Drawing the line?

For a few years now we’ve all been programmed to cross the line. Many an agency’s proposition is based on integrating through the line, or in erasing it from their thinking entirely.

I’d like to see if we should put the line back, but in a surprising new way.

We all know how the agency world has changed in the past few years – this argument is based on looking at a ‘perfect storm’ of these trends.

It’s a freelance world. More agencies are more reliant on freelance creative than ever. Teams get exposure to all sorts of different environments and briefs that keep them fresh. Agencies get an influx of new thinking, shared experience of others ways of doing things, and solution neutral creativity. The concept of ‘line’ is still referred to openly and often - but usually in spite of any given agency’s freelance-driven creative capability.

Media fragmentation. Although people are consuming more media than ever, they are doing so through more channels, with more screening mechanisms and with more simultaneous channel consumption than ever before. In response, we see the rise of ‘lean towards’ media (to borrow Will Awdry’s lovely term for it) – channels that encourage people to participate and interact, to co-create and navigate on their own terms.

The masses or the few. Digital is growing gangbusters at the moment and traditional DM shops are turning traditional DM budgets through digital channels. After all, why build and maintain relationships among a small group expensively when you can reach a large group inexpensively.

Ideas are different now. Sure there are plenty of your bog-standard campaigns kicking around, but there are also wildly experiential campaigns that tie together multiple channels in fresh ways and involve the consumer in the act of communication. And if they are good enough, our new breed of ideas are capable of engaging millions, not just niche high-value segments. Ad agencies talk about amplification – of broadcasting entertaining ideas to millions, but now, savvy agencies of all denominations can ‘activate’ ideas to broad consumer groups.

So what do we have in our ‘perfect storm’? Every agency can do everything. The media landscape has skewed from passive receptive to ‘lean towards’. Ideas are activated, not amplified. Smart multi-channel experiential campaigns can engage the many, not just the few.

So where do we draw the ‘line’?

Well, I’d argue that the skill sets of the agencies we used to call below-the-line are actually better suited to weather this perfect storm than their above-the-line counterparts.

What do you think?