When I was ECD of Leo Burnett some years ago I wrote an ad for the agency with the headline ‘Is your agency jumping on the brand wagon’?
One of the points I tried to make is that agencies had the creative thinking and talent to offer more than ads. Around the same time I wrote a letter to Campaign after a seminar headed ‘Ideas beyond advertising’ suggesting that perhaps it should have been ‘Ideas before advertising’.
The main problem was that while agencies could offer that advice, clients wouldn’t pay them for it. So they didn’t offer it.
This was compounded by the fact that creative agencies tended to be fixated on awards, and that meant TV, and in those days, press and posters because they were the way to build a reputation.
The point of raising this now is that the creative people in advertising (and I mean in any department) still have a lot to offer. Ideas.
How those ideas are delivered may be different from the kind of work we did back then – not just what, but how and where – but surely it is not the end.
But I understand many people are leaving the business and fewer are coming in.
Why? There have always been clients and their agencies who never cared about the value of good ideas. Agencies run by account management.
The worry is that AI might make this worse. But there are creative people like Graham Fink who are embracing AI as a new creative tool, not just a quick solution, a speeded up direct marketing method where the value of campaigns is neglected.
For the moment, AI lacks judgement. As Picasso is supposed to have said, computers only give you answers. So what are the questions? A computer can now beat the best chess player in the world but it does not know it is playing chess, nor enjoy playing it.
Creative advertising needs people to ask the questions. AI can help but any solution will need human creative judgement and direction. There are many opportunities.
The talent is there. Don’t give up.
