Answering Adam: Agencies need ideas as their engine
This week in his Answers for Adam column Adam Ferrier asked whether agencies should imitate startups. Here Nic Hodges argues agencies need to focus on their ideas, but modernise processes.
In his column this week Adam Ferrier asks “would your agency be doing better work if it put data, behavioural sciences, and technology up on pedestal along with creativity? Or is a single-minded focus on creativity still the answer?”.
Here’s a secret – nobody at a startup is sitting around caring about acting more like an advertising agency.
It wasn’t just this question that got my interest, it was the fact that the question was posed only after the now common call for agencies to act more like startups – Ferrier even asks “is it cooler to attend the Cannes Lions or tweet about the latest gadget unveiled at SXSW?”.
Terrific piece Nick.
Cue a barrage of hostile Trolls reminding me it’s “Nic”!
Nic I wasn’t asking agencies to act more like start ups?!? Cheers.
My reading of Adam’s article was two things. Are the type of creative people who used to get into advertising now getting into tech start ups instead; and are creative agencies not giving data and behavioural due respect. I didn’t read it as agencies needing to behave like start ups. If you think about it, startups with all their beanbags and ping pong tables are using agencies as their ergonomic model.
Yeah agree, i didn’t think adam was asking that, feels like your bending the narrative Nic. Could it be an exercise in confirmation bias at play?
A quote from the above article:
“Agencies don’t need to act more like startups. Agencies need to act more like modern agencies – ones that have evolved in response to new technology, tools, and thinking. Because that’s exactly what startups have done”
Ssssoooooooooooo, agencies need to act more like start-ups, yeh???
By the way it may have helped to think about what a “Start-up” is. I can tell you for free, it’s a core of skilled professionals centred about pretty much one thing – an idea.
Further, “Technology” and “Behavioural Economics” are not “vogues” at all, in any way, whatsoever. They underpin, drive, conceive, shape, constrain and develop great ideas.
All you’ve done in this article is tell Adam that he’s right.
Read. The. Article.
Sorry to rant a little but I feel I need to say the obvious here, as I’d like Mumbrellla to lift some standards a little pre-publishing, because I really like the engaging blog format. It’s shame when our time is wasted with rubbish.
In my brief stint an ad agency (having always worked in digital, on the client side) one thing the GM said stuck — that it’s not so much the about the channel, but the awesome idea. Something like that.
Nic’s response gets an A for creativity.
Nic is right…ideas solve problems and everything in-between.The challenge is to find the root cause and then create a solution that is completely neutral…a bigger cap (Colgate); A bridge in Singapore; An algorithm….not default to an ad.