What came first, the media or the creative?
I have always been a big believer in the importance of media and creative working in unison which is why I work across both, but it is the current AA television ad featuring a very poor cover of Carole King’s “You’ve got a friend” that has reaffirmed my belief even more. Here it would appear that the media agency brought a 30 second slot, and the creative agency (doing the best they could) have tried to make the original strategy work. I don’t dislike the concept of the ad, not at all, but trying to shoehorn what is let’s face it, a classic song that you automatically get the lyrics to engrained within your memory at birth, into this 30 second slot is not fooling anyone. Couldn’t you afford the 40 second slot? Trimming off quarter notes here and there just doesn’t work and in this instance adds a little cheapness to what is a nice looking finish for a service provider. Communications strategies are born out of careful weeks of planning and the final deliverable should always stay true to this. The media and creative teams must work closely together if seamless campaigns are going to be produced, whatever the medium which means leaving ego’s at the door and on occasions, one team leading the other.
