It is inevitable. It is your destiny. Sooner or later you will have to live with those funny creatures that broke out of their no-longer-extravagant agencies.

Yes, those guys on the subway at 9AM in their ripped jeans and pvc coats, which you noticed and thought “hell he must be unemployed or he’s a creative…”

Those guys are gonna be in your office sooner than you think.

 

They’ll be playing ball in the hallway, zone out at your planner meetings, their dog will gnarl at every briefing past 6 PM and, worst of all, your favorite dirty snack will lose its spot to a ginger-quinoa-kale gluten-free gallette. So you live in that hell a little longer.

 

Who let these people in anyway, you might ask then.

Well, from a certain point of view, it was you.

 

If you’ve been working in Companies – “clients” – for at least 25 years, you will for sure have noticed how “promoting” has changed, and the rise to power of “marketing people”. All along, you got yourself your first home PC, drawing tables made way to computer desks, then the internet, your first cell phone, apps, Facebook, and here you are. A ubiquitous client. Fighting on so many fronts. Tackling every communication opportunity with the haste of a general at a P.R. war. And you need graphic designers for the posts, video makers for the stories, writers, packaging designers, etc.

 

Meanwhile, at the other end of the street, inside the “agencies”, ever more creative resources were getting submerged by your requests, working almost ‘round the clock. When the first agency accepted an all-inclusive deal with a client, the rest had to follow. At first, it made sense and worked fine, but then competition began, budgets shrank, and most creatives basically became employees of a client working from inside an agency. 

As far as they could be from what it meant to work with “advertising” in the 90s and early 2000s– plumpy budgets poured into few TV ads and initiatives, with room for creativity, time to work within deadlines, and above all a lifestyle to live for.

 

Consulting and business advisory giants have been shopping down Madison Ave. lately. For some time, they might become regulars. Companies too (like McDonald’s) have started to bring in graphic designers, writers, producers, creative directors.

They are coming, it’s just a matter of time.

 

But before you rush to the job store and get some creatives, there’s something you can do, in order to do things right (and save money).

 

The first thing is getting a little more aware of the advertising process, creativity, and production. 

The second thing is, don’t look at creativity as a separate, or limited department. Bring it to the top management board.

Have the consultancy start from the top, not from the bottom.

If you bring in the right person, with the right amount of experience, you’ll be making sure to get the most bang for your buck and actually find a creative vision of your own, which you can feed to the consultants or actually set up yourself.

 

It’ll be up to you to raise the bar, the way you want to.

Work with the best talents.

Inspire work you couldn’t imagine.

Trust the right hands to deal with sensitive materials.

Maybe hire the right team one day, when everything is ready.

Then you’ll find out that creatives are annoying when they are frustrated. They take way less shit than the average business employee. And yet, making them happy is really easy- all you have to do is speak their language and handle advertising the right way, with care.

 

You’ll tell the difference. A happy creativity is a blessing to live with, and can really bring new vision to whatever it is that you make.

 

THEMONK