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Assorted Nuts: Poke London founder vents frustration at digital agencies still being asked to just "digitise" ATL work

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

May 15, 2014 | 3 min read

Nik Roope, founder and executive creative director at Poke London, is both surprised and annoyed by the fact that digital agencies are still being asked to simply digitise or “socialise” above-the-line work.

“One of our great difficulties is that wresting of things that have already formed into advertising when maybe they shouldn’t have or [when clients] should have considered other avenues to achieve their goals," he said.

“The primary reason for that is that digital can perpetually deliver value outside of the campaign construct, and that is something clients should consider but that they rarely enter the discussion thinking about.”

Speaking to The Drum’s editor at large Dave Birss for an Assorted Nuts podcast session, Roope acknowledged that this tension is nothing new; it has been an issue since he started and the industry has been bored with the conversation for some years.

“But [the tensions] still exist 15 years later which I’m a bit surprised by. Which is a shame really, and annoying, but I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon. It’s just part of the challenge,” he said.

When asked what solution he envisions, Roope explained that it is all too easy to expect “the old guard to change their ways and to blame it all on the big names in advertising” but that actually, they are the least motivated to change.

He said it should fall on the industry as a whole to address the “bad habits we’ve had for some time about how communication is done.”

Adding that part of this is generational, Roope suggested that as people who don’t love and have a respect for digital move out and people who do move in we will see a shift in the way clients approach digital work.

“It’s about the sensibility and having a feel for it and knowing why it matters. And that’s not easy to inject into organisations,” he said.

Roope also said that digital is “still a bit of a faith play” but that as we see a greater understanding of the economics, the client's approach to digital will “suddenly flip.”

Assorted Nuts is a series of creative images, shot by Julian Hanford, which will be featured in a coffee table book, available later in the year. More on the Assorted Nuts project can be found at The Drum.

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