Curiosity and courage remain key ingredients for young creatives

At a time mixed with industry downturn, price wars and the vicious cycle of phishing ads, a decline in the industry's talent and an overall drop in creativity have been ever more noticeable.

To offset this, Saatchi & Saatchi launched a Frozen Monster mobile phone application during a company trip at the beginning of this year to recreate the essence of the advertising industry－creativity, or the monster in the body.

At present, Saatchi & Saatchi has more than 400 employees in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. More than 50 percent of them work as creative professionals, with about 80 percent of them local talent.

Robert Senior, global chief executive officer of Saatchi & Saatchi, says that the main attributes the company looks for in potential creative talent are curiosity and courage.

These attributes are essential as marketing departments are becoming more sophisticated, and technologies provide more access to information.

"People have far more access to creativity, the nature of the conversation is different and the landscape is more complex," he said.

"But, it does not change the fundamental truth of the business. Ultimately, there are many platforms. But however sophisticated the meetings are and whatever the technology is, it all boils down to ideas. If you have no ideas, then you have nothing."

At the same time, an important lesson in using creativity as a business tool is to accept the concept of failure, said Senior.

"Every idea is permitted to fail. But what is not acceptable is not trying it at all. It is not the fault of the students, but rather the people who are briefing the students," he said.

Yet another source of inspiration that companies can tap into is the abundant creativity that exists within the employees.

"It is quite natural for most people to dismiss new ideas as something impossible. But the reality is that most of the modern discoveries were things that were considered impossible in the past.

"The important thing is not to be caged by other people's ideas. Ideas are much more powerful than anything else and are also an inspirational source for work," said Senior.