One thing I absolutely detest is when I meet people who think a particular media channel can solve all the [business] problems in the World.
Most of them don’t acknowledge the power/value of any other medium … they just say DM / Digital / TV / Cinema / Promo / Poster / Newspaper / etc [delete where appropriate] is the answer to everything, including cancer, peace on Earth and getting laid more often.
What is really bugging me at the moment is when ad agencies go on and on and on about digital.
Don’t get me wrong, I think digital is fucking brilliant but the bit that bothers me is that the agencies rarely talk about the importance of content, they just imply that if you use digital, everything will be brilliant.
The importance of content/creativity is being more and more sidelined and so in an attempt to name and shame, I wrote this letter to Media Magazine [Asia’s Campaign]
I read Shelly Lazarus comment about User Generated Content with interest … not just because I agree this “phenomenon” is the work of the few rather than the masses… but because she said if agencies weren’t better at content than the consumer, then we’d all be out of business.
The thing is, I believe alot of people who embark on content creation ARE already better than many in adland … and if we [the marketing and advertising community] continue to pay lip-service to the importance of creativity, then we might as well pack up our bags and go home.
OK, I am being very dramatic – not to mention generalistic – and I do appreciate it is [probably] easier to create content that only has to ‘entertain’ rather than motivate people to ‘do stuff’ … however I can’t help but feel alot of the industry is out of touch given many still call the internet ‘new media’ and we continue to keep planning and creative awards as separate entities – when in reality, you shouldn’t be able to have one without the other.
Despite ever changing times, the ‘rules’ of great communication are still pretty much what they’ve always been … and yet many in our industry seem to now regard ‘where you say stuff’ as being far more important than ‘what you say’ and ‘how you say it’ . This is not to underestimate the importance or value of channel choice … far from it … but by the same token, we shouldn’t underestimate the importance and value of great creativity as well.
While user generated content may be produced by a relatively small amount of people … it’s popularity is fuelled by the masses … so I hope the industry realises we cannot treat content with such frivolity because society is indicating they won’t put up with crap ads and now have the power to not only avoid them, but show us how it should be done.
No doubt in the next edition I’ll be slagged off by CEO’s and Media Directors but if they read my letter carefully, they’ll see I’m not slagging them off, I’m just trying to remind people what this industry is great at – or at least used to be.
This separation between media, planning and creativity is killing us … but given so many communication disciplines are now their own profit centres [obsessed with maximising their own profitability] … the situation is unlikely to change before it gets too late.
I can totally understand why it happened … and I can see why media companies are so happy it did [given so many were treated badly by many in the creative community] … but this practice is ultimately screwing the longterm value of our industry, and if certain individuals/disciplines continue to ignore the mutual benefit/power of working together, then our ability to reach/influence the consumer will be long gone and so will our ability to make a living.
Can you tell I’m pissed off at the moment? Ha!