What is the value of creative work?
In a nutshell:
Today’s episode of Bosses for Breakfast features Brian Cooper, who has crossed paths with some of the top agencies in London, including Mother, Dare, Wieden+Kennedy, McCann, Ogilviy, and Unilever’s own in-house agency.
Brian Cooper shares with host Jessie and listeners, how he didn’t take the traditional path into advertising, via an art college; instead, he started as an army officer and then worked as a District Supermarket Manager for Aldi. In searching for something more creative to do, Brian fell into advertising, and has been at it for nearly 25 years. Now the founder and Executive Creative Director of Mutts & Misfits, Brian shares where he sees the industry heading over the next few years.
“The best creatives are those that can become actors and step into a brand.”
Brian emphasizes how understanding brand is key to success in advertising. The best creative writers are those that can become actors and step into a brand, replicating its tone and voice. Creatives are those that have ideas, which add value to their clients. Brian illustrates how the move to digital channels has turned the entire agency landscape upside down and forced a split between value and volume. The volume work is the daily content for social media, emails, CRM, and brochures that don’t require great creatives, but simply good creatives that could be sourced locally and brought in-house or outsourced overseas. The value work requires creative thinking, understanding the brand, and ensuring consistent messaging across all channels.
new ways of working
Brian also unpacks how the two agency types require different business models, and how teams can hand off work to ensure clients the most efficient use of their budget. In addition, digital marketing hasn’t replaced traditional marketing; it’s just added more options. Agencies will need to learn to work together collaboratively in the future, in order to accommodate all the different types of work required. In the not so distant future, many companies will likely have a studio or digital asset management system for the day-to-day tasks. Agencies, then, will provide big creative thinking and an objective look at a business. There will be lots of specialists that provide value, such as brand, identity, communications advice for campaigns, how to use Alexa, etc. What clients are really looking for from value agencies is brainpower to solve their problems quickly.
Links:
- Follow Brian Cooper’s and Mutts & Misfits on Twitter: @_briancooper