Creative Content or Production? This is the Question.
About Advertising Agencies, again.
Another warning about integrating digital expertise in the Advertising Agency.
Advertising Agencies were born as media space sellers; then they realized that more money could be done in selling what was inside that space.
They kept control on the content along the whole “Print” age.
Then came the TV age.
Production houses and directors started stealing control over a crucial part of the content. But that was the 70s and the 80s, and big money was earned; nobody did care. Furthermore, Agency was still necessary as a translator between the brand and the filmmakers, dominating the conversation (1) and keeping the control on the creative idea (2).
These times, it seems that the outsourcing of the production phase is applied to digital projects too.
Here’s the warning -related to points (1) and (2):
- As in everything that is becoming digital, boundaries fade; and it is difficult to set the line between creativity and production. When designing an interactive object, is defining the information flow “production”? Or the user experience design? Or usability assessment? And if “no”, will the Advertising Agency have these expertise (plus others) in-house?
- Can Advertising Agency bear the role of intermediating the conversation about the digital project in a relevant way? Or the customer will ask to speak directly with the digital unit?
