What's Next: Not Going Back To Thinking Traditionally...Ever!

Alan Wolk writes a pretty good blog called "The Toad Stool". No one knew who was writing it until recently when Alan was outed. Alan used to work at DraftFCB and is now out looking for another job (no reason given in the article I read).

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/people/coming_out_party_anonymous_blogger_alan_wolk_wants_to_say_hi__85024.asp

It's a pretty decent read every once in a while, and I appreciate his perspective on how traditional creatives need to learn the digital space.

http://tangerinetoad.blogspot.com/

The AgencySpy blog interviewed Alan about his blogging life. I found his answer to this question interesting:

7. Everyone is concerned about the future of the ad biz and its slow shift toward innovating the business and its model. What do you think the biggest change is that general market agencies could make to stay at the top of the game and successfully fend off over eager PR and media agencies?

It's a tough one. As I've written, there's only so much agencies can do to change the paradigm if their clients aren't willing to play along. Agencies can say they want to get involved with things like product design and customer service training and everything in between. But clients have to be willing to pay them for those services, and all too often that's not the case: they already have a product design vendor and don't see why they should turn that role over to the people who make funny TV commercials for them.

So step one has got to be to get clients to start seeing agencies as resources for things other than banner ads. And then finding ways to get paid for those services the way the McKinseys and Bains of the world do, so we're not just focusing on specific deliverables.

Step two in that process is for agencies to bring in the sort of people who truly understand that things have changed and that it's never going back to the way it was.

Ever.

A comparison I keep coming back to, is the immigrant experience in America: there are some immigrants who realize that the old country, the old way of doing things, is permanently and forever behind them, and that it's time to become Americans and start adapting to the new culture. And their experience is a lot different than those immigrants who cling tenaciously to their old culture, who resist even learning English and spend a large portion of their time negatively comparing everything American to the way things were back home.

You've got the same thing going on in agencies now. People who were brought up in traditional advertising implement changes only to the degree necessary to stay in business, while idealizing the good old days and griping about the clear banality and uselessness of the new world they find themselves in.

And changing that mindset is not as easy as bringing in a bunch of twenty year olds, as Lee Clow

Which is not to say we need to throw craft out the window. Craft is more important than ever. It's just that we need to realize that craft is mostly about the consumer these days, and to paraphrase David Ogilvy, the consumer isn't another art director, she's your wife. Ads - in whatever form they take - don't have to be boring to be consumer friendly. In fact, just the opposite should prove true, since "what I want to hear" is never going to be a series of pre-packaged, client-dictated selling points.

I know it's a cliche and then some, but I really do feel like this is an incredible time to be in the business. So much is changing, on a daily basis, and I find it really exciting and energizing to be a part of it.

Right now, anyway.

Note the use of the word "ever". He's got that right.

Comments

[Alan Wolk]

Thanks for a "pretty good" write-up Mitch;) Glad you are enjoying the blog.
For the record, I've been "out" to most of the blogging/social media community for quite a while- announcing my name to the general ad world was something I wanted to tie in to a career shift from a timing perspective.

But glad to have you as a reader.

Reading your bio on LinkedIn, I was quite surprised to find that you worked as CMO of Y&R.

So now I have a question for you: How do you, as leader of a large traditional agency whose digital presence has been limited compared to similar large ad agencies, get clients to see your company as more than just a provider of funny TV commercials?

How do you get them to start including you in other branding projects -- everything from product design to website design? And how do you get them to pay you for things that don't necessarily involve tangible deliverables?

To me, that's the biggest problem large shops face -getting clients to see them as something more than contractors who provide a specific deliverable (TV commercial, print ad.)

Curious to hear your thoughts on that.