You Can Make “Culture,” Or Make Your Clients Rich and Famous. You Can Also Do Both.

Once upon a time in Adland there was a line that acted like a velvet rope. The line separated above-the-line, TV-centric agencies from the dullards who toiled below-the-line, producing pedestrian point-of-purchase displays and other necessary but unsexy collateral.

Then digital blew the whole row of agency houses down. Today, there’s no line. Only the lingering blur. Nevertheless, some TV ad makers still believe in their own supremacy, seemingly with no understanding or concern for what’s happening in the agency business, care of an ever-fractured, massively distracted audience. Now, their target of ridicule isn’t sales promotion or direct marketing shops. It’s in-house agencies.

David Golding, the outgoing group chief strategy officer at Adam & Eve/DDB, wrote inCampaign earlier this month that there is an industry “divide” between agencies that make culture (such as the John Lewis Christmas ads) and those that create collateral and drive conversion.

Naturally, not everyone agrees. Johnny Hornby, the founder of The & Partnership, said in-house agencies are capable of producing high-quality creative work that can shape culture.

According to Campaign, Hornby claimed that Golding “makes himself look a bit of an advertising agency traditionalist” by dividing agencies between culture and collateral or conversion and not fully considering the wider impact of automation, data and programmatic trading.

The idea that an ad campaign makes culture is absurd on arrival. Ads are like any media—ads either add a small dose of beauty and meaning to the world, or they add to the noise and distortion, or they become virtually invisible.

The question is not, “what type of ads are you making?” The question is, “are you making artful ads with heart?”

Integrated Marketing Is Not A Buzzword

Every customer touchpoint matters.

You needn’t be a marketing whizkid to figure out how important it for a brand to have a unified message, a consistent “look and feel,” and communications that impact purchasing decisions at the point-of-sale.

Does a POS display look as sharp in a creative person’s portfolio? No. Will it get her invited to Cannes? Highly unlikely. Is that beside the point? Totally.

According to old data from POPAI (now known as SHOP! Association), 76% of purchase decisions are made in-store.

Even if you dispute this and factor for your industry or specialty, the reality is, people are influenced by one form of advertising and driven to purchase by another form of advertising. POS and broadcast are siblings and the brand is the parent. The parent loves both equally, even when naturally favoring one over the other.