Aurora Magazine

Promoting excellence in advertising

When integration came knocking

Published in Nov-Dec 2012

The era of the integrated advertising agency has started.

I started my career in a traditional agency environment at a time when cut-and-paste artists and studio managers considered computer graphics people as ‘not one of us’. This new breed of creatives armed with the new set of tools were ridiculed and to some extent hated. We all know what happened after that… The traditional studio set-ups of large agencies were reduced to two or three people from the original 30+ people.

Fast forward 20 years and history is being repeated. The creatives armed with conventional software skill sets are getting a bit rusty. It is not that print technology software is going obsolete; it is print itself that is losing its charm for readers and advertisers. Print media industry professionals may not like this, but the writing is on the wall. There has to be a reason why all the leading newspapers and magazines have a digital edition.

Those industry professionals who lived through the transition from the manual cut-and-paste way of making ads to computer aided design and graphics will understand what I am trying to illustrate. However, for the benefit of people who are new to the creative corridors, there were even in those days small businesses facilitating the advertising industry. Essentially there were the photo composers who used to compose body text and captions for the print work done in the agencies. Agency studio people used to do the tedious cutting and pasting of each line by hand. Then there were the colour separation set-ups which acted as a bridge between printers and the agency. They were the earliest adaptors of computer generated work in the business. Agencies used to send their print-ready art works for colour correction and colour separation for printing.

With the development of enhanced hardware and software design applications, agencies set up their own computer departments. Operators were hired as there were no design schools that could produce digitally trained (or even inclined) creatives. Soon the industry saw a scenario whereby a creative used to sit next to the operator to work out a design. Although at the time it was the best way to go about it, it didn’t make business sense for two people to spend time on the same job. In those days, it did not occur to agencies to ask creatives if they were digitally proficient. However, within a few years, the creatives learnt the ropes and were able to produce designs without the help of an operator.

Today advertising professionals are in a similar situation. They are still coming up with the ideas and looking to the people with digital capabilities to make it happen. Again there are two people assigned onto one job. Again it does not make business sense. And it is only a matter of time before this changes too.

Now there is a huge realisation across the globe that there is no point in keeping creative and digital as two separate businesses. Recruitment ads prove the point, with preference given to graphic designers, art and creative directors with experience and understanding of HTML, user experience and interactive design. Digital entrepreneurs may not admit to this, but they are building their creative capabilities fast. It is no coincidence that about 50% of the design graduates in Pakistan are hired by them instead of traditional advertising agencies. The digital businesses are building their creative portfolios and the sooner traditional and digital agencies integrate their creative thinking, brand knowledge and digital capabilities the better the business edge they will gain.

The era of the ‘integrated’ agency rather than the ‘traditional’ or a ‘digital’ agency has begun.

Adnan Yousuf is CEO, Shiftt (content and creative consultants).
say@shiftt.co