Under the Digital Influence
There are lots of debates on the relative merits of traditional vs digital agencies. Mostly crediting digital for creative innovation and traditional for creating high-level campaigns.*
And working at a digital agency, I follow those debates with my own horse in the race. But what I’ve missed is how the different ways we work produce different kinds of creative. Or even if it does.
So, the medium influences the message… does digital media influence a digital agency’s message?
I think so, and here are a couple of ways it happens.
Rapid Evolution
First, the speedy evolution of digital tech causes corresponding changes in behavior. Twitter and Facebook really got going only about 3 or 4 years ago. But doesn’t it feel natural today to tweet dinner plans to your Facebook status?
Part of the digital creative process involves heavy, steady use of these new bits of digital culture so that we undergo that change in behavior ourselves. Another part is finding the people in-house who are already on top of something new. You know who’s already using Beluga. Who’s got the latest jailbreak. That kind of thing.
Big Teams
Speaking of those in-house people, in digital, many new disciplines work together. Writers, designers, creative directors, and planners are joined by front- and back-end developers, user experience, and SEO experts. And even traditional roles can take on weird new aspects, like when media is more about the social web than TV buys.
The downside? That’s a lot of people at the table. Managing all those voices can be challenging.
But, on the bright side, it opens up the creative process to ideas from new and surprising places: like a new interface concept from UX. Or a new way to deliver content from the tech team. Ideas that can only come from people with the right kinds of technical expertise.
Immediacy
Digital is usually about connecting people more closely. And people have come to expect that brands in the digital world will behave more like their friends, rather than as an impersonal corporate giant.
That means immediacy. If you’re on Twitter, you need to respond when people call you out. If you launch an app, you have to be ready to deliver regular updates that react to user feedback. If you’re making mobile websites, they better work on the devices your customers use.
And there’s not always time to wait until the CMO gets back from vacation. Digital works best when the agency has a little more freedom to maneuver, to stay connected to their audiences.
Or is it all that different, really?
This distinction between trad and digital disappears the more digital culture becomes mainstream. If you live it and work it, it changes your behavior just like anyone else’s.
So is there really a difference? Or are there other, more important differences between the two? School me, please. Please talk about your creative experiences in different types of creative agencies.
*Like here. And here (PDF). And here, too.
