A few years ago I was working in a creative agency and found myself in the odd position of working to the lead agency strategy, set by the media folks.
The same media folks had just appointed a creative director. Now it was, of course, a little difficult to compete over the creative work, but at least they were taking the creative work seriously. They had spent enough time working with good partners to know what to look for.
It's not like that now. I've found that media agencies don't worry too much about doing creative work, because they don't believe it's really relevant. It's about precision targeting or maximum relevance. There's plenty of innovation, but it tends to be based on tech or partnerships.
That said, when I was working in a media agency, it used to send me into orbit when the creative folks tried to recommend the core channels (usually TV, or at least AV, they still love making telly).
Then there's loads of creative agencies trying to do best in class digital and digital folks trying to make great above the line.
Then we come to PR.
Much of core PR got taken in house a while back, so PR folks carved out a fee for managing social. Then Facebook changed the algorithm and they finally had to admit organic social is really brands talking to themselves. So they're attempting the lead agency creative thing. Now it's fair to say that creative folks think PR is easy, just make great creative that will get talked about - when of course, you need a PR instinct to know what will get picked up.
But great creative work isn't easy either, any more than media is easy, digital marketing is easy or even getting a journalist to publish your story.
It takes years to learn the craft to develop that instinct for what will really work. You can't just start 'doing TV ads' just as you can't start writing press releases. It's not good by the way getting great people who have the skills into organisations of a different flavour, they'll end up frustrated when no one else really gets their work.
The job has never been harder, as people get better at ignoring brands, the work we do has to be BETTER than ever. Everyone has their part to play and they need to be right at the top of their game.
Understanding what you're good at and focusing on that would be a start, and respecting people who can do what you can't.
Comments