—  About

J Walton was born with only one letter in his name. But he never let it hold him back.

When I was a little kid my father took me to see a friend of his who worked as an artist. The details are fuzzy now, but I remember an airbrush booth and a really cool poster of a Jeep he was creating. And I remember the decision I made after that experience: “I’m going to work in advertising!” I don’t know if my classmates ever became firemen or astronauts, but for my this career has been a dream come true.

I’m not a big fan of labels. To some people if you’re really good at one thing it means you can’t be good at something completely different. So when you accept the label you buy credibility in one area by selling it everywhere else. It’s like for folks who only speak one language it seems incredible that someone could speak three. But knowledge and passion in one area doesn’t prevent it from appearing in another, related area. That’s why I love roles that don’t arbitrarily limit the influence I can have on a team or on a project. And I truly believe that knowledge about how something is made is critical to generating the best ideas, so I treasure the time I spent early on in my career honing my craft.

I believe the most important part of a campaign is a singularly great idea – and that it’s worthless if you can’t execute it well.

I was asked once: “What is the ROI on an idea?” My first thought was “that’s a stupid question.” My actual answer was something like the big letters above, which didn’t go over great because the person I was talking to was an idea guy who didn’t deal with execution.

An amazing, insightful idea is the driving force behind anything great. Because it sets a bar that everyone involved in the project feels obligated to meet. It inspires the hundreds of other little sparks that are needed for it to see the light of day.

But too often, creatives are generating ideas in a vacuum, divorced from what’s possible, inspired primarily by the work other people have already done. The concepts are by necessity derivative. The idea is presented, and sometimes even approved, and nobody knows it isn’t possible until the hands that make it push back or begin to struggle.

There is a better way. But it requires first-hand knowledge of what is possible. What’s the greatest thing possible within the constraints we are given – the budget, time left, the client’s willingness to take a chance? You have to know the border wall between what can be done and what can’t, and then explore it. Spend your time finding holes in the wall between possible and impossible, and you will find an idea that has never been found before. Do that in the context of what is good for the brand and makes people feel something, and you will have a singularly great idea.

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—  I’d love to hear from you. But only if you have something really great to tell me or offer me.