Event, direct mail and online marketers know that integrating to mass creative has been a measure since forever. As we strive to “integrate” products from various divisions and disciplines within the ad agency world, much debate and debacle has ensued.
Most ad agencies still have mass creatives leading ad campaigns, encouraging other divisions to turn their TV spots into micro-sites and print ads into online media. This lift has become the norm and a measure of “integration” – but this never made sense to me. Would you expect a print ad to execute well to radio? Or a TV spot to print? Why then is it assumed that a TV ad translates to the web? Why does anyone think consumers care to watch TV ads online?
Social media properties and other sites embracing the principles of Web 2.0 are taking off in a meaningful way and as this channel expands, the mass channels continue to decline in all measures of effectiveness. Within ad agencies today, kingdoms are made of formerly ghettoized interactive departments and direction of the creative product may soon fall to an employee who spent the first half of his/her career cutting graphics for banner ads. This notion shakes a mass creative person to their core. It should … I digress.
The problem starts right at the billing level. As most of you know, mass advertising itself is a money losing venture. You simply cannot cover the cost of six digit creatives, suits, account and production types with employee perks and overhead, with shrinking retainers and most of the ad budget flying out the door to production and media. This is why most of the bigger agencies have set up their own media and pre-press studios. These profit centres are the former cash cows of the big agencies.
The mass advertising pre-press shops were never expected to be creative. These folks represent the craftsmen of the agency: those who composite assets, localize content and tie up loose ends during endless client revision cycles in the detailed pursuit of ad perfection. These are the hours that can be billed. And billed they are, every last second with relentless encouragement by all the bean counters. Without these billable hours, there would be no agencies.
But what happens when the pre-press shops start to dry up because all the money is shifting online?
You just can’t attach hours to a mass creative product and this has always been the problem with our business. It may take five minutes to come up with the idea that’ll change the face of advertising or it may take five months to come up with a horrible one that achieves nothing. When considering creative merit, a unit of time has nothing to do with the unit of worth. In mass, billing by the hour gave way long ago to retainer models which pay for percentages of time; still awkward, but a reasonable compromise.
The creative product from an interactive department is of an entirely different sort than the one from mass creative. The creative concept, layouts and headlines are just the beginning. Not only must interactive creatives be experts at finding the best way to tell the story with the greatest possible consumer persuasion, they must also do so with unique insight into their ever-evolving medium. The biggest difference is the requirement asked of interactive Writers and Art Directors to personally produce every creative element in the product.
In direct comparison, interactive creatives do what creatives, studio and all contracted production people do for mass – most often with a tenth of the budget and a quarter of the time. They often write style guides, design endless interfaces, transition styles and manage sound style. They source assets, record voiceovers, determine high-level information architecture and back-end technology approaches. They create the message while considering search engine optimization, usability, content flow, client messaging, user context and comprehension. They cut graphics, adjust animation timing and tweak long copydecks with endless quality assurance cycles and client revisions. And they do all of this with the remarkable ability to measure and report on performance and hopefully success.
It’s no surprise that this department bills by the hour. As the media shifts online, the interactive division, a former ghetto of the agency, becomes the new profit center and subsequent agency darling. There isn’t a single creative in interactive that would disagree, but they also understand the reality of the medium.
There are a few examples of agencies that have “promoted” interactive thinkers into the mass agency fold. For instance, Crispin Porter’s work over the last few years has resulted in a ton of great work. They saved Burger King from the brink of bankruptcy with a one-two punch: Subservient Chicken and what I call “The Creepy King of all New-Media”. Crispin Porter, however, has decided to take the old approach and outsource their production to interactive shops, the same model as traditionally applied to TV or print.
A smart short term move, but is it a sustainable one?
This approach creates 2 fundamental problems if adopted be all agencies in the future.
1: How will the agency make money if their time and material divisions are outsourced?
The easy answer for the agency would be to buy and/or build interactive divisions to produce these products, while keeping the interactive creatives in the mass creative department. However, this model then presents the next question…
2: Where will the future interactive creatives come from?
Beyond your current crop, how will you nurture future creatives up the chain of command. Will they be hired out of interactive production studios, experts at the craft of interactive, but perhaps dull on the creative side? (How often does a pre-press Mac artist get a job as an agency Art Director?) Or will they come cut from advertising cloth, perhaps limited in their understanding of the potential of this ever-evolving medium?
As I see it, these are the hardest questions in the agency world right now. This entire issue is also faced by the account and production teams too!
The fact is, you can’t separate the money from the product. Anyone who thinks you can will soon be out of money. We must find a new model to bill upon.
Shall we bill creative based solely on results? That would certainly bring some accountability to the table, but measuring results when it comes to brand awareness has as much to do with the media spend as it does the creative.
How about a total freelance model whereby creatives roam from agency to agency and client to client as “guns for hire” on a campaign by campaign basis, proposing and pitching clients and agencies as film directors and scriptwriters do in Hollywood. They put the product down, flat rate, and the agency picks it up or doesn’t. Creative teams would swarm around these leaders as they build their own small army of integrated warriors. Agencies could cut the overhead down considerably and the client would get a better product.
That kind of revolution will not happen overnight.
There are other models too, so please comment if you’re aware of any. It is hard to see this from the big picture, the picture is too dam big! This is a new marketing world and we’re all in it, let us all know what you are thinking…
Tweet This!
Print This Post
7 Responses to “The (Dis)integration of Mass Advertising Creative”
Leave a Reply
Additional comments powered by BackType
January 14th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
The (Dis)integration of Mass Advertising Creative…
Online marketing is gaining greater shares in Advertising budgets. Mass creatives are starting to feel the pinch. As creative departments merge, fundamental business questions are surfacing that go to the core of the agency business model. What will th…
January 14th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
The (Dis)integration of Mass Advertising Creative…
“Most ad agencies still have mass creatives leading ad campaigns, encouraging other divisions to turn their TV spots into micro-sites and print ads into online media.”…
January 15th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
First off, Collin – thanks for commenting over at onereaderatatime. And 2nd – nice blog YOU have built. I am not at all familiar with creative ad agencies – other than we use one to develop big campaigns where I work – so this specific post is a little out of my league. Within our organization – a newspaper – we have smaller teams working on day to day advertising projects. And we are definitely experiencing disintegration of teams – along with reintegration. My belief is for too long organizations have placed little value on the imagination and creativity we all have as thinking humans. Creatives – you call them interactives – have been ghettoized. The new tools we see emerging allow us to “move on up to the east side”
. And its fun. We still have day to day tasks but they expand when we interact. So much to learn, to teach, and to share. Carry on with your good work!
And I love your Gandhi quote!
January 16th, 2007 at 12:41 am
Thanks for the comments Bob.
I can see why YOU are the Time person of the Year
I like the image of the interactive creative department with a “move on up”
Truth is, I am not sure who should be taking who’s creatie lead. Or if it is futile to suggest that there should be a lead anymore. Should there be 1 creative director for every account? It works for the suits.
So much to revolutionize… so little time!
cheers
collin
January 16th, 2007 at 2:20 am
The Financial Future of Creative?…
by Mr. Tim A GCD named Collin Douma from MacLaren McCann offers an interesting dialog on the future of the creative department in his Radical Trust blog. His take: Follow the money. Or at least let’s try to. radical trust……
November 27th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
okay so i need to know for my class what is mass advertising- definition if anyone knows
November 30th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
I would define Mass advertising as any purchased media space that contains messages intended to persuade a large population with no response mechanism.
(B2C) – Business to Consumer. Example media formats: TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Trade Publications, Banner Ads, Micro Sites, Outdoor, Public Events,
Direct Advertising is any created media that is targeted to a specific audience that solicits a direct response.
(B2C2B) Business to consumer to business
Example: Direct Mail, Email Marketing
Interactive Advertising is any created media that responds to consumer interaction between advertiser and consumer.
B2C2B2C…
Microsites, Corporate websites (sometimes)
Social Advertising is any created platform that facilitates dialogue between advertiser, consumer, consumer.
B2C2C2C2C2C2C2C2C…
examples: blogs, wikis, smpr’s etc.