I had two meetings yesterday at one of the world’s largest ad agencies. (Hint: Its name is 3 letters.) Not only is this agency doing good, effective work but it has a better than average track record of integrating digital and traditional media. The meetings were with an analytics director and a creative director.
Analytics
The analytics guy was inspiring and convincing and made a great case for plotting marketing success through data. Evidence-based analysis, he said, grounds marketing in reality, not sales BS. If the data informs the creative then the brand can work toward one or many measurable goals. This gentleman wasn’t being paid by the teraflop, he cared about selling product.
Creative
My other meeting was with a creative director. “Creative is pretty poor today” he offered. “It’s all the same. Not much stands out. Too much rational thought. People buy based upon emotion. People are emotional. Did you get married based on a rational decision or an emotional one?” This gentleman didn’t obsess about creative awards, he cared about selling product.
So both care about selling product — that’s why this is a good shop — yet these two guys will never meet. Typically they connect via an account planner who writes the brief. The account planner is a little right brain, a little left brain. Good planners act as mediators between these two disciplines. Great planners act as conduits. Brilliant planners find ways to bring them together and help them see the brand through a single set of eyes. Heavy lifting indeed. Peace!