Ted Lim: We are not done yet

By Ted Lim, Creative Strategist/Director/Consultant of DIFF Creative Consultants.

It was not without some hesitation when I stepped on stage with Andreas Moellmann to address The Uncomfortable Truth About The Future Of Creativity at AdFest.

Not many people want to talk about the existential crisis the advertising industry is facing, much less discuss it at a public forum.

What can agencies bring to the table so we are wanted at the table? How do we quantify the value that strategic thinking and creative expression bring to business and be justly compensated for it?

One delegate felt the presentation was quite the elephant in the room and touched a nerve, that it was true to the bones and something needs be done with our business model.

Ad agencies need to change the way we think and work.

From the advertising business to the business of ideas.
From answering briefs to shaping briefs.
From producing options to producing solutions.
From creative advertising to the creative business solutions.
From getting paid for output to getting paid for input.
From charging for delivery to charging for impact.
From creative resource to creative advisor.

This is not easy, as industry margins have been on a downward spiral for more than a while and rabid competition makes the conversation harder at the negotiation table.

But as Bill Bernbach pointed out decades before, “We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mould it. We are so busy listening to statistics we forget we can create them.”

If our competition is doing more of the same for less, therein lies the opportunity for us to do less of the same for more.

We are not done yet.
We just have to do things differently.