Op-Ed
Do Big Ideas Still Matter? Yes.
July 20, 2009, 02:37 PM
In the age of digital and social media, and in the age of realtime marketing, what matters more? The big idea or the smaller idea and execution?
Many digital agencies have been experimenting with new ways of working to try to get at those ideas and executions that a traditional agency couldn’t dream of. I was working at Organic when we rolled out the “Three Minds” initiative, meaning that for every brainstorm, we needed to have at least three people from three disciplines in the room. This is similar to what Big Spaceship has been trying to do by throwing together teams of creatives, strategists, technologists and production.
Digital agencies think that this is a point of differentiation. They think that online, social and viral are so complex that they need all this brainpower to figure it out. What ends up happening when you put a technologist and/or producer into a room with creatives? Executions. It’s a natural and inevitable thing. And I believe it’s a distraction from getting to a better and bigger idea.
I believe that when you add in people whose jobs are to make things (technologists build, producers produce, etc.) too early in the creative process, before the idea is baked, you shortchange the idea. The idea becomes smaller and less compelling.
Creative teams go there all the time too. Too often do I hear an art director or copywriter say “OK, so the idea is a game within a banner.” No. That’s not the idea. That’s an execution. What’s the idea?
People may argue that the mass audience doesn’t care about the idea; all people will remember is the commercial, billboard or Facebook app (no one remembers banners). I disagree. People remember the campaign which was essentially that story dreamt up one late night in a conference room by a creative partnership.
In the traditional advertising agency model, the two-person copywriter and art director partnership is designed to tell stories. The idea isn’t a TV spot, a print ad or a billboard. The idea isn’t a banner, a microsite or a Facebook app. The idea is a story. It’s a story with a hook, that draws people in, makes them feel something and act on that. And as humans, we love stories.
I believe that for digital agencies to compete with the traditional ones, they need to be better at developing compelling ideas. A big traditional shop can always farm out a digital execution, but digital agencies can’t farm out the idea generation.
Comments
Kate said:
Good point! Yes. Big ideas matter. In fact, they matter so much that everyone in a marketing organization-not just creatives-should be capable of looking beyond their discipline-specific responsibilities to come up with big ideas and recognize them when they see them. I believe wholeheartedly in creative partnerships, but when it comes to finding the most compelling story, I don’t think the partners have to be a copywriter and an art director.
July 20, 2009, 4:36 PM
hinsonian said:
i agree to the rafters about the idea being a NECESSITY to properly sell any execution. without context, you have no association, no cultural impact, no lasting quality whatsoever. i do not agree with the supposition that techs, devs, and prods cannot be integrated into the creative process. i feel this kind of collaboration provides insight into the manners of presentation, that is, “the message is the medium” shouldn’t be ignored——with one HUGE caveat. Creative must always lead the discussion and have final say in the outcome of the ideation process. and for those things that seem “impossible” to the left-brained… at least they’ll have time to contemplate the solution, opposed to being crunched in the end with an idea they’ve never seen.
July 20, 2009, 4:58 PM
Roger Wong said:
Tim, thanks for the comment. I do agree that non-creatives should be part of the process, I’m just saying not too early in that process. I also agree with Kate’s comment that the whole organization needs to be geared towards generating ideas and telling stories. Otherwise, it could be counterproductive.
July 20, 2009, 9:08 PM
eded said:
Sorry man, the link you posted to http://www.bigspaceship.com doesn’t work for me… Maybe it’s just a problem of my corporate proxy but anyways maybe there is an alternative one? Thanks in advance
November 15, 2009, 4:12 AM
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I disagree. The developers in my company have created tools for our SEO work which are on the website and are used as examples of what we can do, as well as live tools which potential clients can use. The only digital service we don’t offer though is Copywriting!
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