There’s lots of worthy chatter riffing off of ad agency honcho David Jones’ strident take that brilliant marketing ideas must come from ad agencies and not from everyday people (i.e. Citizen Marketers).
Former Brand Autopsy blogger Paul Williams refutes my take with his take and I return volley with more musings. Troll the comments section for more sharp musings from a slew of smart-thinking marketers.
And Spike Jones, from Brains on Fire, stokes the conversation with more fire which elicits more smokin' comments on the super-worthy Marketing Profs Daily Blog. In his post, Spike directs us to a blue flame Ad Age blog missive from another ad agency pro deriding the passions of everyday people who are compelled to create amateur marketing messages. The comments in this blue flame are priceless. Enjoy the fodder.
I'm not sure I understand the criticism of CGM. Is it that it's not good enough? Not entertaining? Not attention getting? Not skillfully created? Not original? Not created in my backyard? Or is it that it doesn't sell the product?
Agency creatives don't have a monopoly on good ideas. In fact, the list of ads borrowed from other sources is long. There are literally hundreds of ads inspired by other ads--see this site for example. If this is typical of agency creative, why not turn to a new source like CGM for ideas? Will they do any worse?
Long ago many agencies stopped creating advertising that sells and started creating advertising to entertain. If the only thing advertising needs to do is entertain, advertising as an industry, is in real trouble.
Posted by: Rob Marsh | November 22, 2006 at 04:17 PM
"Agency creatives don't have a monopoly on good ideas." Well said Rob ... well said.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | November 23, 2006 at 12:14 AM