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Be The Next Bandwagon

Economic hard times have, historically, helped spark interesting developments, and surges in creativity in popular culture.  It makes sense that pianos sold well during the Great Depression -- people need something entertaining to get their minds, if even for a moment, off the harsh realities.  British punk emerged from a trashed UK economy.  There are more examples, but in the interest of (relative) brevity, I'll ask you to do the reading on your own.  It happens. 

In my own little simplistic theory of why it happens, in part, I think it's because the armor protecting the business of popular culture develops serious chinks in a harsh downturn.  People spend less on big-name concerts, budgets get cut for bigger productions, established artists and galleries sell fewer paintings etc. -- and it opens up a hole for more experimental, underground, and emerging artists to slip into the public eye.  They become visible because of economic realities (they're cheaper) and the public soon discovers that they like what they see, if for no other reason than it's not the same old crap they're used to seeing.  On top of that, I think the emerging artists speak (sing/paint/shoot/whatever) with a voice that's closer to home for most listeners, especially when both performer and listener are suffering the same harsh realities.  It's gotta be hard to write songs about everyman's trials and tribulations in the workin' world from a balcony overlooking Malibu.  Underground artists don't have that hurdle to overcome.

Interestingly, the Long Tail nature of the web has had exactly the same effect on emerging artists.  They can get exposure -- sometimes, even fame -- based upon the aesthetic they create, period.  There are no real gatekeepers to hand pick and package "all the things that fit in this set." We've already seen cultural and aesthetic shifts in broader contexts, based upon stuff that not only first came to light on the web, but on stuff that is wholly in and of the web.  The thing is, I think we ain't seen nothin' yet.

We're about to witness the coupling of the democratic creativity of the web with a seriously tanked economy.  We've never seen that before.  But from where I sit, I see two things that have already proven potential to seriously shift and explode creativity in our culture, combining.  There's a mushroom cloud building on the horizon.

So, what does that mean for ad agencies?  A few things, I think:

1. Watch out for new bandwagons.  Agencies are notorious bandwagon jumpers.  Always have been.  While most agencies like to think they have a hand in creating popular culture, I think we have to be honest with ourselves and admit that, in this case, we're full of dung.  What we do, really, is spread popular culture that has already been created by jumping onto the newest, greatest bandwagon of style, and riding as far as we possibly can on behalf of our clients' brands.  We do that very, very well, though -- and the very best of us are adept at spotting those bandwagons coming from afar, jumping on early (before any other brands get there) and riding in the front seat.  Agencies already keep an eye on the fringe.  There's soon going to be much more to keep an eye on, coming from directions you won't expect.  Smart agencies will be ready. Even smarter agencies, though, will read on:

2. Understand that you're not the only one who can do that.  Really, where you've got your eye right now, is on your numbers.  Probably, at this point, both eyes.  And that can create myopic vision.  If you're looking solely at hours and utility to determine the success of your agency through the downturn, you have just labeled everything you do a commodity, and it will be valued as such.  The single most important (and possibly the only) differentiator we as agencies bring to the party is our creative contribution to marketing messages.  I don't mean just our creative product -- I mean our ability to out-think the other guy, regardless of agency discipline.  That this differentiator shows up most often in the creative product is simply a statement about the nature of that product.  But creativity, in any form, is your greatest weapon.  It's the only thing you have that can't be duplicated exactly.  Commoditize that, and you're in the same boat with everyone else.  Limit it for use only with existing clients, and you miss the opportunity to use your greatest weapon to emerge from the downturn first and best.  Cut it loose to improve the bottom line, and you have created a formidable competitor.  Technology has already established the fact that two guys in a garage can compete with much larger organizations by simply out-thinking them. The tools needed to produce what we produce are now in everyone's hands.  But now, current economics have actually given those guys in the garage an edge -- they don't cost as much as we do.  And they have less to lose.

3. Actually invent something.  Be the Bandwagon.  Technology, in the form of cheap HD, laptops with Final Cut, 10 Megapixel cameras in phones, etc., etc, -- combined with almost free distribution via the web -- has completely democratized production. That has sparked creativity.  Economic downturn, historically, sparks creativity.  The two sparks are fused now.  So why are you waiting for someone else to dream up something cool and new, so you can capitalize on it?  Agencies, if nothing else, are big rooms full of people who think creatively.  Some are bigger rooms than others, and some of those people think more creatively than others.  But to varying degrees, every agency out there is sitting on some amount of creative resource that, in general, plays at a higher level than average.  Since, in a democratized space like the web, creativity is the thing that gets noticed, doesn't it make sense to use existing creative assets to create something new, never seen before -- on the chance that your creativity is the brand that emerges?  Especially given that the chances have never been better.  It just doesn't make sense to jump on someone else's creative bandwagon when it's so easy now -- both from a functional and cost standpoint -- to create your own.  In order to accomplish this, you're going to have to experiment.  And if you're worried that clients won't pay for it, don't worry -- they won't.  But that still shouldn't keep you from doing it.  Because increasingly, they won't pay for the safe stuff, either.  As I see it, the opportunity here is for agencies to view themselves, rather than purveyors of popular culture, as emerging artists who have the ability to invent new and previously unseen popular culture.  The investment in a new bandwagon is an investment, to be sure, but technology has made sure that the investment will be small.  As I see it, it comes down to a choice:  Do you want to be a commodity, or do you want to be the bandwagon?  I know my answer.

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Human interaction

Here's a piece I wrote for adotas.com last week.

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Be Prepared

I spent a lot of time in the Boy Scouts, way back.  I spend a lot of time leading Cub Scouts now.  I've learned innumerable things from Scouting -- from the things you'd expect, like how to tie knots and pitch tents, to things you might not expect; like how to identify different Native American tribal sources of 18th and 19th Century bead and quill work.  And while there are a lot of those things I've learned that have stuck with me, perhaps the thing that's stuck most completely is the motto of the Boy Scouts of America: Be Prepared.

When I wrote Use A Stick back in 2005, a lot of the stuff we take for granted in terms of avenues for marketing on the web were still blips on the radar, if that.  (And, of course, I say "we take them for granted" meaning we who work with them every day -- most clients, and far too many agencies are still trying to stick their big toes into this whole web/social media/internet thing to see how uncomfortable it's going to make them.)  I didn't know a lot in 2005, but I knew enough to know that agencies were no longer going to be able to rely on formula "products" to make a profit.  Too many of them have been commoditized by technology.  Too many of the formulas just aren't relevant.  And applications of old formulas in new spaces simply doesn't work.

If there was a subtext to everything I wrote in Use A Stick, it was this:  The changes you've seen, through the web, in the way people communicate -- aren't done.  They may never be.  So the single most important formula for success is to understand that formulas don't work.  Change is rapid and constant, and change isn't going to go away.

Used to be, agencies sold knowledge, or skill, wrapped up in a defined product.  I think now, to grow -- or heck, to survive -- agencies must sell what I'll call "Expertise."  So what the heck is the difference?  Knowledge is finite, and based on what is available to be known.  Skill is an ability.  In the old system, skill meant skill with defined craft -- as in: "They make really great ads."  But expertise combines the two, and adds more.  Expertise is the ability to acquire, decode, and predict knowledge, and use broader skills (the ability to adapt, the ability to create in broad terms rather than narrow channels, the ability to connect with people on their terms, in their spaces, and persuade them.)  Now, of course, that's not the dictionary definition, but it's the definition I want to use here. 

Expertise means you have a good idea of what can be done, what might be able to be done soon, and what probably should be done, given the particular situation.  Expertise means you have a suite of abilities that make you prepared for whatever it is that's in front of you, and whatever it is that's coming.  It means you're prepared for the stuff nobody expects.

Change isn't, by definition, good or bad.  It's simply different.  And in today's climate, it's a given.  The only advice I can recommend is:  Be Prepared.

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