The credo of Account Planning Group is Championing in creative excellence sounds vague, but the task of the planner has always been rooted in guarding creativity from bad stuff (like client research). And while this is still relevant in many ways, the pressures AND opportunities for delivering relevant creativity has never been greater.
The most efficient solution for advertising agencies to adapt to a changing macro environment has always been to remodel and reinvent itself. But is this survival strategy the best one today when communication trends have a lifespan of 12 months? I'm not sure. Reinventing an advertising agency takes lots of time, and time is money.
I don't have the solution, but I'm not sure the future of the advertising agency lies in capitalising on specific expertise/resources to gain short-run competitive advantages. Rather, it may lie in the capability to deliver creative thinking over the long-term.
At an extreme this would mean that the things we call planning tools are pretty useless for getting ahead (not per se, tools are still good for efficiency). Instead of being focussed on WHAT ideal are going to achieve, planning would in this alternative reality be focussed on HOW we will achieve our ideals.
Just a thought.
Footnote: planning guru Russell Davies wrote a piece on The Planning Lab about the greatest planning challenge not being brands but organisations here.
November 15th, 2009 at 23:30
Great!
I have been thinking a lot about this lately. If the process is not there it is impossible for output to be any good. And most of the time it is the organization/process that can make a change that leads to something great. And how we can sustain the greatness.
August 23rd, 2010 at 18:25
The barriers are being broken down with every passing moment…….I think the future lies in creative (copywriters, even visualisers/art directors) people decidedly going out of their way to expand their competencies/skill sets, which would incorporate a fundamental understanding of strategy i.e. the background to the client’s business, competitive insights, the communication objectives etc….i believe the days are gone wherein advertising was limited to headlines, print ads, storyboards et al…………….brands require creative business solutions that are by no means limited to traditional advertising!
If we are to engender a culture of ‘better creativity’, every single person within the agency must see the BIG picture….not just the planners……..the way I see it, the agency of the future will incorporate the intellectual rigor of say, an Accenture or Harvard Business School, the highly conceptual creativity of a TBWA and essentially, the integrity that’d be expected of a Deloitte, all of these rolled up into an ideas powerhouse that is a true creative business solutions provider in every sense.
Tomi Ogunlesi, Strategic Planner, Bates Cosse, Lagos
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