The big headline out of the ReThink TV event last week was Joe Pollard’s opinion that it’s a great “tragedy” that creative and media agencies have become separated. This invariably leads to conversations about the re-merging of the two in a 1980s style reunion. As anyone who has been to 80s reunions will testify, they are pretty painful experiences.
So instead, what is more valuable to look at are the reasons why media and creative do work better together. We need to create new models, rather than simply going back to the past. There is no need to rehash a conversation where media people gripe that creatives don’t understand their craft and consider it a backend function. And creative people gripe that media consider them to be 30” TVC merchants who don’t understand the importance of ROI and business results.
The first reason is the mass fragmentation of audience delivery. This means that for communications to be effective it needs to be overcoming the same barrier, operating off the same insight, and activated in a single-minded fashion. Therefore, the role of media has never been more important in the upfront development of ideas, as the creatives need to know how best to reach the audience with their idea.
The second point to consider is the rise of technology, and the importance of programmatic deployment. Because this has historically sat within the media agency silo, it has been used as a blunt instrument to target more effectively and deliver efficient CPM’s. Whereas the true value of programmatic is the connection of media and message at the right moment of a consumer need. The smart, data driven delivery of an ad is wasteful unless creative is considered at the same time.
The third factor is the aversion of consumers to advertising, and the multiple methods they have at their disposal to block out messages. Whether that be streaming services, ad blocking, remote controls or “skip this ad” buttons, the job of the advertiser is increasingly difficult. To deliver impact we need to create more innovative apertures for bespoke ideas. These may be creative or media driven, but when considered together, they are going to be more impactful.
These three key factors; fragmentation, the rise of technology, and consumer aversion to advertising are creating different hurdles for agencies to overcome, and the benefits of overcoming them through integration are obvious. For those reasons we should be doing everything we can to get creative and media people in the same room.
Whether that starts at what we have historically referred to as 'media' or 'creative' agencies, it doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s the same room. We simply cannot continue with our legacy structures that silo thinking to the detriment of our clients. And you would imagine, Joe Pollard is a fairly important one.
By Ian Perrin, chief accelerator of Speed
Did you catch Pollard's views? See here: Telstra CMO: It's a tragedy that creative and media don't talk any more