May 4, 2011
Posted by Oscar Llarena
Art Director / Copywriter teams; time to restructure?
Maybe I’m spoiled from working in an agency where creatives never really had a designated partner for creative assignments, or just call me naive about creative protocol, but I never really thought about creative teams in terms of an AD/CW duo. The art of creativity is not mutually exclusive to this pairing. Great ideas can come from anyone and anywhere and its become more common for agencies to realize this fact.
CPB’s Scott Prindle gave a talk on the role of creative technologists last week at Boulder Digital Works and spoke to this very topic.
The Role of the Creative Technologist
Creative brainstorming should be based on collaboration rather than partnerships. Involving other roles such as a developer, planner, or even your media team can not only help ideas come to life better, but allows for different perspectives than those that may be brought to the table by the classic agency pair.
So why is this not obviously accepted and implemented by everyone? Some blame it on tradition, others on the hesitance to change. Personally, I just think most agencies haven’t had that “Aha!” moment where it just makes sense. And in reality, agencies have been built around this structure for years. It is not an immediate change that can be put in place as simply (or as painful) as an inter-office move.
The way to actually get it done may be left in the hands of the very team I’m alluding to in this post. Copywriters and Art Directors will have to take that initiative to simply invite others such as developers and experience designers to their brainstorms, and collaborate in order to come up with ideas. Or crazy enough, ask their senior creatives to switch up the team for a project or two.
It’s not that hard in theory, but then again…neither is moving a desk.
2 Comments
May 10, 2011
Hello Oscar.
I found your post very interesting because this subject is increasingly common in ad agencies: the arrival of professionals with fancy names no one knows exactly what they mean. Social media moguls, creative technologists, developers, etc. It looks like anyone with an iPad, a Twitter account and fluency in power point mumbo jumbo can get a job in advertising. To say that everyone should participate in brainstorming is a leap.
I´ve worked in an agency that did exactly what you suggested in the post. Every new assignment was the same: a lot of people from all the fields brainstorming. By the end of the day, we had nothing. Then, me and my art director had to spend another night eating pizza in the agency. Involving other guys such as developers, planners, or the media team in the beginning will not “help ideas come to life better” as you said. Simply because they are not prepared nor have the background to do this.
I think this expertise mashup works better when you already have an idea or concept on the table. Then it’s easy to come up with ideas, whether digital or not.
Create ideas that fit in any media or device is the role of any creative professional nowadays. And many have done their homework and are doing fine in the digital age. Would not be bad if this new generation of professionals – digital or not – do their homework too and study how brands were built.
Because sometimes it feels like they are just that: experts in social media,
in technology, in creating long presentations. But are they ad guys?
What do you think?
Best regards,
Rodrigo
May 10, 2011
Rodrigo,
thanks so much for your comment. I think there is a healthy middle ground between what I wrote and your opinion. I do agree with you that at times, too many people in a meeting can cause a lot of back and forth and no real answers or ideas being created.
That said, what I was getting at, is the idea of collaboration, and how it is key in fine tuning an idea or even giving a different perspective and/or viewpoint on an idea to the creatives, who at the end of the day are responsible for the creation and explanation of an idea. I believe it does help to have other groups such as the media team and developers involved with concepting to assure that the resulting idea is feasible. For example, a great idea can only be so effective if the media buy is not targeted at the correct audience.
In regards to your thought “this new generation of professionals – digital or not – do their homework too and study how brands were built.” I TOTALLY agree. Ad guys are really difficult to find. Experts of a given technology or aspect are a dime a dozen. I think my colleague Sam Bennett puts it well when we discussed this very issue. The individuals that add the most value-ad are those who are T-shaped people. In other words, have a deep knowledge on a subject but know how to use it across mediums and platforms.
thanks again for the comment!
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