The industry's inner circle has always been plagued by a 'them and
us' attitude but, of late, it seems that the feuding is growing in
intensity and the number of factions is on the rise.
In the good old days, when things were much simpler, there were only two
opposing forces; it was a battle between the creatives and the account
handlers over who was more important.
The media specialist never entered the fray because they were safely
locked up in the back room by senior management, if you are to believe
the words of media people.
But now that the media planners and buyers have eked out a position of
importance for themselves, they claim they are the most important part
of the advertising equation.
But it doesn't stop there.
With the emergence of the Internet and all the dazzling business
potentials it offers, we have interactive agencies which claim that most
traditional agencies have no idea how to formulate online advertising
campaigns.
Of course, they are saying that they know best.
Some of them have even joined the side of the techno-geeks by saying
that technology is more important than content.
Content means the written word, the soundbites, the videos, whether they
be short clips or entire movies.
The argument over whether content is important can also extend into the
message in an ad or a commercial.
In a strange, twisted sort of way, however, this bickering is actually
quite healthy.
Constructive criticism helps us to grow and become more intelligent.
We become better people, hopefully, simply through listening.
However, in the past six months, the criticisms, especially in the cyber
arena, have become stingingly personal and, therefore, destructive and
detrimental to the the entire industry.
At MEDIA, we have had occasions where we have had to tell people to tone
down what they were saying and to not start a smear campaign against
someone.
So how do we sort all of this out? Let's use content as an example.
The journalist would say content was the most important because this is
what readers, viewers and listeners want.
The sales people would say they were the most important because they
generate revenue.
So who's correct?
Both are correct and both are wrong.
If there were no content, there would be nothing to sell. And if there
were no sales people, there would be no revenue.
In fact, both sides rely on each other to survive. In the ad world,
cyber people included, this is also true.
So keep the criticism coming but keep it constructive.
