Before the advent of digital media, the unbundling of creative and media at general advertising agencies made lots of sense. Now it takes more effort to bring those functions together so that creative is best suited to particular platforms.
This is one reason why it’s important to bring the right partners into creative agencies, according to Bob Estrada, EVP & Director of Strategic Partnerships at BBDO New York.
“If there’s a separation between media and creative, what’s going to happen is maybe something gets onto a media plan and by the time it gets to the creative agency and it’s sold in, there isn’t the requisite amount of time to develop a great idea,” Estrada explains in an interview at the recent Beet.TV Leadership Summit titled Outcomes, presented by video marketing technology provider Eyeview.
BBDO is always seeking best-in-class partners across technology, ad-tech, media, publishing, social platforms. “Getting them in so we understand their platform and what works today with that platform. Maybe ideating together,” says Estrada.
The end result is being able to take a brand’s creative idea, seeing how it can work on a particular platform and “oftentimes bringing that idea forward to a client along with media and that way we’re crafting something contextually right for the platform,” he adds.
In the old days, before media was unbundled, creative and media types would sit around a table putting together joint plans for clients. “You have to act that way. It takes a little bit more effort and time sometimes, but the partnership route has been very successful for us,” Estrada says.
Asked by Matt Prohaska of Prohaska Consulting to cite the best of the biggest platforms in their understanding of the importance of creative in driving results, Estrada cites Facebook and Google. It’s inherent in their business models to have the best work on behalf of their brand advertisers.
“If there isn’t good entertainment or compelling content that’s on those platforms, users are not going to keep going there,” he says. Estrada believes Facebook and Google have “taken a lot of great steps” to provide third-party verification on what ad campaigns are working on their platforms.
“Being able to know if you’re doing a campaign and how well it’s driving people to store or to offline sales is critically important for us to be able to really determine which outcomes are mattering to our clients,” says Estrada.
This video is part of a Beet.TV leadership summit on video outcomes presented by Eyeview. For more videos from event, please visit this page.
