Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Foreign Correspondents wanted
I'm looking at creating a network of planners or planning-like people around the world. I want to make this thing to be inherently interesting, like having a (media) story attached to it. If you think you might be interested in being part of it, please ping me. Cheers
Unimaginative Inc
At a Campaign lunch recently, the great and the good (or at least those who paid for the privilege of being there) planners from a selection of agencies met to discuss the subject and future of Integration.
Probably a timely discussion as maybe five years ago, integration was a synonym for a DM agency aspiring to make the odd TV ad. These days, it seems there is a plethora of media agnostic / channel neutral / integrated agencies around every corner of Noho or Clerkenwell. And most of them are pretty good.
The thing that struck me though was the utter and slightly terrifying lack of imagination of almost every person present. Which wouldn't be too bad if they weren't so smug about it.
The network dudes seemed to have this eureka moment that in order to respond to the new world (of social media etc) integration means removing P&L's so they could give the client one bottom line and use different companies within the group. Which is fine except this was happening 20 years ago, and I can't believe they haven't figured it out yet (or maybe it's just a new generation figuring out for themselves). And it's fine except the different companies will still compete internally for a lion's share of the pie. Call me cynical, but it's true.
Even digital agencies seem to think that integration means doing the odd press ad now and then. That's an echo of the DM agency plea from five years back. And a signifier that they're ultimately doomed unless they can get get up the food chains (and out of a low cost supplier role) very quickly.
I could count on two fingers the agencies that had something fresh to say, albeit quietly and with some puzzled looks from around the table.
Why do we need a chief gaming officer or a head of entertainment? Because that's the sort of stuff we do. And we also don't need these people on payroll, or even in the building. Integration means building "cabals" of great talent, the people we need to deliver something interesting. We don't have to worry about removing P&L's because we only have one. We don't have to worry about the size of our slice of pie because if we get each thing right, there will be more pies than we can eat.
That's the new world.
Probably a timely discussion as maybe five years ago, integration was a synonym for a DM agency aspiring to make the odd TV ad. These days, it seems there is a plethora of media agnostic / channel neutral / integrated agencies around every corner of Noho or Clerkenwell. And most of them are pretty good.
The thing that struck me though was the utter and slightly terrifying lack of imagination of almost every person present. Which wouldn't be too bad if they weren't so smug about it.
The network dudes seemed to have this eureka moment that in order to respond to the new world (of social media etc) integration means removing P&L's so they could give the client one bottom line and use different companies within the group. Which is fine except this was happening 20 years ago, and I can't believe they haven't figured it out yet (or maybe it's just a new generation figuring out for themselves). And it's fine except the different companies will still compete internally for a lion's share of the pie. Call me cynical, but it's true.
Even digital agencies seem to think that integration means doing the odd press ad now and then. That's an echo of the DM agency plea from five years back. And a signifier that they're ultimately doomed unless they can get get up the food chains (and out of a low cost supplier role) very quickly.
I could count on two fingers the agencies that had something fresh to say, albeit quietly and with some puzzled looks from around the table.
Why do we need a chief gaming officer or a head of entertainment? Because that's the sort of stuff we do. And we also don't need these people on payroll, or even in the building. Integration means building "cabals" of great talent, the people we need to deliver something interesting. We don't have to worry about removing P&L's because we only have one. We don't have to worry about the size of our slice of pie because if we get each thing right, there will be more pies than we can eat.
That's the new world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)