What qualifies as “great work” in the new fragmented, multichannel, consumer-controlled marketing environment of the 21st century?

Agency creatives – especially those in the over-40 crowd – are experiencing a new form of angst. In a world where the creative output includes such things as recommended language for Google search returns, interface design for a new iPhone app, a creative framework for a social media program, or an idea for a branded widget, the definition of “great work” is not what it used to be.

In Ignition’s work with agencies both here and abroad, we’ve observed real tension between (especially older) creatives and “non-creatives” on this subject.  Writers and art directors who grew up in s a world where their mothers would see their work on television now sometimes produce work that is only seen by a targeted segment of internet users.

So consider these questions:

• Is optimizing a website for organic search “creative?”

• Is an idea that helps a troubled brand avoid a crisis “creative?”

• Is developing an active online brand community “creative?”

• Is recommending a better, more functional product design “creative?”

The point is that in business – and especially in marketing – creativity comes in many forms.  There’s no doubt that ad making is creative.  But so is strategy making.  So is connection planning.  So is interaction design.  All of these disciplines require innovative solutions to marketing challenges.

A paradigm shift

Its’ time for 40, 50, and 60-something creatives to change their paradigm.  There’s nothing wrong with getting fulfillment from high-concept advertising executions.  But if one’s main source of self-fulfillment comes from producing high-profile work that’s seen by friends and family, you may be better off working for a film production company.  The fact is that many talented senior creatives are seriously limiting their career potential – and frustrating their colleagues – by directing their time and energy to fighting for more “advertising” assignments, as if by trying hard enough they’ll be able to return the marketing world to the era of network television.

None of this is meant to diminish the role and importance of “great work” produced for the screen, the speaker, or the printed page.  Agencies’ ability to harness the power of emotion in brand building is a unique and critical skill set.  Already many marketers have been lulled too far into the left-brain school of marketing believing that because marketing messages, impressions and click-throughs can be rationally tracked that the messages themselves should be rational.  Not true, not by a long shot.  Emotion always trumps reason in buying decisions.  But not every marketing problem requires an ad.

A New Creative Manifesto

Here then is the start of a new Creative Manifesto that could be adopted by advertising agencies and other marketing communications firms:

In the fragmented, multichannel, consumer-controlled marketing environment of the 21^st century, “great creative work” shall be defined as:

1. Well-conceived and well-crafted ideas executed in all types of paid media – mass, addressable, digital, ambient and alternative (think television, radio, magazines, outdoor, direct mail, online banners, etc.)

2. Well-conceived ideas that result in positive brand exposure in earned media – from traditional media to social media (think editorial coverage, blogs, online mentions, viral videos, word of mouth, etc.)

3. Well-conceived and well-crafted ideas executed in owned media – channels and properties owned by the brand itself, including everything from packaging to distribution to employees, and even the product itself (think brand websites, stores, buildings, displays, online branded content, etc.)

Furthermore, the definition of “great work” must not be confined to “campaigns,” but must also be applied to “programs” and “platforms” that transcend advertising: 

Campaigns	Programs	Platforms
About communications	About relationships	About interactions
Based on persuasion	Based on perceptions	Based on utility
Mostly one-way	Two-way	Three-way or more
Episodic	Iterative	Enduring
Examples: Mass media advertising campaigns, direct mail campaigns (think Old Spice)	Examples: Customer loyalty programs, customer service programs (think Best Buy Twelpforce)	Examples:  Online interfaces and applications, mobile apps (think Pepsi Refresh Project)

All agency professionals are members of the “creative class”

It’s time for the cliché “everyone here is a ‘creative’” to really mean something.  For years it’s been uttered by agency leaders who haven’t done much to make it a reality.  The truth is that all agency professionals – not just writers and art directors -- are premier members of “The Creative Class” written about by Richard Florida.  In fact, Florida classifies design and media-related professionals as among the “Super-Creative Core”,

Three more things to tackle

There are several more obstacles to optimizing creativity in agencies:

1. Departmentalization of creativity

If agencies want to unleash the real creativity of their organizations, we’ll need to de-departmentalize creativity.  Certainly we still need visual designers, interaction designers, writers, and producers.  But by defining creativity as writing, design, and production only, we seriously limit the amount of effective problem solving we could be providing our clients.  This is why agencies like Crispin Porter + Bogusky use titles like “Content Development” (writers, art directors), “Content Management” (client service), and “Content Distribution” (media).

2. The sequential agency process

A major hindrance to creativity in agencies is the outdated sequential way in which assignments work their way through the firm.  The perpetual (and well-founded) complaint from media professionals is that they are an afterthought in the process – brought in at the last minute to “plan the media” instead of being involved up front to help apply creative thinking to the marketing problem.  What’s needed is to move away from the linear “advertising factory” process and allow more spontaneity, more detours, and more voices.  

   

3. Rushing to the conclusion that the solution to every marketing problem is an ad

Finally, let’s stop assuming that the best way to solve a marketing problem is with an ad.  Even if the brief calls for an “ad” let’s solve the problem in the most creative, effective way possible.  Agencies are trapped in the belief that they are in the “messaging” business.  But very often the way to help a client sell more product isn’t by helping them solve and advertising problem, but rather a distribution problem, a customer service problem, or even a product problem. 

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All of this ultimately goes back to the question “What business are you in?”  If your answer is “We’re in the marketing problem-solving business,” then you’d better have a lot more arrows in your quiver than messaging.   Consider that in the problem-solving business, “creativity” is the means, not the end. 

As the IPA’s Rory Sutherland suggests, “There are a lot of agencies who have a model for ‘how advertising works.’  What’s really needed now is a model for ‘how people work.’  This is the brave new world of behavioral economics, and the subject of another Red Paper from Ignition.

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