What if they don't come back? The move by creatives away from agencies to tech companies
I’ll be very frank with you – I’m not very good with words. I have always hated books with too many letters and when writing something, minimum word limits have always had the worst of me. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about my thoughts. My thoughts are as colorful and extravagant as the new Coldplay Up & Up video – blissful, filled with colors and loves being unimaginably ruthless!
Jaiyyanul Huq Creative Director Grey Dhaka
One of the most recent thoughts of mine have been about this surge of advertising creatives moving out of agencies into the Tech companies of all different sizes. Some may argue that its just a bubble that will burst and in a matter of years you will have a surge of creatives moving back to the agencies. But I really cannot help but wonder - what if they don’t?
No, it’s not just about Tor Myrhen who joined Apple as its VP of MarCom or Lars Bastholm who joined Google’s in-house agency as its chief creative officer or Andrew Keller, the ex CP&B exec creative director who joined Facebook's in-house agency as it’s global creative director. What really matters to me are the countless creatives who have moved waaaay before any of the big guns have - the ones who we don’t know names of. At least not yet…
“Apple has had such a positive influence on my life, and has helped shape and inspire my creativity more than any other product on the planet”, that’s what Tor said in his statement and I really can’t help but agree with him. Apple has changed my life too. So have Google, Uber, Tinder, Facebook and Booking.com. I don’t know what I would do without my Spotify account. And Netflix has completely changed my life forever. Unfortunately I don’t feel the same about Coca-Cola. Neither do I feel the same about Toyota, nor do I feel about Sunsilk.
Tech IS changing the world. And that’s a kick in the creative conscious. More and more creatives understand how important it has become to be a part of the machine that is TRULY changing the world - not the full sweet, but zero calorie kind. There is an increased desire to make a difference in the broadest way possible –sacrificing the big office or the importance in most cases. And creative-strategic thinking is what is being used to solve high-level briefs that are directly affecting products and services and a billion consumers in the process.
The creatives have always been closer to the consumers. They have always been the ones to understand the pulse - the ones who know how to create and instill an idea into the pop culture. So it seems natural to feel right at home - in tech.
Quick, Think of a Startup!
What is making them move? Why are they doing it? What they are doing? Why haven’t I moved yet?
I’ll try and put things into the Bangladesh perspective. This country is very different - too different to make sense sometimes. It sits in a very interesting spot on the global scheme of things. Mobiles are shit cheap, so is the internet (let’s not talk about useless things like speed). The internet’s presence has had its affects on how people acknowledge and accept things. Never have Bangladeshis been this connected. Ever!
People have leapfrogged from one technology stage to the other. Rather than making the logical step of moving from a basic phone to a feature phone - these guys are jumping to the smarter ones (It’s like they are pressing the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button that no one presses on Google search). Imagine a country with 66 per cent of the rural population, slowly but surely, getting their hands on smartphones. And this is where things get a bit blurry.
Welcome to the era of startups - where every small, medium or enterprise-level business - is a startup. Every father - a venture capitalist, each employee a shareholder who has his own sleeping pod at work. From food carts to the next big rickshaw ride aggregator, every known problem that mankind is facing today is waiting to be solved. That wasn’t me being sarcastic. I do understand that it’s the inevitable. It was rather an overwhelming sense of worry that’s been putting a lot of question into how well we as an industry are prepared to handle what’s about to hit us.
Creatives today feel that they need to be part of an idea on a deeper level - more involved emotionally and economically – and with a better understanding of its cultural continuity. And the launch of Grey Adventures couldn’t have come at a better time. With an aim to work with clients to spin out products and services that surface during the branding and campaign development process, Grey Adventures will be a practice housed inside the group with the focus of developing IP and products for the clients and campaigns.
We have seen great products born out of needs, being developed by agencies for brands that probably would have lived more than a Cannes year – provided there was funding and the true desire for the products to be kept alive. And somehow agencies aren’t prepared for this - at least not in the current structure of things.
Jaiyyanul Huq is creative director of Grey Dhaka
Bred, born, raised and fed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jaiyyanul Huq is a creative director and an experiential enthusiast. He is one of the youngest creative directors with more than a decade of experience - handling few of the biggest clients in the industry. He is also quite adamant in believing that culturally connected tech experiences create spine tingling memories!
@jaiyyan