Tristan Cavanagh on Solving the Problem, Not the Brief

Tristan Cavanagh is creative director at purpose driven creative agency 23red, part of Capgemini, having joined as an art director way back in 2006. “Proof that if you hang around somewhere long enough, it might just pay off,” he says.

After almost 30 years in the advertising industry, he remains doggedly uncynical and is still passionate about the power of marketing in making the world a better place. He’s spent the last nearly two decades working on behaviour change campaigns within the not-for-profit sector, for clients including NHS Blood and Transplant, Network Rail, Migrant Help, and Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’. In his limited spare time, he’s a mentor for the Octavia Foundation, enjoys failing to solve cryptic crosswords and frequently being the oldest person at gigs.

Tristian sat down with LBB to distill his creative process after almost 30 years working in the industry, his active dislike for conformity, and the benefits of healthy obsessions.

Person

I don’t believe in star signs. So, it annoys me intensely that I fit the typical traits of a Libra almost down to a tee. According to zodiacsigns.com we’re supposed to be cooperative, diplomatic, gracious, fair-minded, and social creatures.

I don’t know about being gracious or social, but I generally like about 50% of other people.

On the flipside I’m apparently indecisive, avoid confrontations and will carry a grudge. Mostly from the confrontation I just avoided no doubt. Libra likes include harmony, gentleness, sharing with others and the outdoors. Dislikes include violence, injustice, loudmouths and conformity. Sounds about right.

I think creativity is innate to humans as a species. Maybe my ‘dislike of conformity’ means I don’t think that only ‘creative’ people can be creative. Creativity, at least in the sense of the work we do, is a way around problems. It’s David’s slingshot to Goliath’s brawn, the tortoise’s slow and steady rather than the rabbit’s frantic pace. It’s how we outwit and outsmart, rather than outrun. I think it comes from liking puzzles a lot – from cryptic crosswords to insanely difficult video games, so a brief often feels like one big puzzle to be solved.

But also, you can’t do it without fuel. I think creative people should be magpies – eternally curious about everything. A healthy obsession with most popular forms of culture is vital – music, tv, film, art, architecture, fashion, gaming, food, photography and design. There’s as much to be learned from what Teenage Engineering or Virgil Abloh are doing, as there is in spending a lunch hour in a gallery, perhaps more so. Sport is probably my one weak area, but I do lean on Springbok’s highlight reels when I’m feeling down.

Product

I don’t have a formula for judging the strength of an idea, but some principles help.

Behaviour change is the same as selling a product or service. We have complex problems to solve, so I like simplicity. Not obvious or plain, but ideas where they’re easy to describe and everyone’s understanding is the same. Simple ideas stick. So, I start from a place that feels easy, relevant and memorable. We’re competing for attention against Netflix and cat memes, so I try to keep that in mind. Is it entertaining or useful, yes, but mostly is it worth your time?

Over time I’ve learnt to trust others as much as my own instincts and latch onto ideas that the creative team clearly love. Loving something and wanting to do it is a vastly underrated factor. If you can’t wait to present it, get excited at the prospect of making it, then that flows into the work and people feel it.

Trust a good insight. When we needed to communicate the dangers of electrified railway to young people for Network Rail, research told us many didn’t notice traditional safety ads and viewed the risks of trespass as intangible. The strategic insight was to show the consequences to others, not to them. Despite a ‘zero attention span’ narrative, young people spend hours watching YouTube so we made a short film about what happens to those left behind after an accident – ‘18’, which currently has 7.8m views and over 10,000 comments.

And trust human truths, because we’re at a critical point where soon AI will be able to deploy multiple executions across every channel with instantly adaptive messaging and learn what works, all independently. It’s exciting from a personalisation point of view but also means creativity, craft and connection have never been more important.

Process

At 23red we talk about solving the problem, not the brief. Behaviour change can be driven by immediate action, but it needs to be sustained. Agencies are in the business of making campaigns, so hammers and nails. But often there are other barriers that campaigns can’t address. For our latest campaign for This Girl Can called ‘We Like the Way You Move’ we saw early on that advertising wasn’t enough, the system needed changing. So, part of it was working with the industry to develop more inclusive and easier ways into activity, before we even started a campaign.

When it comes to thinking of ideas, it sounds basic, but I get enough sleep. Less than six hours means your brain isn’t good at new stuff. Know when you work best too, how much coffee is good, how much is bad. Stay hydrated. Read loads, and random tangential stuff too. Talk to people, look at the comments section. It’s an eye opener, but you’ll learn something. Sometimes just talk about it. That’s why creative teams work in pairs after all. Conversely, I dislike brainstorms. Creativity doesn’t fit neatly into an hour; it ebbs and flows. But you can rationalise the process – Mind Scapes have some fantastic creative thinking tools for instance.

I also believe in getting stuff down quickly, getting the obvious out of the way. Equally sometimes first ideas aren’t awful. We should trust our instincts after doing this for a while. You’re taking shortcuts subconsciously.

Paula Scher’s story of sketching the Citibank logo on a napkin during the briefing and charging for a lifetime of experience comes to mind. I don’t subscribe to ‘keep going’ until you’ve done 50 ideas. Be your own editor and never present an idea you don’t like.

Press

My parents were hippies, so I had a very anti-establishment upbringing. I was a highly visual kid and loved posters and graphics, went to study design and fell in love with magazine layout, especially Neville Brody and David Carson.

I got into advertising later, but the fundamentals of design stayed with me. It’s a visual shorthand for communicating at a subconscious level, and I love that. I still buy too many design books.

But advertising is a great avenue for creativity as it draws on so many interconnected emotive things – storytelling, collaboration, persuasion, empathy, craft and insight. It both reflects what’s going on in society and shapes it too. People can be cynical about purpose-driven work, but when it’s done well it can genuinely create change.

My colleagues are bored of me saying ‘it’s a marathon, not a sprint’. A career in our industry can feel stressful – constant deadlines, balancing, and compromise. So, it’s vital to surround yourself with people you enjoy working with.

And I like to remember that it’s also supposed to be fun.

We get to make things and put them out in the world. I always think that if we have a great idea, it can get made, so agencies should create an environment of possibilities, with a sharing culture where you can draw on others for inspiration and motivation.

And we shouldn’t forget to inspire our clients too. We’re constantly doing sessions, sharing not just our other work for different clients, but work from around the world, advances in gen-AI, innovation, learnings from Cannes and more. The best clients are ones that embrace everything an agency has to offer – not just the output, but an entire culture of creativity.