Day #2: Working with the "Traditionals"

Joseph Jaffe: Welcome back all. Yesterday we discussed online’s arrival as a major creative force in the greater integrated picture. Today, I want to follow up with a challenge... if what you say is true -- i.e., online is producing better work and demands more skill (let's say) -- then why is the industry so preoccupied in reaching the traditional creative director and getting the traditional community in general to buy in to the space? Or, if you agree with this strategy, let's talk about why you think it’s a good approach.

Mike Yapp: I'm not sure the industry is trying to reach the traditional creative director.

From what I am experiencing, traditional agencies as well as traditional creative directors have seen the handwriting on the wall:

• Clients want to see accountable work
• The interactive space is the most progressive media for communicating to an audience
• The interactive space is also the most forward-thinking; people in both media and creative are exploring the capabilities of the space.

If the "traditional creative director" (kind of an oxymoron isn't it?) is not taking into account the interactive space, then he or she is doing their client a disservice and limiting their own creative growth.

But really, I don't think this is happening. Clearly, traditional agencies seem to be embracing the interactive space with a vengeance, as integration becomes more the rule rather than the exception.

Scott Witt: With few notable exceptions, online creative was never about original concepts. Rather, it was about animated repurposing of another agency's work. How long can one stay inspired when resizing another team's concepts day in and day out? 

Courting the traditional creative directors are our ticket to a product renaissance online: it's the confluence of hard and soft skills -- technical vs. technique. Perspective and prowess in the old is the only way to improve upon the new.

Mark Silva: The industry needs to court, educate and inspire traditional shops, so that when the consumer planning and budget process gets around to interactive there we get enough money and strategic extensibility to deliver relevant truths at a meaningful level.

Traditional agencies are still the keepers of strategy and heaviest influencers of budgets, although we are seeing some cracks in this fortress. When traditional agency creatives have heart for a medium or channel, the money follows.

Money aside for a moment, traditional agencies also bring a perspective liberated from the "prove-it" standard to which interactive is often held. I've said for ten years that when hired, traditional agencies usually have the charter: "let's do kick-ass creative."

With emerging categories like interactive, the first dozen discussions are about how the channel works. That no-holds/limits perspective alone allows for risk-taking, rule-breaking and innovation: the perfect storm for creativity.

Joseph Jaffe: I think it’s true that everyone *wants* to do great creative, but often times something gets lost in translation. Tomorrow we’ll take this to the horses’ mouths so to speak by giving props to the individuals and organizations who are rewriting the rules even as we speak.

Joseph Jaffe acts as Editor-at-Large for iMedia Communications. He is President & Founder of jaffe, L.L.C. http://www.getthejuice.com/, a new marketing consulting practice. His book “Life after the 30-second spot” will be released on May 27th (Wiley/Adweek).