Tom Manning is a "Chronic Problem-Solver"

Having worked as a creative in both PR and advertising, Tom Manning has an instinct for ideas that grow brands by earning attention and influencing culture. He’s spent over a decade at leading agencies in the UK and Australia, delivering award-winning campaigns for his clients.

In his current role as creative director at Poem, Tom leads a diverse team of earned and social creatives to produce unconventional and highly effective ideas. He’s also passionate about supporting the next generation of creative talent, having mentored at AWARD School, D&AD Shift, and many other programs.

At Poem, Tom has played a key role in the agency’s biggest recent achievements, including a number of new business wins, an update to the agency’s brand, and a slew of creatively-awarded campaigns, which have seen the business nominated for Agency Of The Year, not once, not twice, but five times in the past twelve months.

Person

As a creative, I’m a chronic problem-solver rather than a frustrated artist. I don’t write poems (ironically) or screenplays in my spare time. But give me a challenging brief, and I won’t put it down until I’ve solved it.

I think it’s partly because there’s a level of consistency and professionalism that’s expected from someone whose job title is ‘creative’. I find satisfaction in being the person who can produce ideas every time, to a deadline, for any brand, in any category.

That all sounds quite serious. The ideas don’t have to be serious, nor do I take myself too seriously -- but the work, I do. And I thrive around people who share a similar attitude: dig in, get it done to the highest standard, and go home.

Product

I try to look at a piece of work from the point of view of the audience or customer and ask, “What’s in it for me?” Because real people’s time and attention are stretched. Unless a brand can give people something of value (information, entertainment, clout, whatever), then why should they care?

A strong ‘get’ for people is the baseline for every idea we propose at Poem, but we ask ourselves other questions, too. ‘Why this idea, now?’ or ‘What’s the image/phrase/everyone will talk about?’ or ‘How does this idea connect to culture?’

You can sense the agencies that are asking themselves these questions and those that aren’t by judging the work. I still see campaigns that the 'LinkedIn Ad Bubble' froths for, but that no one in the real world is talking about.

Process

I think the attitude or self-talk creatives adopt when developing ideas is a crucial (and often overlooked) part of the process. When deadlines are looming, and the pressure is on, we can be tough on ourselves -- like there’s a drill sergeant in our brain telling us to push harder, do more, be better.

But you can’t brute-force your way to brilliance. When I’m stuck, I try to stay calm, playful, and open -- not beat myself up. Faith and optimism in the process aren’t just good for me; they're good for everyone I’m working with. No one enjoys working with a doom-monger.

Aside from attitude, I watch/read/listen/talk/scroll as widely as possible to create a rich soup that’s always bubbling away in my mind. Then I like to juxtapose that with the brief in front of me, and see what ideas or connections begin to emerge.

Time of day is also crucial for me. I’m a morning person, and I do my best thinking when I’m fresh. Where possible, I limit late nights and early-morning meetings to carve out space for quality thinking, first thing.

Press

The biggest impact on me as a creative was switching from advertising agencies to PR, back when most PR agencies didn’t have a full-time creative. The learning curve was steep, but what I loved was that, without a massive media budget, the work had to be more creative. People have to want to pay attention to, talk about, and engage with PR or earned ideas of their own free will. Having that as a benchmark forces us to be honest about the quality of our thinking.

I think if you start with 'what’s an interesting idea?' or response to a brief, rather than what ticks all the boxes or feels ‘correct’, we’d all be producing more effective creative work.