I found this article by Bart Cleveland in Advertising Age relevant and VERY true.
PR recently aired a story written by Richard Harris about a young
scientist at Princeton University named Bonnie Bassler. Bassler
recently made the world-changing discovery that all bacteria have a
universal language that allows them to talk to one another. Like-minded
bacteria use this language to team together for a common goal. For example a cholera
bacteria is harmless alone, but if other cholera bacterium is around
they start talking by producing a toxin that kills. I was really
fascinated by this story because though we in advertising are sometimes
compared to bacteria, we're not really communicating like bacteria.
Many of us don't have a universal language that allows us to succeed.
right-brained. (For those who aren't familiar, the right side of the
brain is the analytical side and the left side is the creative side of
the brain. At least that's what left-brained scientists have told us.)
One of my partners is a media planner and a math whiz. Me, I'm a
creative director and hate math. If we're not communicating with a
common language we can't really help each other do our best.
It's common for agencies to be run by only one side of the brain. The
subordinate side usually doesn't function too well because it is
relegated to a utilitarian role. History shows the most successful
agencies are using both sides of their brain in concert. Are these
agencies using a common language, or are they just lucky enough to have
clients who give them the freedom to try revolutionary things? When I
was young I used to think that places like Fallon, Chiat Day and Wieden
were utopian agencies with amazingly docile clients who nodded yes to
every suggestion. Remember when Chiat Day wrote the book about their
first 25 years? They revealed a much different story. If not for a
falling-on-the-grenade determination, Apple's 1984 spot would not have
happened. The client tried to kill it at the eleventh hour, but oddly
enough a determined media person saved the classic commercial from
extermination. Why did a media person care enough about the creative to
tell the client they couldn't pull the spot from the Super Bowl? That
media person was speaking the same language as the rest of the agency.
He or she knew that spot must run. It was too good to die. It would
work if given the chance.
If your agency is to do great work, people in the agency must
know that great work is their personal mission. Each has a different
role to accomplish this goal. It may be developing the strategy,
concepting the execution, or convincing the client to trust you, but
each member knows the common goal is to keep great work alive. It's
reason there are so many bad agencies is a simple one. If you run a
small agency and you don't have a common goal from the beginning, it
will be more difficult to do great work as you grow. If bacteria can
communicate to achieve a common goal, certainly we should be able to do
the same.
If you'd like to hear the story about Bonnie Bassler here's the link
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