Creativity doesn’t come easily, and that’s why it’s so precious

In a rousing speech at the IPA Members Reception on 19^th June 2025, IPA Chair for Scotland and Story’s own Head of Planning, Jim Kelly, celebrated the incredible creativity at Scottish agencies and explained why it is something that we should all cherish and champion.

Over to you Jim:   

Our new President, Karen Martin has identified creativity and creative thinking as our industry’s superpower – the most precious thing in our agencies’ armories that adds value for us and our clients. And crucially, thinking about our industry in the way we all think about our client’s brands, providing a tangible point of difference against our competitive threats.

We could spend the whole of the evening running through the evidence base that supports why creativity makes such a tangible difference. Building on outgoing Chair Gill Jarvie’s agenda, why great creativity sits at the heart of the effectiveness story – delivering work that works. You’ll be relieved to hear that this presentation isn’t going to turn into death by PPT – but here are a few highlights emphasising creativity’s significant impacts:

– The biggest contributing factor to sales’ growth
– 4 x more profit
– 4 x income growth

Emotional campaigns are proven to be more effective

Clearly, creativity is something that we should all cherish and champion

But talking about creativity as our superpower can, if we’re honest, start to make things feel a little daunting. Could it suggest that we need to be superhumans to make this work?

Well, fear not. Let’s turn to what I hope remains a trusted source even in these times – the Oxford Dictionary – which defines creative as:

“having the ability to produce something new or imaginative…”

“someone who is creative demonstrates this ability and often uses their imagination and skill to produce novel ideas…”

Now, when you consider creativity in these terms, I believe that everyone who works in an IPA member agency will be demonstrating this ability to produce new and imaginative solutions on behalf of both their businesses and their clients. They might not be thinking in those terms, but they are, and should be encouraged to do so.

“A creative smorgasbord for your delight and delectation. All designed to help supercharge your creative superpowers.”

In reality, it’s very hard to define what creativity means for individual agencies. If I asked senior agency people – including creative directors – what creativity means for them, and how it contributes to their agency, then you’d get very different answers.

What’s more, creativity and creative thinking don’t come easily – that’s one of the reasons why it’s so precious and needs to be celebrated, cherished and curated, as Karen rightly identifies. Ask a creative the scariest thing in the world and they’ll say that it’s staring at a blank sheet of paper. That’s in part why, at Story, we talk about the creative brief as the first creative act – the way to not only provide creatives with the necessary information, but also to inspire them and to fuel the creative fires.

That’s why the IPA’s creative agenda isn’t about trying to define some form of creative roadmap or map out creativity’s DNA. The idea is to give member agencies access to additional sources of inspiration, alongside new resources and training opportunities that you’d expect from your IPA. A creative smorgasbord for your delight and delectation. All designed to help supercharge your creative superpowers.

So what’s planned to help with that?

Well, in the first instance, we’re lucky that the stars have aligned and that my appointment has coincided with new Chairs for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

In the UK, there are fantastic member agencies excelling across the whole marketing mix. So, why not use this to everyone’s advantage? Our shared ambition is to provide agencies with a showcase where they can share work that they’re proud of, where creative thinking has shone through. A chance to celebrate the work that’s been done and inspire fellow member agencies.

In that vein, we’ve put together a showreel of work from member agencies, and that we should be proud of as the IPA in Scotland.

I’ve spoken to Karen and she’s genuinely passionate about her creative agenda. We wanted to give Scottish members a chance to hear this for themselves. So I’m pleased to say that Karen will be joining us on 10 September for an evening event where she’ll be able to update us on how her agenda is developing, what this means for us as practitioners and agencies, and how we can play our part in defending this critical differentiator, as well as see the benefits.

In step with Karen’s ambition to celebrate human creativity, and the value it adds alongside AI, I’ll be inviting creative thinkers from our agencies to participate in that event alongside Karen.

New Creative Essentials Certificate

On the subject of training, the development of a new Creative Essentials Certificate is underway. The plan is for this to be delivered by senior creatives for fledgling creative talent – and those interested in honing their creative skills – over a couple of months. In addition, there’ll be new bespoke training content available, about evaluating creative ideas, nurturing and delivering them. Watch this space.

We couldn’t talk about talent tonight without celebrating 2025, marking the 20^th anniversary of Napier’s MSc in Advertising, developed in collaboration with the IPA. It’s great to have George Shepherd from Napier here tonight.

This is the most successful MSc course in the UK for aspiring creatives. That’s not my bravado, it says so in black and white on the Napier website, so it must be true!…

The course’s continued success has seen several generations of talent graduating into Scottish agencies. The majority of its first year’s graduates remain in the industry – including Heather Hughes, our Head of Copy. 

For younger audiences, we were delighted to host the Step into Adland event in conjunction with TikTok in March, a hands-on workshop to give them a flavour for the industry. And it’s great to see member agencies have signed up for Advertising Unlocked in November.

Crucially, whoever the audience, there’s something about creativity that can captivate everyone and encourages us to do and see things differently. It’s part and parcel of what’s so great about this industry of ours and why it retains its distinctive identity. It’s what interested me about advertising in the first place – sitting around skint in a student house with only a TV for company when it was the ads rather than the programmes that sparked the liveliest debates.

Fun to be in and around creativity

It’s fun to be in and around creativity – it brings a little bit more electricity and energy into the room, puts a spring into everybody’s step. And in these times, celebrating fun and energy in the workplace can only be a great thing, giving us another advantage.

The other thing about creativity is that it’s all around us – our wider environments and interests provide ample inspiration to draw upon. That’s why I was keen to bring together a panel of creative thinkers from other fields to discuss what creativity means to them and what we can learn.

Happy to chat

For creative ideas, questions or opportunities for either Story or the IPA in Scotland, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Jim Kelly is Deputy MD and Head of Planning at Story in Edinburgh.