When I first started working in advertising, it was all about the idea. I’d get a brief and I’d try to do the best possible idea. Not every idea was right, obviously.

I didn’t have strategic insight. I didn’t know the client’s business objectives. I wasn’t privy to those discussions.

As I’ve spent more time working in advertising, I’ve sat in more of those meetings. I’ve heard first-hand from CMOs what their business problems are. And this has allowed me to approach briefs more strategically.

Recently, I was chatting to a Senior Account Director. She asked me whether I thought creatives should have exposure to clients earlier in their career. I thought about this and decided that I didn’t think they should.

Creatives (especially those starting out) need to have the freedom to think creatively. If you tell them all the minute details, it will hamper their thinking.

Ask a child to draw a rocket ship. They’ll draw the wings and the flames. They'll probably colour it red or blue or orange. They might even draw a window with a person leaning out and waving.

They’re not worrying about design specifications or aerodynamics. They’re not thinking about an open window leading to increased air pressure which would be catastrophic for the astronauts. But if you tell them all that, you’re killing their creativity.

Just like that child’s rocket ship, many creative ideas aren’t going to fly. (Sorry for the pun.) But just like that child, if you give junior creatives too many constraints, you’re limiting their thinking.

Of course, at some point, reality has to kick in. The creative work has to work. But at the start of a brief, creatives need that “anything’s possible” way of thinking. That’s what enables them to come up with crazy ideas that are never going to run, separate the wheat from the chaff and get to something great.