Mac AND PC: the paradox of creative and analytical talent.
The Apple campaign that differentiates the “Mac” guy vs. the “PC” guy is a brilliant execution of competitive attribute advertising. You clearly get a sense of “who” should relate to each brand of personal computer. Right???? But then how can we explain my recent behavior? In one week, I had to replace a cellphone, a desktop computer and a laptop computer. What did I do? I bought: an iPhone, an iMac, and a Sony Vaio. But, wait..how could I possibly mix Mac with PC in my purchase choice? Should I not declare myself as either an Apple person or a PC Geek? What happened?
I exercised my right to celebrate both the right and the left sides of my brain. You see, I am equally comfortable expressing my sense of creativity while weight-averaging cpm’s in my head! What’s wrong with that? Why can’t we be both analytical and creative at the same time? Why do we have to choose sides? Oftentimes, the business world forces us to declare only a portion of our talent; especially in the marketing industry that is separated along fault lines: creative/media, ad/edit, content/contact, mainline/digital, above -the -line/ below -the- line, etc. All the while, the world isn’t so black and white. Life happens in the grey area.
When you study consumer behavior, you will find that consumers are much more adept at “mixed media” than we are as professionals. Consumers will often blur the lines between good advertising and good edit in their favorite magazines. Both are extremely valuable to them. Yet, in a mini survey I conducted with magazine editors and ad agency creatives, the two saw little value in collaborating with each other. Isn’t that odd? Then, let’s look at the recent Sarah Palin/Saturday Night Live phenomenon. More viewers watched Tina Fey on YouTube than on NBC. But, we don’t even put these two distribution mechanisms for the same piece of video content on the same plane: one is called “network television” while the other is a “viral video”. Are we creating a divide that simply doesn’t exist? The truth, again, exists in the grey area.
So, the next time you ask the question, “Are you a Mac person or a PC person?” celebrate the person who struggles with answer and wants to declare “both”. Our industry needs to create a place and a space for shades of grey.
Michael Organ says:
Did Microsoft’s (very late) response with Seinfeld, Gates and PC Users effectively portray those various shades of grey?
(At LifeWithoutWalls.com, Microsoft says: “A billion diverse and unique PC users have been defined by one actor in an advertisement. But now, PC Users have spoken, shown their faces, and taken their PCness back. (We are) dedicated to the community of people who each refused to be a stereotype and became a spokesperson for their own digital life.)
Randall says:
I completely agree. This analogy applies to agencies more than ever.
Multi-Disciplinary, client focused, agency SWAT teams are in vogue right now. This reorganization is a necessary step in the direction of “grey” and true idea democracy but there is a long way to go, especially for the big agencies.
Smaller shops have the creative advantage here because this multi-disciplinary mindset is baked into the culture from the beginning. Assuming the smaller agencies can manage their growth, keeping this philosophy in tact, I believe we’re going to see a whole new breed of integrated super agency like Crispen.
The big agencies are doing all the right things to evolve and break unspoken departmental hierarchies apart. However, this is not an overnight fix. Breaking apart political pecking order is extremely hard in any organization. It has to be fully embraced from the top and evolve from the bottom.
For a big agency to make it into the new, open source era of thinking, the new crop of creatives, media folks and account gals will need to be groomed and trained together from day 1.
-Randall