Mar 07
19
Creative Talent – Inside and Outside the box
An interesting article on Hybrid creatives (comfortable in both online and offline) worlds from Media Post has me thinking.
There should be no question that event today most large advertising agency creative departments have a serious bias towards TV, Print, Outdoor, and other mass media. This is how the specialist interactive shops grew and thrived. The talent that is hired in traditional agencies tends to re-enforce the bias. Separating CRM and interactive divisions from the main agency hasn’t helped either. There should also be no question that there is renewed appetite all over the marketing space for online and digital marketing. The question is has the creative talent evolved to be able to embrace both worlds yet? People who are as comfortable creating ad content for viewing on YouTube as on ESPN, writing a blog post or print ad copy, planning out a podcast as easily as a radio spot. The simple answer is no, or at least I haven’t met any of them yet.
What I see is that creative has become several separate disciplines. As I see it there are at least two different types of creativity in marketing. Now I don’t expect to make any friends in the creative department by saying this, but I have found most traditional creative people are “inside the box” thinkers – meaning that if they are briefed on a 30 second spot, skyscraper online ad, or need to fill a double-page spread with content they can do it more or less satisfactorily and sometimes brilliantly. There is another kind of creativity, which uses the fabric of media itself as a canvas.
This type of creativity recognizes that we are now living in media environment with a lot less boundaries. Want to create a 90 minute feature advertisement? You can (but it better be good). Want to create your own brand TV channel filled with content relevant to your audience? You can. Want to create completely unique experiences and treat every single customer as a discreet individual? You can do that too. However it takes a different kind of creative mind to plan it, sell it, put it together and make it work. It also requires a long-term commitment to the brand rather than the standard “in and out” campaign focus.
Can the limitless boundaries and constant evolution of the online world can be taught to traditional creative people? They need to be comfortable working in a world where creative territory is often virgin territory. I don’t think it can be taught, because the only people I find who really get it are self-taught and drawn to new media and the new marketing that comes with it because of their very nature. So it is much more of a mindset than experience or knowledge. A mindset that sees new possibilities every time technology advances or the rules change.
I suppose there will always be multitudes who feel buffeted by the seemingly random changes that come at us every day as communicators. There are also many who resist and believe that nothing is changing. I prefer to work and hang with the few who enjoy tinkering and teasing the meaning out of the apparent technologically-induced chaos.
[tags] advertising, agencies, newmarketing, creative, creativity, mediapost[/tags]