Presenting an idea, presenting a campaign to a client is fundamentally the job of a copywriter. Because a presentation is about bringing that world to life. If you can create that world well, it means you have already filled all the gaps within the words. If they see themselves lacking in this area, I recommend them to take drama classes.’ he stated.
‘The Total Emotion of an Advertisement is Much More Valuable’
İnan made evaluations in the field of neuromarketing; ‘While I find neuromarketing very valuable, I don’t like it at all. Because I believe it significantly erodes creativity and pushes things to a more realistic point. You prepare a 40-second advertisement, and this 40-second advertisement creates an emotion. According to the study conducted, it turns out that interest drops between 32 and 36 seconds. Now the client wants to change this part. However, the area where interest dropped actually adds something to the film’s mathematics, and this area ultimately affects the emotion you receive. After a certain point, you start processing this work second by second. There are points where it drops, points where it rises in every second, but all of them create a common emotion. I believe these studies cause very serious damage to creativity in the advertising world. However, unfortunately, big brands proceed with such research. That’s why I feel that the total emotion of the advertisement you prepare is much more valuable than the effects in between. That’s why I keep my distance.’ he said.