When I was working in an ad agency as a media person, the Creative Director, the Strategic Planning Director, and the Business Director were the stewards of the big idea - we (the media people who get briefed at the last minute to come up with a media plan in 24hours with a budget of 1Mln USD to deliver 1'400GRPs on TV, 2'000GRPs in Radio, and the rest on some highfalutin print title that the Marketing Director reads every single month) were supposedly the 'dirty workers' who will bring this idea to life.
And we had to do it in 24 hours.
In Seth's Meatball Mondae 11 he writes how big ideas are changing and how big ideas are no longer just the remit of the advertising people.
Big ideas in advertising worked great when advertising was in charge. With a limited amount of spectrum and a lot of hungry consumers, the stage was set to put on a show. And the better the show, the bigger the punchline, the more profit could be made.
Today, the advertiser’s big idea doesn’t travel very well. Instead, the idea must be embedded into the experience of the product itself. Once again, what we used to think of as advertising or marketing is pushed deeper into the organization. Let the brilliant ad guys hang out with your R&D team and watch what happens.
Yes, there are big ideas. They’re just not advertising-based.
Totally agree. Now if only we can get the advertising guys to believe in this and totally take this to heart. I wrote about the views of the CEO of some big companies about how media agencies cannot - "in a lifetime" - connect with consumers.
I think they ought to read this - more than ever.
