iMedia: The Role of Execution in the Idea Process

So, I started in offline, where Creatives were Creatives and the rest of us were supposedly expendable pawns. And Media in particular was considered the land of grunts. What mattered was the precious idea, not the means of delivering it. The delivery was considered commodity.

So I am struck at this session by the ascendancy of Media people in the strategic processes of agencies. I am also struck by the incredible range in strategic abilities of Media people who are thrust into such roles. Naturally in digital, media and creative are not distinct entities but rather blurred together into a single idea generation machine. ANd you can talk to people for about 60 seconds and see whether they are up to the challenge.

Those that are are amazing. Those that aren't are like the thousands of adguys and adgals that have gone before them in the old world. Which is to say that such people can play vital, essential roles in the organization, but not as strategic leaders.

But it also got me thinking about how the nature of ideas has evolved, from what I would call a "concept" to a combination of "theme" and "execution."

And it also brings forward the idea of the vast divide between the skill sets of digital versus linear creatives. Over the past ten or so years in digital, I have been struck but how few people in creative departments of digital agencies were idea folks. Rather, they were experts in executional areas. I also think this is true in Media and other functions of digital agencies.

But before you think I am ragging on digifolks, the situation is even More stark in linear shops, where so many people are either unwilling or unable to see the change around them and adapt.

A couple of digital creatives that I've worked with that really seem to have the whole egg are Mike Yapp at Carat and Jason Bucky at Real Branding. I single them out because they both have a strong sense of what is a real, extendable, long lasting idea, AS WELL AS the incredible and always expanding set of ways that ideas can be brought to interactive life online.

It's the latter part that is missing in so many linear creatives today, and it requires a comprehensive effort to stay abreast of developments. Which may be inconsistent with the rather leisurely lives offline creatives lead versus their digital brethren. To be digital is to be engaged in the biz 24/7. For better or for worse, that's what it takes. And if you don't engage, you're like a brotosaurus confronting the onslaught of the glaciers.

Wow, I am feeling snarky this afternoon!