Lets get right to it. I think the concept of an interactive shop has a shelf life. Somewhere between 3-5 years is my bet. The reality is all advertising will run on technology eventually, and eventually is unfolding right now. The new CMO, and his or her whole crew will know how to market across channels. Every single product manager, every analyst, the media guy even the janitor on the marketing floor understands you have to use more than direct mail to do the job now. Yes, I said the marketing floor because there will not be an “interactive department”. That would be a silly concept, it would be like saying the folks on this side use email, and the other side of the floor still uses paper and a fax machine for everything. This new marketing floor will need an agency partner. It can’t be a one-dimensional interactive shop, and it certainly wont be the “two martini lunch” Madison Avenue shop of old. It will look like something new.

Brands radiate emotion (at least the good ones do); they make you feel something, some emotion which is the catalyst to start a relationship and make a purchase. Some brands, like PRADA, Bentley, and Godiva make you feel decadent. Others strive to make you feel practical, like Volkswagen, Tom’s Toothpaste, and Southwest Airlines. I could go on-and-on about how this brand stands for this, and that brand stands for that. The big question for any marketer is how to go about building or redefining a brand’s emotion in today’s fragmented multi channel, multi device world.

In the old days, before the advent of our little ‘ole Internet, the formula was simple: create a compelling brand message and broadcast the hell out of it so that the public was assimilated into your brand. As you know I tend to bash Madison Ave. on this blog because I feel most of their tactics are dated and no longer effective. But that’s not to say there aren’t some aspects of traditional advertising that deserve our respect. Let’s take the fundamentals, writing and art direction, which in my opinion is where the bulk of emotion is created.

Advertising is supposed to be the epitome of marketing communication. It is where words and pictures (whether moving or still, interactive or static) blend to create some kind of brand experience to affect consumer behavior.

A copywriter once wrote, “don’t leave home without it,” which creates an emotion that drives a behavior (for those of you who weren’t born when that copy was, it’s from a very famous television commercial for American Express). Sadly though, Copywriting seems to have taken a backseat to design. It’s become a bit of a lost art, if you ask me. The “writer” as creative director has become an endangered species.

It’s official; the old agency formula of the genius and his thousand helpers does not work. Today’s advertising strategies, and brand experiences are infinitely more complex and therefore need to be informed and influenced from many dimensions. This requires a hell of a team, a “think tank” who can create, execute and evolve the big idea every time. No one dimension; creative, planning, media, research, analytics, or technology can be ignored.

Tales of “we are doing it anyways cause the hot shot says so” are for the most part distant memories. It does not matter if you work in traditional above the line, direct, interactive, or even PR. We are all now required to justify the business impact of our craft.

I was trying to think of who was still out there playing the role of the iconic creative leader and very few names come to mind. I can remember a time not to long ago when I could name the key creative person at every major shop. What happened? The heroes today are teams, not individuals. Sure today there are a few very visible charismatic agency leads like Bob Greenberg at RGA. I don’t know him, but I would venture he does not touch the actual work.

One exception that does come to mind is Alex Bogusky at CPB. He definitely is the creative nucleus at Crispin. (I’m actually a fan since he’s another Miami boy) That said can his model be scalable or even sustainable. Luckily for them Alex is a young guy and still seems to love what he does. You do wonder what would happen to that agency if he decided to hang it up? Would it fall apart? Would it not miss a beat?

As a creative, I’ve been responsible for some great ideas, and definitely some bad ones. What I can attest to is that the best work I have ever been involved with was enlightened by the collective genius of my team. My bet is on the team.