The creative agency setup is not fit for purpose, so why aren’t we innovating?
The advertising industry is constantly urging its clients to innovate, so why are so many ad agencies not changing the way their creative departments operate asks Steve Coll.
Malcolm Turnbull is creating government for the 21st Century. Department stores are trialling robots. Builders are 3D printing houses. So why are many creative departments stuck in the 1950’s?
Our new PM seems to be a man with an eye on the future. Undoubtedly, the other will squarely be on yesterday’s opinion polls. But his talk of the future and our place in it is timely and provocative for many Australian industries.
After a month in a new gig, I’ve spent much of my time examining the make-up of the modern agency. I joined With Collective partly because Justin and Dom, the founders of WiTH and my new partners, have a laser-like focus on the future of our business. And, as I contemplate how the industry needs to re-shape and respond for the future, I can’t help thinking that we, the creative community, have been amongst the slowest to embrace change.
I appreciate I am making a generalisation. But I think its largely fair.
I got my first job in an agency creative department almost 20 years ago. That job would have been best described as ‘Glorified Tea-maker’, even though my business card said ‘Junior Copywriter’. Fast forward to today and its hard to find words to describe the change in the world of advertising.
The brands we love, like Uber and Airbnb build relationships through utility and UX, less and less through big brand advertising. Customers are using social media to exert more power than ever on brands and companies. Data makes our ability to measure and understand individual customer behaviour increasingly sophisticated.
Virtual Reality is virtually a reality. And robots and driverless cars look fairly close to being part of our lives.
In that time, the set up of creative departments doesn’t seem to have changed much at all.
Creativity is unquestionably a vital part of the future of our business. So why do our departments seem part of the past?
The set-up of copywriter and art director teams is overwhelmingly how most departments are shaped, both in Australia and elsewhere. This structure has existed for decades, the legacy of how creative departments operated in the Bernbach days at DDB in the 1950’s.
Now, to be clear, it’s not that I believe the idea of teams is the problem. It’s more that we seem scared to challenge a status quo that was established over 50 years ago. We have developed a received way of doing what we do and who does it.
It’s formulaic. Which seems very odd.
Because messing with formulas and coming up with amazing results is what the best creative people are supposed to do. In fact, its what creative people love to do. The old (and not very funny) joke goes “How many creatives does it take to change a light-bulb? Does it have to be a light bulb?” Again, not the best stand-up material, but it illustrates the kind of relentless questioning that goes hand-in-hand with good creative thinking and has often delivered incredible results for clients.
But the successes of the past is not necessarily a blueprint for the future.
My overwhelming impression is that the average creative department feels like a legacy. It seems strange to me that we aren’t questioning our own model.
More urgently, if we don’t change fast, then smart, energetic creative thinkers in agencies are going to leave or get left behind.
As I said, I am writing this as an observation about the industry at large, and indeed there are a few interesting agencies posing a credible threat to the traditional model, particularly in the US. But we aren’t having the wholesale re-invention you would expect.
Our creative agency process seems equally retrospective.
Smarter people than me describe the creative agency method as a waterfall process. The brief is carried, as a client once observed to me, on a velvet cushion in a solemn procession from the account service team to the planning department and then into the creative team.
Isn’t it worth at least experimenting with how we do what we do?
I am not talking about hiring architects into the creative structure like some misguided London agencies famously did in the early 2000’s. But I look at areas like customer experience (something I’m becoming increasingly fascinated by) as a relevant, impactful and interesting inclusion in the creative process. How are we changing to account for that?
Same for data. I now find myself working closely with an economist and full-time data nerd (as I am sure Justin won’t mind me saying). We’re looking at new ways to solve business problems, different ways to blend the smart and the crazy together, think fast, get more brains in the room, and involve our clients from the beginning. I’ll be honest, it’s more exciting than you’d believe anything featuring the word data could ever be! Can’t we experiment with how the right brain and left brain work together as part of the creative process?
I don’t pretend for a second to have all the answers. And perhaps I’m not getting out enough to talk to fellow creative leaders. But I do believe we need to re-look at how our departments are set up to meet the whirlwind of change in the world of mobile, data personalisation and customer comms. Also how we collaborate with clients and outside experts to get the best results.
I feel the argy-bargy we should be having over different methods of thinking, as well as who and what makes the modern creative department tick, is strangely quiet.
Creative people consistently ask clients to be brave. Maybe its time we took a dose of our own medicine.
- Steve Coll is creative partner at With Collective
Oh my god yes, this so much.
I’ve been a Finished artist for some time so more involved at the technical end of getting things ready to leave the womb, basically.
I got tired of the slow churning process of it and the absolute invisibility and lack of voice of being at the end of the line, and stepped sideways into workflow management and quality control. Then I rather stupidly dipped the old toe back into pure finished art as part of an agency.
Chaos! Did my head in! Why?!?! Argh!
There’s a hell of a lot of unwillingness to change and fear of it, like somehow roles will become redundant. Also the money aspect – people are afraid of wasting cash. And maybe even a bunch of starry eyed nostalgia about the good old days of smoking in the office and martinis and strictly defined roles.
I am now enjoying wearing a whole bunch of caps again, and learning new things. And I’m really wanting to make a difference to the next generation of smart people who are coming up. I’ve seen too many of them sacrifice themselves on the altar of ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
It’s broken. It’s reaaaallllly broken.
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Nick Law from R/GA NYC has been speaking and writing about overhauling creative departments with a mix of systems and stories “creative” people for 10+ years.
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Great article Steve, I couldn’t agree more.
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This article makes really good points. I’ve always thought it was a miss for creative agencies to let digital agencies flourish, instead of learning digital and owning the medium – this is what media agencies did. Creative agencies did themselves out of a lot of revenue.
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Don’t you mean Steven Gerrard?
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Good article, agree that ideas aren’t the bastion of CD’s, art directors and copy writers…not a blinding insight really.
Don’t know if it is a real problem or concocted for the article as it seems quite simple for me that IF the consumer is using certain mediums that didn’t exist 20 years ago we SHOULD understand those mediums and be active in them…that means engaging with different people..
One point – can we stop referring to Uber and Air BnB as pinnacles like we use to for Nike and Apple. It’s easy, lazy and shows little insights above he who has most money wins (FYI Uber have raised US$8.2B and Air BnB US$2.3 – if they couldn’t get category domination right with that cash there’s a real problem)
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The model is well and truly broken. The creative dept model. The digital model. The data model. The integration model. The whole bloody agency model.
Worse, the vast majority of people saying it are from the client side! In fact, they’ve been screaming it at the top of their lungs for the past 5+ years.
Yet adland sits there scratching it’s collective head, lamenting the loss of huge chunks of business from clients such as Apple, Google, Red Bull, Hyundai and more.
Where did it go? To a new creative model of course. Faced with lack of change and any potential sign of it, they simply developed their own creative model and took back control of their own business.
I’m the first to say it’s far from an ideal model because attracting the quality of creative talent they need just isn’t going to happen. After all, what self respecting agency Creative wants to work on just one client, day in, day out, let alone away from the far less corporate agency creative environment?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. More and more clients of all sizes are looking long and hard a internalising creative.
If change doesn’t come soon – extremely soon – all that will be left for agencies is a bit of brand strategy, comms co-ordination and creative execution.
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Everything is broken. Sounds like a Bod Dylan song.
Just like Dylan said; the times they are a changing.
Do we need departments?
Do we need divides and pointless titles?
We all want to do great work and are shooting for the same goal.
Collaboration is an overused word but done right its very powerful. Discussing briefs with our so called non-creative people can sometimes yield the best results.
I think the countless hours we all spend on pitches could be put to creating a new agile model that will be future proof.
Or for those people who spend their time bagging out other peoples work, do something positive and think of a way to help stop the melting ice burg that some of us are all standing on.
Thanks Steve for getting this conversation going.
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When companies (and their marketers) start making truly innovative products and services instead of me-too products and services, (compared to their competitors) (and if you’re really true to yourself barely any DO offer an obvious difference), then it’s fair to take the position that the old model is dead and demand an ‘innovative new solution from agencies’.
Digital-based solutions tend to be even more transparent (a good thing) however they only show up a generic product faster. Interactive transparent media rely more heavily on the product itself being new and different (like Air B&B).
The current delusion being sold to marketers is that digital and other ‘innovative’ solutions are the miracle cure for a dull same-same product. When in actual fact if you are true to yourself and really your product is pretty close to your competitors then the ‘old fashioned’ communication model IS STILL A GOOD MODEL. The reason is that model, all things equal, is a more PERSUASIVE model. So if you’re going to abandon it you better be sure your product will sell itself.
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I’ve read way too many hand-wringing PR pieces from industry leaders bemoaning the state of the industry, how we’re slow, how we’re antiquated etc etc.
I think everyone know this already.
What nobody knows is how to fix it.
So here’s some advice for anyone tempted to write another “everything is broken” piece: just don’t do it unless you are sharing a real-world, practical and valid solution (and not just vague reheated platitudes about collaboration and agility).
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Speaking of waterfall, perhaps look at the whole client agency connection, cause it’s a massive waterfall that is more than just a single agency department. Procurement give templates that specify Art Director and Copywriter in their RFIs, so do Pitch Consultants. They ask who the ‘creative team’ is, they reconcile hours against the roles which were specified in that original RFI they set but don’t exist in the actual work when delivered (or shouldn’t). The media strategy specifies TV, so the creative agency creates TV – and then gets blamed for being too TV-centric. WPP and friends still make $millions in profit$ so it doesn’t feel too broken in the P&L; It’s hard to let go of that gravy train. But as Jon Snow says, ‘winter is coming’.
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Argumentum ad novitatem.
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I have had the pleasure of working with a couple of agencies in Sydney as a freelancer who moved beyond the traditional model of Creative teams years ago. It’s been a pleasure working for them and the results have been amazing, both for the agency and me, personally.
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Mumbrella, why do you constantly censor posts that aren’t rude, contain no obscenity, don’t single out an indivdual, etc?
If you don’t like something, or disagree with it, you censor it. It’s ridiculous.
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The fact of the matter is the best way to come up with an innovative and ground breaking idea is still to lock yourself away with one or two other people, a pad and a 0.6mm marker.
I’ve tried every other method, large brainstorms produce very little good work and often end with one or two dominating the discussion.
On your own you’ll rarely get past first thoughts.
Using a laptop instead of a pen and paper is distracting. Smartphones are terrible.
We still use the same sized markers and the same sized pads because they work. Very well.
Calls for overhauls on how a department works are a distraction from real innovative work. Much easier to talk innovation than actually produce it.
Builders may use 3D printing, but the worksite is by and large structured the same way it ha been for hundreds if not thousands of years. As is the structure of companies like Air B and B. They have CEOs. Receptionists. Offices.
It’s not innovative to reinvent the wheel if the wheel is still delivering the best results you can hope for.
It’s stupidity.
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This is all very well and interesting, but why are Google poaching ‘traditional’ Art Director / Copywriter teams to conceive their ground breaking creative work?
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To convince clients they offer agency-style services…Haven’t seen much produced on that front though.
As for the rest of this opinion piece – it’s spot on, however it’s nothing new to anyone in the digital space. It’s only new to newcomers. So yeah, onwards and upwards…
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Why indeed.Here’s some insight …
First, why TBWA’s ECD went to Google – http://www.adweek.com/agencysp.....ency/79527
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Before you use Malcolm Turnbull as inspiration for change, remember he justified his coup with “30 bad polls in a row”. And we all know what focus groups have done to creativity in advertising. The leader has changed but the real problem hasn’t.
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Yep – couldn’t agree more Steve.
http://www.theherald.com.au/st.....e/?cs=4200
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Hi qt3.14,
Thanks for your question. From the looks of it, we’ve previously published 14 out of 15 comments from your IP address.
We do take an approach that comments that are simplistically negative, and don’t add wider context or make a further argument won’t automatically get up, unless they add something to the conversation – particularly if they are anonymous. By all means feel free to make a further comment and expand on your point.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
They have produced a tonne of work. They just put other agencies names on it. A bit like Finch did with The World’s Most Powerful Arm.
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i am glad the steve has seen the light and now moved to a great ‘digital’ agency but the light has been shining brightly for close to 20 years now, pioneers such as NetX and onedigital to the next generation the Tribal, VisualJazz, white agency and Soaps of the world to now a new generation each disrupting the old creative agency model all along. what amazes me is how the old guard of creative agency leadership still think they can get a way with hiring a ‘digital’ head and hope that solves their gradual but relentless marginalization away from their clients business.
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Interesting debate.
For me, as long as we describe art directors, copy writers and graphic designers et al as ‘creatives’, and have ‘creative departments’ you ignore that the job of agencies is to ‘solve problems creatively’, then we’ll fail as an industry.
It is EVERYBODY in an agency’s responsibility and role to be ‘creative’: Planners, Account Handlers, Media buyers, TV producers etc. etc.
If one of those skills produces something lacking in creativity you will be a ‘me to’, and so will your Clients work.
One industry has cracked this conundrum.
TV in the USA would not have hit shows without a team of idea producers, writing and visualising practitioners. All in one room, and ‘directed’.
The wisdom of the crowd edits the average. Promotes excellence. As long as it is well led.
Watching the Emmy’s on Monday was an eye opener for the number of people involved in ‘producing’ hit shows, especially the funny ones.
The more experts in areas of executions that touch brands you get in a room the more holistic the solution.
Yes it’s hard to manage teams. Yes it needs effort. But this is the 21C. No effort, no glory.
Suck it up. Beatches.
Blame no-one
Expect nothing
Do something
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There’s an assumption here that there are a lack of interesting ideas out there. In my experience that’s not the problem. It’s a lack of will to make them. These type of debates are like an athlete who’s obsessed about new gear and experimental diets and data and statistics but who when they get to the track run at half speed.They ignore the simplest answer right in front of them – just run faster, remember that ‘old fashioned’ technique?Just “RUN!”.
In our situation that translates to BE INTERESTING! Don’t obsess about a new media or method or gimmick to put out your dull message.
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‘creative’ is a commodity. Anthropology, philosophy, data and semiotics is where agencies need to invest, not only to survive, but to develop work in this non-campaign world.
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Advertising will go in-house like a casket before a burial.
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Doing some Mumbrella catch-up and I have been reading all the comments around this story (BTW good story Steve) but most comments still seem to be based around what agencies can do to fix the problem. Few actually mention clients and what they want. They assume clients still need creative agencies. Yes they do, but perhaps not half as much as they did 20, 10 or even 5 years ago. I moved from agency to client side a couple of years ago. As a creative it is worrying to think you will only work on one client but in reality it is far more complex and diverse than you imagine. The share joy of being embedded with product developers, our clients, partners – those that actually make things more than compensates for the lack of client variety. Since joining I have been roped into (or pushed myself into) projects with UX, UI (my company makes B2B software), deep client analytics, from-scratch product development and naming, pricing (remember the 4Ps?), and regularly get to sit with the CEO to chew the fat on where we are heading and what we need to get there. The removal of those layers of interaction/interference are totally refreshing for a creative. We still use creative agencies, we have a small agency in San Fran who helped develop our new brand campaign, but we also source creative from a variety of agencies and freelancers from around Australia and the world. I have a great designer who works from home in his apartment in downtown Sydney who knocks out awesome creative between making electric guitars from scratch. Another lives on a yacht in the Whitsundays and produces beautiful documents for us. We use The Pulse in Sydney for high end video work but produce the rest in-house. The trick is we have a solid marketing team who can generate great GTM plans which we can then have creatives, including myself, develop concepts for. Plus an embedded and experienced content team to build thought leadership material. Our SF agency completely respect our approach and understand in this era that a level of flexibility is required to work with clients who are now structured very differently to what they have been, to respond to their customers whose expectations have changed dramatically in the last few years. To Steve’s point about being brave, I agree. The brave agencies will be those that fully accept that things have changed and ask “how can we help you, and your team, achieve your goals, on your terms, with your structure and your budget”, as opposed to “this is our team, this is how we work, these are our costs, now be brave and let us make some great creative for you”. Interesting times.
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Always a good subject isn’t it.
Seems to me that creativity moves best to where it can most powerfully be applied.
Some bright people have moved to the mediums (Facebook, youtube and others are doing some interesting work). Filmakers too are creating new types of content and formats (Mofilm, Finch was mentioned earlier too). New types of experiential firms, consulting businesses and digital producers have emerged too. And then there’s the fragmentation of hundreds of other ways in which we can creatively reach and engage people to add to the marketers’ options on creating customer connections.
I’m still a big fan of engaging ideas – stories built from a human insight that you can’t resist but be touched by – and that represent a key thought you’d like people to remember about your brand. And I think we all respond to such stories brought to life in film. That’s always been at the core of “the agency” – it’s just found other ways to represent itself.
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Agreed Andy. Where best applied is so very true. I guess I found it on client side. And you are right about engaging stories. Just finished a video with The Pulse that tells story of my company, written and produced in house with The Pulse directing. Was great to be able to hold the core idea as sacred through the process, something I struggled with on agency side.
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@AndyBateman
Absolutely.
By the way, very nicely put:
“… stories built from a human insight that you can’t resist but be touched by – and that represent a key thought you’d like people to remember about your brand.”
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Not a good idea to start off an article quoting Turnbull.
The ‘future’ focussed PM who is giving us D-grade broadband with lousy upload speeds (let’s face it, this will continue to place a premium on prices and reduce competition for content creators and send talent OS way into the future) at the same price we could have had fibre to every home.
There’s not future unless we have the appropriate infrastructure for new models.
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Whilst advertising creatives are encouraged to question everything within the confines of a brief, questioning the status quo of the agency itself is tantamount to treason in many creative departments.
Indeed, ask around creatives in the industry right now and you’ll find that many are run by fear more often than creative freedom.
The fragile egos of managing creatives and ECD’s simply don’t allow room for organisational thoughts from the wider team and few seem brave enough to rock the boat.
…In my limited experience, that is.
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Yes yes yes.
PLEASE can Creatives learn from other industries and change your business models to integrate and partner with your clients.
The (open source) business model canvas can help you visualise new ways of working.
I have seen this and learnt this need for new ways of doing business from working with over 30 Creatives per year with the Creative Industries Innovation Centre and across multiple industries with SMEs and mid sized businesses.
It’s worth the upheaval – and achieves the Csikszentmihalyi flow
PS Yes the B4G webpage is appalling – quid pro quo welcome
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