VIEWPOINT: Everybody is important; it's all about teamwork

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.

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