Ad Age enlisted Conor Brady, chief creative officer at Organic, to help explain the new playing field agency personnel find themselves on today.
Brady says we’re entering “the age of creative sensibility” which he characterizes as “a dramatic shift from the ‘big agency’ practices of the past.”
Specifically, Brady says creative directors today need to collaborate with peers outside the creative department, embrace measurement and admit that they’re wrong from time to time.
He argues that the day when a charismatic creative director could wink and say, “Trust me, this is a big idea,” are over. What do you think? Are those days over? I don’t believe they are over, any more than I believe TV is dead, or print is dead.
Here’s what I do believe: money is tight, and one’s big ideas better deliver for the client. A creative director can dance with media buyers, point to data trends in a pretty chart and say they’re sorry for all the attitude, but that doesn’t release them from the hard work of discovering the best ideas and making them stick.
