I think it was the day I realized I had become my mother. I love my mom to death, but I just can’t understand her resistance to technology. She’s a whiz at the electric can opener, but her tech savvy pretty much begins and ends there. Yes, she has a DVD player and a computer. She’s just afraid to turn them on. Yes, she has a teller card, a credit card and cable TV. She got them in 2005. Yes, she’ll use a cell phone. If you hold it to her ear for her. C’mon, really now, who could be so stuck?
Well, go back a few years, and quite apparently it was me. Print, radio, TV, outdoor? All in my creative comfort zone. Interactive? Didn’t really understand the technology, its implications for completely changing the way we converse with consumers, and I didn’t really know how to learn it.
Fortunately, however great my fear of online, it wasn’t as great as my fear of becoming a dinosaur. Or my mother.
The thing is, while I’m certainly not proud of my resistance, I’m obviously not ashamed to admit it either. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one out there, and I know for a fact this isn’t the first time in ad history that a new medium has created upheaval leading to a fundamental shift in the creative department.
Between 1950 and 1960, television went from 10% household penetration to over 80%. Up to that point, radio ruled and the thought of advertising on television was risky business. When it was clear that television was no fly-by-night gizmo, agencies had to pioneer unknown territory. Creatives had to reinvent themselves. In fact, it was Bill Bernbach’s realization that this new, highly visual medium necessitated art directors becoming equal partners with writers that institutionalized the concept of writer/art director teams. We take it for granted now, but it was a total game changer back then.
Well, here we are again. This time, in the Internet age, with a whole world of creative opportunity linked to technology most creatives still don’t completely understand.
Unlike before though, there’s a crutch. Traditional creatives don’t have to reinvent themselves right now because they can rely on partnering with interactive agencies, interactive freelancers and siloed interactive departments within the agency.
But this is a solution anchored in division. And last I checked, division and integration were antonyms. Integration at its most potent comes from an unmistakably singular voice, look and objective. No surprise then, as we’re already seeing, that the most well-integrated ideas are coming from the most well-integrated agencies.
No question that making the transition to a fully integrated agency takes a huge commitment. Being at one of a handful of agencies that’s done it and getting national recognition for the work it’s resulting in, I can tell you it hasn’t been easy. But what great leap into unchartered territory ever has? You just have to move forward with conviction and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get it done.
So a few tips from the frontline.
First off, it’s still all about ideas. So hire brilliant thinkers and don’t get wowed by pure technical prowess alone. Secondly, break down the physical barriers. Instead of having a separate interactive department, have one department. True integration starts before the work does. And put interactive creatives in a position where they can teach. Include them in planning and media strategy, and ultimately, on creative teams. Try some threesomes. It’s a natural way for traditional creatives to get a deeper understanding of online, and for online not to end up as an afterthought. Eventually, the blurring of lines will occur. Traditional and interactive creatives will start to do each other’s jobs, in essence, removing any titles or distinctions between the two. And traditional agencies will no longer be a limiting moniker, but the new definition of a partner that does it all.
More convenient and cost effective for clients? Sure, but that’s not the big payoff. The real reward is the opportunity to take part in a new paradigm that’s about creating new opportunities for rich conversations with people.
Needless to say, this isn’t exactly crystal-ball stuff. With the exponential growth of online consumers and households with broadband, this is more like sledgehammer-over-the-head-obvious stuff.
Yet there’s a chasm.
On one side, agencies that get it and are already making the move to full integration. They’re restructuring their creative departments to foster seamless partnerships and non-territorial idea generation.
On the other side, agencies comfortably dependent on specialists. Apparently not afraid of becoming dinosaurs. I just wonder how many of them will still be around in ten years. ca
