McCann’s Lachlan James: Creativity has become completely commoditised
James
Creativity has become “completely commoditised”, with the attitude of looking for an agency who “can do something faster and cheaper” creating an environment of mistrust amongst agencies, McCann Sydney senior planner Lachlan James said in a video hangout yesterday.
Responding to comments made in a previous hangout by 303Lowe’s Richard Morgan around clients taking advantage of agencies, James said creativity has become a numbers game.
“Creativity has become completely commoditised. It’s become a numbers game. It’s no longer looked at on the value its bringing, ROI modelling or effectiveness gets left to the wayside, it’s who can do something faster and cheaper,” he said.
Elephant in the room: Why has creative become commoditised? If it was so special, if it had all the answers, if it was a guarantee of marketing success then it would be valued accordingly.
Boo hoo guys. If the client tells you upfront the pitch is a costing excercise what are gonna do – just present them with a lower cost? Of course not – you’re gonna turn up with lower fees and some great creative they weren’t expecting. And the truly exciting thing about creativity is that it is in no way proportional to cost. If you’re saying more money from the client will raise the creative standard, you just don’t get creativity.
it’s interesting that Mr James feels capable of talking about this issue given he’s been overseas for the past 6 years and is on his second role here since January
It’s true fleshpeddler – I did do a brief freelance stint at another agency before committing to a FT position. I also, in my response above, made a point of prefacing the fact that my opinion on this matter was largely based on what I experienced abroad.
Thank you for your insight.