Should Media and Creative Come Back Together?
In the 1986 horror classic remake “The Fly,” Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) accidentally transforms into a tragic, man-insect creature that he calls “Brundlefly.” It’s difficult for me not to think of “the great re-bundling debate” without thinking about that movie, and how we’re doomed to rehash the pros and cons of media/creative bundling until we die.
I think Noah Brier, a “strategist” with Naked Communications, was right when he said “just wait 5 years,” because that’s the cycle agencies seem to be on when they either bundle or unbundle media. We are currently experiencing a massive re-bundling, led by Interpublic Group, DraftFCB and Universal McCann to name a few. Noah gave us this history of unbundling: “Media agencies were getting tired of getting pushed around and decided to take their expertise (and money) elsewhere.”
I’m not sure but I think the first unbundling scenario more likely followed this logic: bundled-agency wanted to pitch a large media-only client, but bundled-agency’s other client objected because they competed with the media-only client. Bundled-agency then unbundled their media capability so they could win more business. This was the beginning of the infamous “firewall,” which allows agencies to manage competitive clients while still channeling their profit to one bank account. This phenomenon is also known as “the holding company.” Since clients have accepted this scenario, it is no longer ironic.
Paul Woolmington, a founding partner of Naked Communications, discussed the current pursuit of “integration” as the goal behind the latest trend. Both Noah and Paul were very honest when they revealed how many agencies (large and small) use contract interactive talent to service their client’s accounts today, so even in a world trending toward media rebundling, the creative work will continue to be farmed-out.
The audience participation in this session was insightful, as one person, Carolyn Potts from Carolyn Potts & Associates said “brilliant creative refuses to be bundled for very long.” How true. Another person asked why so many $100M-$400M size companies do so well without hiring ad agencies. Paul explained that some companies just don’t need them. Look at Google and “start selling your stock if they ever hire an ad agency!”
Nearing the end, Paul and Noah reflected on the changing nature of ad agencies, noting that Google, MSN and other “non-traditional” agencies were being created.
