Creative Convergence: What is it? And what does it mean to your business?
[by Carolyn Potts]
When the FCC debates are over and we figure out how to fund universal access to broadband, and it becomes as common as phone access, the demand for digital content will increase exponentially. There will be more media being consumed on more devices than we have now (or can yet imagine).
Content convergence necessitates collaboration with more creative staffers as well as more content suppliers. Production meetings have to occur far
earlier on the ad production calendar to effectively plan for assets displaying on platforms that weren’t even around last year.
Digital design departments, print production, broadcast, and interactive gaming strategists are all now sitting around the same conference room
table when planning a campaign execution.
Historically, when there was a huge TV production-especially if there was a celebrity with limited availability- a still photographer was brought on to shoot for the print campaign during the same TV spot production. The business model of “double dipping” to save production dollars has been around for a while-but with two separate crews shooting. Now “double-dipping” has to extend to multiple platforms-not just TV and print. Art directors who understand the tech nuances of all media are the ones whose jobs are safe. So, too, are the smart photographers who embrace multiple platforms; they’ll be in the best position to work with those new-era art directors during this image-making evolution.
As technology gets better and cheaper, only those with the best command of the dual-purpose equipment will be on the agency’s preferred vendors list. It makes no economic sense to a client not to use one resource to tell their brand story if it’s economically and creatively feasible. If there’s an image-maker (or team) who can deliver the media assets that will reproduce well in both print and multimedia.. why wouldn’t they prefer them?
Right now, at major ad agencies it’s still the broadcast production departments that control motion projects. Art buyers and creative directors with extensive print experience, source their favorite photographer when there’s a print component that needs to be covered during a big film production. They look for someone who can play well with others and not get in the way of the bigger-dollar film shoot.
On smaller projects, such as web projects, the print department is not currently in the position to tell broadcast to use a photographer for those elements of the ad campaign; broadcast currently pulls those assets from the TV shoot to give to interactive department. It’s more of a courtesy for the production company to provide those assets.
But as technology gets faster and cheaper and the economy remains anemic, economic forces will cause new departments and job responsibilities within ad agencies to form. At some major agencies art buyers are already called producers. A production undertaking that now seems impossible to produce (due to the high cost of equipment and necessary technical know-how), will eventually be able to be feasibly produced by thousands of suppliers. Consider what happened to retouching…anyone reading this remember SciTex?
When that time comes, it will only be the depth and breadth of your creative solutions; the strength of your business relationships; and your ability to collaborate, that will get you on the agency short list of image makers called on to produce their client’s brand story.
3 Responses to 'Creative Convergence: What is it? And what does it mean to your business?'
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Excellent points Carolyn. This has already happened less than a year ago with an Esquire cover of Megan Fox taken from a video frame grab by Greg Williams: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/video/megan-fox-images-0609
I’ve been on my second shoot in the last week where TV producers are promoting product integration into their shows. This means that the marketing is being done by current show writers and crew.
This is another form of convergence that could mean no dipping.
I agree, Mark.
Product placement is just another flavor of how clients seek “economies of scale.” If there’s way they can get their brand in front of more consumers and at a cost savings, they will. At its most blatant level, there are the Coke cups in front of the judges on America Idol. Sure is a cheaper to reach a bazillion people than producing a 30-second spot for the Super Bowl.
Content shot for either a TV spot or for a print ad will find its way onto a screen that now might be posted an elevator or in the check-out line in supermarket.
We’ve had “advertorials” in print for years. It’s just getting weirder.