Yesterday I posted this: Tony Davidson on Digital Creativity
I got into a bit of a rant about it. You’ll find it’s easy to bait anyone who works in digital in this way. In fact there’s probably a good sport in there somewhere. It’d be interesting to go blog-baiting and see just how much noise and repressed angst you could stir up.
Simon left a comment about how lots of digital agencies will end up as production houses, and you know what, he’s probably right. If you look at the US, you’ll see that there’s plenty of them around. And they do great online advertising. Really great online advertising.
But I’ve slept on it now and I’ve mellowed a bit. I don’t really mind what people think about the role of digital agencies. If we do good stuff and prove ourselves we’ll survive. And if we do really good stuff we’ll carve out our own special niche in the world. A ‘them vs. us’ argument is a silly thing to get bothered about. The debate about how the digital industry is going to pan out is as pointless as the never ending Mac vs. PC debate.
Ultimately it’s up to you, as a client, or as a computer purchaser to make your choice. You’ll end up with a different product or experience depending on your choice. I know it’s not a binary decision, there’s a whole load of ‘grey’ agencies in the middle who are in the middle, but focussing on that will ruin my analogy.
Anyway, whether you’re choosing a new computer or an agency to give you a bit of digital magic, you’ll either make the choice from the heart or from the head. Sometimes your choice will be based on empirical product evidence, othertimes it’ll be based on less tangible factors.
And no! I’m not trying to suggest that digital agencies are like Macs, that would just be spoiling for a fight.
technorati tags:digital, online, advertising, creativity, agencies
By the nature of business, just like 90% of advertising agencie are production houses, so will be the future (or is it present already?) of digital agencies.
So the question of digital vs. advertising is futile. Clients with vision (and balls) will find the right people to take their brand to the next level, be that advertising DM or digital, whereas the majority of clients will just follow the herd and look for a production house, (again, be that advertising, DM or digital) to do the mediocre work for them.