The Algorithm, The Tube and The Guardian: Tom Drew's Creative Life

The Algorithm

At some point, the algorithms that drive my socials understood that random visual nonsense was the only kind of content to stop my hungry thumb. And it went to town. Bonkers. Weird. Eh? Disgusting. Do they really do that? Wow. Cool! Woah. The king of the creators of such nonsense has to be Pablo Rochat - surely every creative’s go to source for silly. 

When the algorithm works for you, it can help reboot a frozen imagination. But if you accidentally linger on the wrong thing, you can find yourself learning how to clean everything in the house with half a lemon and a sachet of chip shop vinegar. And that’s not going to help me with the upcoming tissue meeting.

The Tube

There’s nothing quite as grounding as watching people ignore the very ads we hope they’ll notice. And the tube is the best place to witness it. It’s like a real time focus group. And their focus is rarely on ads. It’s brutal watching people turn the page even faster knowing there's a branded double page spread ahead or glancing at the person sitting beside you whizzing past a bold coloured square with some beautiful typography, the tell-tale signs of a sponsored post. 

We spend all our time planning comms, making sure we’re saying precisely the right things, but we can easily slip into thinking that people care about a brand more than they do. We need to make them care. But, before that, as the tube reminds me every day, we need to make them take notice.

How We Made

The Guardian's 'How We Made' is a weekly feature in which creators of iconic cultural works recall the process and experiences in bringing their works to life. Not only is it wonderful to see behind the curtain; to hear about the collaboration that led to the work and the hurdles overcome to make it happen, it’s also heartening to read that even the creators of iconic works, in the moment, had no idea that their ideas would be so popular.

In our own industry, we have plenty of checks and balances in the process to ensure that our ideas will make an impact, but I doubt whether we’ll ever really know how well something will land until it’s out there… tested in places like the tube.

Tom Drew is the executive creative director at VML UK