The Creativity Challenge: Media Confluence and Its Effects on the Evolving Advertising Industry

Kim Bartel Sheehan, Deborah K. Morrison

University of Oregon

Abstract

The advertising landscape has experienced dramatic change over the past several years, as consumers spend more time online, have more control over traditional advertising vehicles, and chose to create and share their own content. As a result, some advertisers are evolving to a confluence culture where traditional methods of work must adapt to embrace the new reality of interactive content, emerging media, and production/consumption methods. In this essay, we show how agencies like 22squared and advertisers like CNN are finding new ways to connect with consumers and build their brands. Implications for professionals and educators are provided.

Keywords: Creative, new media, Internet, collaboration.

Introduction

You cannot open Ad Age or Adweek these days without finding bold evidence that significant changes face the advertising industry. Some of these changes are good: interesting new work, innovative partnerships, big ideas that show what advertising can do for brands. But after more than a decade of such evidence, we also know that there are downsides to these changes: brands floundering in digital space, layoffs in agencies large and small, and a workforce often unprepared for new media realities. During this time, consumers have changed the game as well by redefining their relationships to traditional media and spending increased time online. Most, if not all, of these changes are driven by the growth of the digital world. The advertising industry, largely governed by decades-old paradigms, continues to wrestle with the challenges of this digital realm.

The rise of emerging media has resulted in a cultural shift toward a "digital culture" (Deuze 2006), which is also known as a "convergence culture" (Jenkins 2006). It is our contention that a more appropriate term would be "confluence culture," a concept we wrote about recently in the online journal First Monday (Sheehan and Morrison, in press). A confluence is a place where things merge or flow together, where the obsolete gets sloughed off and strengths naturally evolve as the core becomes enhanced. Confluence culture is multidisciplinary, nimble, and creative. In this discussion, we see confluence culture as a talking point for understanding how the advertising industry must change and how traditional methods of work might adapt to embrace the new reality of interactive content, emerging media, and production/consumption methods.

For advertising agencies, specific confluence issues exist. As best practices have encouraged the evolution of traditional advertising practices toward more holistic brand visions, the advertising profession has reengineered its core approaches. A first harbinger of confluence, born decades ago, was the new emphasis on account planning within the agency process. Yet another marker of confluence has been the forming and reforming of media planning and media buying systems within the industry. Then, as digital media exploded, agencies evolved and changed platforms, either by buying small digital firms or creating add-on agency units to think digitally for clients. Confluence culture thus suggests that agencies as units and the advertising profession as a whole face numerous challenges to their traditional ways of operation as they grow and morph and react to cultural shifts, particularly when it comes to creativity and ideas. We envision four key challenges:

The Engagement Challenge: Reinventing the Mass Message Model

Mary Beth Kemp and Peter Kim of Forrester Research (2008; summarized in Morrissey 2008b) argue that traditional advertising is failing in its purpose. They note that consumers pay more attention to the recommendations of friends and family than they do to marketing messages when making purchase decisions yet that traditional agencies continue to operate around a "mass message" model that fails to recognize the importance of one-to-one engagement and interactions. In addition, traditional channels for advertising messages are less often used by today's consumers; the increasing use of pull technology, such as TIVO and Web-based programs, makes it possible to avoid commercials aired on traditional broadcast channels.

What the mass message model does well, though, is provide the opportunity for strong branding messages. This capability results in a dichotomy in agency businesses, whereby some agencies may be able to provide innovative messages and online experiences for users but lack strong branding messages, and other agencies excel at branding but fail to involve consumers in brands to the degree that consumers become brand advocates. Some level of rapprochement must be achieved for the advertising business to regain a level of success.

Interactive creativity is not simply the use of the latest technology or the race to put the most digital bells and whistles on a site. Interactive creativity is built around engagement, and it recognizes that people are inherently social and look to create and maintain relations not only with other people but also with brands. Brand stories, both in traditional media and online, provide ways for advertisers to engage consumers more deeply with their brands. An engagement perspective changes the view of a brand from a transactional perspective, in which a brand addresses a transient need, to an interactional perspective, by which the brand story becomes part of a person's own story about him- or herself.

The Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain and its agency 22squared used the storytelling concept to move beyond advertising the chain's attributes (i.e., food and sports on televisions) and instead create an image of a clubhouse where camaraderie is easy to find. The agency believes that sports, jokes, and competition represent the "social currency" of the target, so it makes these three things part of every brand story. All messages have a strong attitude that clearly resonates with the target audience; the agency uses the voice of these messages as the key means to differentiate Buffalo Wild Wings from other restaurants. Television ads set up the story, and then the story moves online to the social media space where patrons can organize their social lives, using the clubhouse as the physical meeting place.

The result of using such brand stories, according to Jenkins (2006, p. 3), is that "every important story gets told, every brand gets sold, and every consumer gets courted across multiple media platforms." Confluence, then, occurs when media industries are less task bound and merge together to allow content to flow freely among them, empowering technologies and practices that are both adaptive and associative in nature.

The CGM Challenge: Helping Consumers Tell Stories

The act of consuming media online has become synonymous with the act of producing media (Deuze 2006). Many online users are not content with accessing and viewing or listening to content from established sources; rather, they want to interact with message content by adding to it or repurposing it for new and different uses. Some traditionally closed models of information distribution (e.g., Web pages) therefore have given way to new, open models. These new systems, including the social media sites Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, enable consumers to distribute content that they create. Interactive creativity therefore involves providing consumers with the tools they need to be creative themselves.

To succeed in the confluence culture, agencies must rethink content, moving away from what Deuze (2007) terms "show and tell" advertising and toward proving content for consumers to create their own stories. Agencies must find more ways than ever before to bring consumers into the advertising process. Deuze (2007) also imagines a flattening hierarchical relationship between the agency and the consumer as agencies adapt to this new engagement model; he uses the term "bricolage" to describe the remixing, reconstructing, reusing, and repurposes of audio, visual, and textual content. It simultaneously consists of repurposing and refashioning the old while using and making the new.

One such example is the M&Ms Web site, where online visitors gain access to the tools to create M&Ms characters in their own images and then can use these characters in digital images and videos to share with their friends. The holiday sensation "Elf Yourself," sponsored by OfficeMax (www.elfyourself.com), allows visitors to create elves in their own images and then set them dancing to different types of music. To promote its new line of coffees, McDonald's developed a site where visitors could create their own coffee ring snowflakes (www.mccafesnowflakes.com). On the CNN site, consumers can select news headlines to make into t-shirts, branded with the CNN logo. In each of these settings, the brand becomes the base for the creative product, and the time spent on the sites during the creation process allows brand registration to occur. Participation suggests that brand stories actually are created and disseminated in a partnership between advertiser and consumer. Kemp and Kim (2008) further suggest that the advertising agencies that survive will be those that evolve into what they call "Connected Agencies" (Morrissey 2008a). In Kemp and Kim's view, these Connected Agencies will do more than create traditional advertising messages; they will nurture consumer connections and create conversations between consumers and brands and among consumers themselves.

Confluence culture allows consumers to tell their own stories by taking the information provided about the brands and mixing it with their own experiences, including how the brand has transformed them. Confluence culture will provide messages that are more reflective of the highly customized reality that digital culture provides. Participation, remediation, collective intelligence, and bricolage encourage the development of many more messages, allow many more stories to be told, and enable users to become much more involved with brands than ever before. This personal engagement provides a strong, positive brand message.

The Social Media Challenge: Playing in a New Landscape

Historically, advertising has been produced in a black box: Agencies seek consumer input during various phases of campaign development, but most consumers are unaware of the content of traditional advertisements until they see them in print or broadcast media. The growth in consumer-generated media, as evidenced by the popularity of social media sites like Facebook and YouTube, suggests that the black box model is becoming outdated and that a new culture, a confluence culture, needs to be established as essential to the organization and processes of agency life. New media realities demand such a different way of working, primarily because they tend to be pull media-consumers chose what to see and what to do with what they see-as opposed to the traditional push media that reflect the workflow used by traditional top-down structures at both agencies and media outlets.

As Palfrey and Gasser (2008, p. 229) describe storytelling on social media sites:

This story of interoperability-a boring-sounding, technical term, admittedly-means that people who do not work for Facebook can drive competition and innovation within and across popular social networks. Interoperability enables a new process of communicating and sharing new discoveries in computing to take place. By making these systems work together online, developers have a new incentive to innovate and collaborate.

New cultural production has always been led by fans, those people who have a deeper-than-average fascination with and affinity for a cultural artifact. Certain brands naturally develop a strong fandom. Rabid fans will always find ways to create and disseminate the content they create for the brands they love. Brands with less to offer their fans must find places where fans can interact and create. Such participation can also create a stronger affinity between audiences and brands.

A 2008 TNS/Cymfony study of more than 60 marketers found that the majority of them believed their own agencies to be ill-equipped to help them succeed in the social media space (Morrissey 2008a). We believe strong brand stories are a key element for agencies to use when playing in the social media space. Strong brand stories can result in compelling characters that represent the brand, and consumers are more likely to want to engage with a character than an inanimate object. On MySpace, for example, the character Helga from a 2006-2007 Volkswagen campaign (http://www.myspace.com/misshelga) continues to have an active presence online; the page gets updated regularly, and Helga has over 6,000 friends who download audio, video, and graphics from the page. This campaign no longer airs, but the MySpace site remains active; thus, the character story has transcended the limitations of a traditional advertising campaign.

The Training Challenge: Growing Talent with Creative Vision

Sternberg and Lubart (1996) argue that confluence theory is appropriate for studying creativity, because it suggests that many disparate pieces converge and grow together to form a rich pattern of the meaning of creativity. Similarly, confluence culture is a rich conglomeration of ideas and approaches, depending on how new ideas get generated and developed to become part of a living cultural process. For the advertising industry, creativity is vital. Confluence culture requires new creative skills throughout the agency. Creative skills thus cannot be relegated just to traditional "creatives" but should be developed and expected throughout the organizational chart. It begins with researchers and strategists, who must see bricolage as a type of consumer research that unlocks valuable insights about consumers. The bricolage process may help instigate more interesting ideas from advertising writers and designers. As an example, Hill Holliday's Liberty Mutual Responsibility campaign asks the question, "Responsibility: What's your policy?" in television, print, and interactive ads. From the overwhelming response to that campaign, The Responsibility Project was born, taking root to find and discuss how ordinary people embrace responsible actions as a way of life. Short films, community discussions, blogs, and consumer activism are campaign subtexts, all having grown from the branded concept. The brand concept became content that consumers embraced and extended. It was an idea built from a strong strategy and smart conceptual development.

Talent development for twenty-first century agencies must depend on universities and programs that understand confluence culture and the need for adaptation, as well as an array of creative skills. Creative strategists, the new professionals who are trained to generate new ideas in a strategic setting, no matter the job title they hold, will tackle the problems in meaningful fashion, armed with curiosity about the culture and a resounding belief in ideas as strong cultural commodities. In turn, they will be reflective and proactive about cultural shifts, social concerns, and the importance of brand leadership. Training grounds for this type of professionalism underscore broader themes than just management and media, strategy and creative. Instead, leading programs must emphasize the idea and its ability to change brands, consumers, and culture.

Leaders in the confluence culture will be those creative strategists who have an understanding of all aspects of the advertising process and use creative skills to solve brand problems. These individuals-nimble, digital, and prepared for new challenges-will be able to consider the stories people tell, craft resonant brand narratives, and help clients use these stories to connect people to brands in new and exciting ways. Agencies embracing the creative strategist approach will be poised to provide outstanding messages for clients, protect against economic downturns as clients embrace the value of such messages, and find even more innovative ways to communicate.

References

Deuze, Mark (2007), "Convergence Culture in the Creative Industries," International Journal of Cultural Studies, 10 (2), 243-263.

--- (2006), "Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a Digital Culture," The Information Society, 22 (2), 63-75.

Jenkins, Henry (2006), Convergence Culture. New York: New York University Press.

Kemp, Mary Beth and Peter Kim (2008), "The Connected Agency Marketers: Partner with an Agency that Listens Instead of Shouts." Available at http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,43875,00.html (accessed June 15, 2008). Podcast outlining the key points is available at http://www.archive.org/details/Forrester-TheConnectedAgency_493 (accessed December 9, 2008). Video outlining the key points is available at http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/024-forrester-the-connected-agency/6749459/.

Morrissey, Brian (2008a), "Social Media: Agencies ‘Don't Get It', Survey Says ," Adweek Digital. Available at http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3id13cf7c770b633b60456549756b829bc.

--- (2008b), "Forrester: Agencies Need to Reboot," Adweek Digital. Available at http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i55bff7bc1a68ecef566a2850d389d8f3 (accessed December9, 2008).

Palfrey, John and Urs Gasser (2008), Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic Books.

Sheehan, Kim Bartel and Deborah K. Morrison (in press). "Beyond Convergence: Confluence Culture and the Role of the Advertising Agency in the Digital Age," First Monday, forthcoming.

Sternberg, Robert and Todd I. Lubart (1996), "Investing in Creativity," American Psychologist, 51 (7), 677-688.

About the Authors

Kim Sheehan is Associate Professor at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. She teaches courses in advertising management, media and research, as well as new media courses. Her research involves culture and new technology, and she has published extensively about privacy and the Internet, and about Direct-to-Consumer prescription drug advertising. She is the author or co-author of three books about advertising. She currently serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Advertising. E-mail: ksheehan@uoregon.edu

Deborah Morrison is the Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication. She teaches conceptual thinking, creativity and content, portfolio, and campaigns courses from a social responsibility perspective. Prior to the University of Oregon, Deborah was the leader of Texas Creative at the University of Texas at Austin for 18 years. Her research concerns professional creativity, social responsibility in advertising, and creative process. Importantly, she believes that good advertising can be one way to save the world. E-mail: debmor@uoregon.edu