Mike O’Sullivan

Are big ideas relevant anymore?

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What role does technology play in the future? Does the future belong to specialists or generalists?
I think it’s still going to belong to creative people and ideas people. It’s going to belong to consumer ideas. I think we will always have coders and people to maintain the channel and maintain delivery of the content. And that will always be a big job for somebody. Still, ultimately it’s going to be about the ideas. The ideas that make you laugh, the ideas that make you cry. And the laugh and cry people are the people that are always going to be around.

Is the recession feeding creativity?
The recession has cut some budgets. More efficiency, more ROI for the client. So what it’s doing is putting pressure on agencies and creative entities to create stuff that works for the right dollar. At the same time, technology is allowing that to happen anyway. I think it’s restricting things absolutely, because we don’t have as much money to play with, but at the same time we’re into a period where efficacy and results are measureable because data is traceable, and I think it’s the way of the future that we’re currently going into now. I don’t think it’s a recession issue – it’s probably pushed it along, because no one seems to have as much cash, but ultimately we’re going into an era where everything is measureable.

Do award shows matter any more, and who is qualified to judge work?
Yes of course they matter, because we need to encourage people to make the best stuff, and the best stuff inspires better stuff. And if we all just sat there doing rubbish – which we’re prone to do – and nobody’s telling us you’re rubbish and reminding us we’re rubbish, then I think we’d probably be in a much worse place. But shows are brilliant. There are probably too many of them, but the best ones are the best ones, and the best work wins the best ones, having judged lots of them. I walk away from them inspired, and kind of a bit of crap because my work wasn’t that good that year. So, generally I think they should exist and all creatives should try and enter them.

What keeps you up at night?
Likeability of work, the ideas that I do, whereas a couple of years ago we would live in our world and do stuff that we thought was really cool. And now we’re judged really quickly through the media about whether how much they like our work or not. So if I’m doing stuff a sixteen year old thinks is really rubbish, then I’m a bit fucked. I could have done something targeting a sixteen year old five years ago, and it would have been OK. “Yeah, we think it’s cool, the ad industry thinks it’s cool” – but the people don’t. So doing likeable stuff is probably my biggest thing, and I think that means willing to be in touch with what’s going on, social media, what makes people laugh, what makes people cry. That’s probably my obsession – I think it should be everybody’s obsession.