Creativity Squared: Chanikarn Sitthiaree’s Emotion-Led Work

My parents used to own a local ad agency since before I was born, up until I was three years old. While I can’t remember anything about the agency or advertising at all from my childhood, I might have gotten a knack for the creative industries from them.

My biggest motivation and inspiration is an era of Thai advertising from when I was young, which was full of good work, fresh ideas and great storytelling. That very much inspired me and made me want to become a creative. In my childhood, I was a highly sensitive kid that usually avoided talking to strangers, but I was always fascinated by a good story; I spent most of my time alone letting my emotion and intuition run deeply while watching TV, music, movies, and reading books. I think that was the beginning of creativity and me.

When it comes to judging the creativity of a piece of work, what I look out for as a priority is the feeling. How does this particular work make me respond to it emotionally? Does it touch me or ‘slap’ me? It’s the sudden and initial emotional moment before the logical process starts, before we think about context, craft, criteria. Any fresh and insightful idea always succeeds to get me.

If I have to choose a work I’m proudest of, since every one is good in its own way, but I will put forward my latest work – ‘Museum of First Time’. This is my first time working on a 360 virtual-reality museum based on a true story. It was a great experience to do it with the team and clients, as everyone was passionate and dedicated to the campaign and the purpose behind it – to help domestic abuse victims. The feedback to this campaign is beyond my expectation, I have received a lot of good responses both publicly and personally. The other possibility is the work that gave me the craziest experience of my life – ‘Friendshit’ for Kbank. 

I always start with the insight. I’ll look at every possibility to pick the right one. One of my key principles to follow is ‘don’t forget to make sure it’s coming from a neutral standpoint,’ to avoid biases. When the insight is right, the good ideas will always follow. I usually work on this process alone, to give everyone on the team space to explore and crystallise each perspective. 

After that, we start the brainstorming session, to discuss everyone’s ideas or thoughts to make sure it’s new, relevant, and effective. Then we develop the idea, to make it better and craft it, so it can elevate every piece of the work together.

For me, a good idea is just a starting point – the essential part of good work is the actual process of crafting, and working as a team.

The external factors that affected my work and creativity definitely lay with my extended family. I grew up with my parents, but also I lived with my grandmother, aunts, uncles, brothers, and a lot of cousins. Being raised by a multigenerational group of people made me an open-minded person, the diversity of my family members is the fuel for my creativity. It made me always interested in different perspectives from different walks of life. Because of that I am always willing to learn and experience everything.

Every time I do my work, I keep telling myself not to forget that communication is the foundation of advertising – we are dealing with human beings. If I think I have a super great idea, but it doesn’t communicate with the target audience in real life, then it’s not a good idea.