What do Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Donald Trump have in common apart from bad hair? It's that one essential ingredient that precludes creative or commercial genius: passion. Where there's no passion, there's no desire to crash right through the box of mediocrity and truly create or innovate. There's nothing worse than trying to force a surly copywriter, art director or creative director for that matter,

 to work on a campaign for a product or service they just couldn't give a gorilla's armpit about.

And it shows. Sloppy design, unconvincing taglines, slipshod production and usually a dull, uninspired and unoriginal piece of rubbish. Or, occasionally, a work of award quality that has absolutely nothing to do with the brief, the brand or the consumer and everything to do with their reel... and their next job.

Judging by the bulk of creative work out there, I'd say there must be a seething mass of surly creatives locked away, grinding their teeth, cursing their clients and churning out the dross that disrupts our favourite websites, TV shows, magazine articles and clutters our mail and inboxes.

There are people out there who are truly passionate about brands and who would do anything... anything... for the opportunity to contribute to the creative process.

Just drop the name of a particular brand and their pupils dilate, they get goose bumps, they swoon, gasp, moan and may even start humping your leg.

Apple has them in stadium-filling hordes. Nike, Nokia, Honda and Singapore Airlines have them. And weirdly enough, although in smaller numbers, so does Daikin, Hyundai, Panasonic and Garuda. And Darlie toothpaste and Maggi noodles and Nikko pens. Very few brands don't have at least one foam-at-the-mouth fanatic.

John Lambie is regional digital creative director at BatesAsia. Read his full article in this month's issue of Marketing, out this week.

(Source: Marketing magazine)