THE STATE OF ADLANDIA
At its zenith, the Mongol Empire stretched as one mass from the Yellow to the Black Sea, occupying the largest contiguous land empire in history, with no borders separating one nation from the next. But, as is the case with all empires, infighting between stakeholders led to lines being drawn in the sand, which eventually eroded into national borders. As centuries passed, these borders would move to the left, to the right and would sometimes disappear entirely, only to reappear later in a slightly different shape.
Adland, and all the players that make up its terrain, is not dissimilar in this regard as the clear borders that were once etched into this world have tended to shift over the last few decades.
Media agencies, for instance, have gone from being annexed, to becoming creative shops, to functioning independently, to (in some cases) being colonised and integrated back into the fullservice model.
Along the way, smaller digital tribes have also assembled, lassoing their mouse cables around clients’ necks and pulling them into their high-ceilinged, highly gentrified huts.
Further afield, we’ve also seen the slow and steady mobilisation of an international fleet that comes bearing gifts that seem a little too good to be true (kind of like those blankets the English liked to distribute).
And within the empire, we’ve seen a growing uprising among women and their diverse allies, who think the time has come to strike down the ivory tower of white male dominance.
The point is that the industry is in a continuous state of flux, with each of the disciplines transforming almost as quickly as the desert dunes on a windy night. But while our hyperbolic tendencies like to suggest that things are changing “faster than ever before,” advertising has always moved forward to stay relevant, taking on a slightly different appearance with each step along the way.
So in much the same way that the DNA of great Mongol ruler Genghis Kahn is by some estimates traceable to around eight million modern people, the industry will continue to have babies which, with every passing generation, will occupy a slightly different landscape.
CREATIVE MORE THEN WORDS
What we call things matters. And a descriptor we don’t use that often anymore is ‘advertising agency’. Perhaps considered old fashioned or restrictive, the phrase has been discarded alongside Don Draper’s tie and replaced with quirky alternatives, such as “brand architects,” “business humanisers” or, the more conventional, “creative agency”.
WHILE THIS could be written off as inconsequential semantics, FCB head of strategy David Thomason believes it underpins an uncertainty plaguing the industry.
“[Advertising agency] seemed too limiting when the internet arrived,” Thomason says. “So, rather than simply promote our expanded scope, one that included new technology and channels, we tried to drop the ‘advertising’ bit. We became embarrassed by the word.”
‘Creative agency’, argues Thomason, was a convenient phrase invented to convince clients that ad folk don’t just make ads while simultaneously separating what they do from other disciplines.
“We’ve been trying to chop our industry up into separate pieces when instead we should do the opposite and adapt in line with what’s happened in our audiences’ world…Unfortunately, the term ‘creative agency’ suggests walls have been built at a time we should be tearing them down.”
Another issue with identifying as a ‘creative agency’ is that it lends itself to the old notion of advertising as the colouring-in department, rather than something essential to the bottom line.
In this context, Colenso BBDO creative chairman Nick Worthington believes it has become more important than ever for agencies to use creativity to unravel business problems.
“A lot of people still think creative companies do the surface graphics, the glitz on top, but in reality the best clients in the world are working with the best creative companies in the world to innovate products, services, utilities and to also use their communication, copywriting and art skills to take those ideas to the world,” Worthington says.
“It’s about getting beyond advertising and communications. Understanding a client’s purpose and the things getting in the way of them achieving that purpose is a great place to start, and then we can apply the best creative minds to solving those problems.”
However, to do this requires access to the best creative minds, and with global tech juggernauts and up-and-comers luring Kiwi creatives into their nurturing bosom, there’s no guarantee that the nation’s agencies will be able to hold onto the
