Co Creation and the Future of Advertising Agencies
October 28, 2011 by Kevin Michael Gray
We've heard it for quite some time… the phrase 'co-creation' or 'co-create' but have you ever stopped to think. No, I mean really think about it. What does it mean. Better yet, what does it look like as it pertains to the future of agencies? Today's featured article comes from ignitiongroup.com and discusses co-creation and the future of advertising agencies. Read more below:
As part of the trend toward the “disintermediation” of agents (think travel agents, insurance agents) marketers are increasing going around agencies to work directly with the media, production companies, and even directly to creative talent via crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourcing allows – indeed, encourages – marketers to bypass agencies altogether. But agencies need not stand by and regard this phenomenon only as a threat. By embracing the ability of the World Wide Web to solicit and deliver creative ideas from across the globe, agencies can stop defending their position as the exclusive creators of content and also adopt a role as curators.
An agency curating the best content on behalf of its clients is like a museum curating the best art on behalf of its patrons. Several new unconventional agencies have built their entire business model around the concept of “expert sourcing” in an attempt to redefine the way “creative” gets done in the 21st century. Given the options for creative development that transcend the agency’s own creative department, agencies really have three basic choices when it comes to content creation:
1. Created. Done in-house as a core competency of the firm
2. Curated. Crowdsourced or expert-sourced, with the agency as the intermediary.
3. Contracted. Assigned to an outside resource with little direct involvement from the agency.
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