Does media kill creativity?
Observations from creative account lead, Grace Vizor, who is delving into the world of media.
I’m a creative person, through and through. I’ve spent my career in agencies, backing brave and innovative solutions designed to solve business problems. It’s what gets me up in the morning.
But that all changed a year ago when I took on a leadership role across an integrated business – an opportunity that’s seen me make my first foray into the world of media.
The relationship between creative and media agencies is an interesting one, and there’s often a bit of to and fro in ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard.
So, after a year seeing things from both sides of the fence, I thought I’d explore the question – does media kill creativity? Here’s what I’ve learnt:
Build together
There is a perception from creative types that media kills creativity. I’m sure most of us have experienced those meetings where there’s a stand-off between the creative and media agencies about what formats will most effectively convey the idea, vs those that will be most efficient and effective from a media perspective.
It’s just not the right place to begin the conversation. Media has an incredible ability to unlock creativity and drive greater outcomes, but only if it’s truly part of the process from the beginning.
I have seen this effectively happen in a few different ways; first through unlocking data driven insights leading to pointed creative solutions, second through media publishers surfacing great ideas, aligned to the core idea and bespoke to their platforms, and third through using attention metrics to inform opportunities to improve creative solutions.
Rather than leaning away from media being involved in creative, we need to establish better processes to ensure that we’re genuinely creating together, resulting in bigger, braver work that is effective and efficient.
Influence upstream
The media strategy that a creative agency tends to see in response to a brief is only the tip of the iceberg, often reduced to a media communications system and channel block plan.
But really, media strategy has the power to add so much value before the communications brief, influencing business strategy and ultimately outcomes. From setting business targets, to determining what products to communicate, audience strategies and proving the return on investment back to the business. This is as a result of the data backbone available to media, paired with a client’s first party data, rigorous analytics and strategic leaps from experienced strategists.
This strategy then ultimately informs the comms brief, and therein lies the beauty of integrating media and creative – you can shape what’s coming down the pipe, in the form of a brief, before it lands, resulting in a clearer starting point for brilliant ideas to form.
Shared accountability
Often the media agency is invited to the creative presentation, but not actively involved in shaping the ideas or how they are presented. I understand why – media is known to be rational, in contrast to emotionally driven creative.
Though, in my recent experience with media in-house, I’ve seen media help get ideas over the line and I’d go so far as to say improve the creative strike rate. I attribute this to having the benefit of a media strategist being actively involved in briefing creative, reviewing the work, packaging up the ideas and being part of presenting them alongside the brand strategist. This shared accountability results in ownership over the creative work and a willingness to stop at nothing to get it over the line.
When media is in the creative corner, they can help make ideas work harder and bolster why the idea is right in the first place. I’d recommend inviting your media agency strategist in from the start of the creative process, and experiencing the benefits for yourself.
Empathy is key
To get the most out of media specialists, and to ensure they get the most out of your specialism, each needs a deep understanding and empathy of the other’s role.
This may seem like an obvious tip, but in unbundling agencies we have bred people who have only worked for one discipline their entire career, just like myself. So, how are we possibly meant to deeply understand what other specialists do and the true value they bring? And how are we expected to effectively collaborate, when we don’t really know what the other does?
We need to get better at building relationships across the agency villages that we work within, and take the time to understand and empathise with our colleagues in other disciplines so that we’re starting at a point of shared understanding, rather than one of tension.
So, back to the original question – does media kill creativity? My perspective has changed – a better understanding of media and connection between expertise helps foster greater creative opportunities and ultimately, delivers more effective creative outcomes for clients.
Grace Vizor, client partner at CHEP Network
… as it has always been. But too often ignored.
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