Will McGinness tears down walls for a living. Yet, he collects little dust.
McGinness joinied Goodby Silverstein + Partners as Interactive Creative Director after working on the VW account at Arnold. Now, he goes by the abbreviated title of Creative Director to reinforce the fact that interactive is no longer a separate discipline at Goodby.
BusinessWeek has more…
“We no longer have a separate interactive department. It’s all one big creative pool of talent,” McGinness reveals. “There’s been a renaissance of sorts at the agency. Anything is possible, which has helped people break free of old executional habits.”
“There will always be people that specialise in certain media,” he continues. “The important thing is that the creative leadership for a project or campaign knows how to connect all the parts.
Today’s consumer has a much more sophisticated bullshit meter. We need to pull people into our communication in a meaningful way. We have to be relevant and provide content that is desirable. The days of blasting consumers with unwanted crap are over. The trick is to create something that people will appreciate.”
“The days of blasting consumers with unwanted crap are over.” At Goodby, I might add, where those days never had a chance in hell. Everywhere else, with the exception of a handful of shops where creative has always been king, the bullshit parade is still in full swing.
David: At far too many BDAs, McGinness’ comments about integration would be more BS. Yes, they’ve removed the asterisks and the “Interactive” before the titles, but it’s not like the (former) interactive and direct guys are getting the big TV/brand briefs. And the general guys aren’t doing landing pages.
No idea what it’s like at Goodby these days, but elsewhere…
I’d also add that, while it’s tempting to think things in Goodby-land are always better across-the-board no matter what because, hell, it’s Goodby, please know that they, too have their share of garden-variety clueless Jr. AEs, buzzword-spewing Planners/Professional Procedurists and other roadblocks to actually getting things DONE, just as you’ll find in the BDAs. None of these places is Nirvana, folks. Ask someone who’s been there who doesn’t have a vested interest in perpetuating the myth. The sooner Creatives figure that out and factor it into their collective value systems when it comes to how they measure their own creative self-worth and professional success, the better.
Great point, “ButAlso.” It’s one I make in private quite often. There is no perfect solution, only the will to make things better day by day.