If constraints lead to creativity then bring on more constraints

Any creative will tell you that what really gets the juices flowing is having to face a big problem.

Often, people will remove barriers from briefs, saying things like “I didn’t want to constrain creative thinking”. Whereas, if you’ve ever tried to come up with an idea, you’ll know that it is those very constraints that act as the guiding rails to get you to something great. The bigger the barrier, the better the idea will have to be to overcome it. Budweiser’s Cannes Grand Prix winning TagWords campaign is a perfect example of this. The idea could never have existed without the constraint. 

Above: Budweiser's TagWords, a great campaign borne from constraints. 

In the last four months we’ve been faced with some almighty constraints, and we’ve seen a creative industry more than rise to the challenge. How do you make anything when in lockdown? Impossible, you might think, but the first ads were hitting our airwaves in a matter of days. We found out what’s possible, creating a launch film for a celebrity esports tournament from brief to live in under a week. The sheer volume of activity we’ve seen in this period is impressive, but we’re also beginning to see exceptional craft. Dacia’s latest spot pushes way beyond the self-shot or Zoom call ads that bombarded us in March. It’s the fact that both concept and execution are born out of a well-known constraint that makes it great.

In the last four months we’ve been faced with some almighty constraints, and we’ve seen a creative industry more than rise to the challenge.

It’s not just brand content, of course. Drama is back on our screens in a host of new, constraint-busting and unique formats, like BBC’s Talking Heads. We’ve also seen a rise in creativity in consumers, with uploads on YouTube and TikTok at record levels, not to mention the videos and fundraising challenges spreading like wildfire on WhatsApp and Instagram.

Above: Dacia's most recent campaign, created during the coronavirus lockdown.

There is one category, in particular, that is adapting with a renewed sense of invigoration, and that’s sport. A category that has been particularly hard hit by Covid-19, one that is built on tradition and ritual and that – as a rule - does not like change. In sport, consistency establishes points of comparison and gives meaning to the events we’re watching. As a result, it usually changes at a glacial pace. The creative ideas around sport also tend to be repetitive and often familiar.

In an industry more inclined to say 'no' than 'maybe', we too often accept barriers, rather than see them as launchpads.

Not in 2020, however. This year, we have seen a burst of problem-solving creativity and fresh thinking. Formula One didn’t just recreate races virtually but took advantage of the constraint to include celebrity competitors each week, injecting some much-needed talking points into the sport and drawing in new fans. In football we’ve seen Borussia Mönchengladbach overcome the problem of no crowd attendances with crowdsourced cardboard cut-out fans. We’ve seen the first virtual grandstand thanks to Aarhus Gymnastikforening in Denmark, and Viktoria Plzen were the first to host a drive-through for fans.