AgVoice | What happens in the ad world stays alive online

Scam ads. Ads for awards. Creative for the portfolio. Great campaigns that never got presented or approved or released.

These have been part and parcel of the ad world. In India and globally for long. It’s perhaps one of the most open secrets of the business. Officially frowned upon. But secretly encouraged.  It’s grown to a fine art. Or science, depending on how you see the craft and business of advertising.

But in the last few days, there’s been more than a flutter around this practice. Thanks to a bunch of ads created by a team in JWT for their client Ford.  Or as the media reports suggest, for a brand from the Ford portfolio, but the ads was never approved for release. But strangely, the creative wound their way to the award entries! And before that, also found their way to an online site that aggregates creative work from the advertising world – which people are free to upload.

The news got reported. And spread. Far and wide. The power of the internet at work. The power of people as media creating the chatter, the buzz around what happened. What’s right. What’s wrong. Everyone had an opinion. And thanks to digital technology, everyone could share their opinion.

The reverberations of the news were heard far and wide. In the highest echelons of the WPP, JWT and Ford worlds. Unlike Digital virals that usually die a natural death, this event that started as a Digital sniffle has proved lethal. Two senior creative heads in JWT India has rolled. What else is in store? Time will tell. And perhaps Twitter and Facebook will break the news.

In the meanwhile, what does this mean for the creative fraternity of the advertising business? What does this mean for how client-agency relationships are structured?

I am neither a part of the creative fraternity nor with an agency currently. But as a 3-time agency person and a client and someone who lives and works in the Digital space here’s my take:

This isn’t the first time an episode has exploded to this extent, and won’t be the last. A couple of years ago, there was a global beverage company that discovered that its still-to-be-shot summer campaign’s script was floating around on the internet – thanks to an ‘innocent’ creative person who put it up on Slideshare. Thankfully, that issue was handled before any damage to the brand, agency or its creative folks.

So get set for more stringent contractual agreements – between clients and agencies, and between agencies and their employees. This won’t prevent the issue from cropping up, but will certainly let more CEOs sleep at night, as they will now have the one neck to choke when things go wrong.

Then there is likely to be a closer watch on social media activities of employees. If you ask me that is a losing battle. You can block or restrict access and use of social media through officially provided computers and networks. But you cannot really prevent it from smartphones.

Better than these two options, would be to revisit and review the Social media policies in place – and to recast them as guidelines  that encourage use of and activity on social media, but at the same time caution against indiscriminate use particularly when it comes to client or other confidential work and work in progress.

Then of course, comes the point of giving free reign to creativity, and how much is too much? But that’s a ridiculous question isn’t it? You cannot define boundaries of creativity and still expect break through creativity. Can you imagine the iconic United Colours of Benetton campaign if such boundaries existed?

Of course, the matter of propriety and good taste and cultural sensitivities remains. But with Digital technologies enabling a greater urge to express, share and interact, the lines of right and wrong are getting more and more blurred every day.

There’s the other question that would remain too: To do or not to do. That is to do scam ads or not? Here’s where real boundaries may get drawn. Especially since it’s no longer just about the payoff of award glory. But also the potential cost of losing one’s job in the ‘innocent’ pursuit of a metal.

I will be tuned into to Twitter to see how things pan out. And you? | By Ashok Lalla

About the writer:

Ashok Lalla, Global Head – Digital Marketing at Infosys is an award-winning global and regional Digital, Brand and Social Media Marketing leader with 20 years of client and agency-side business experience on brands that cut across the spectrum from one-cent candies to million-dollar hotels stays. He has been passionately leveraging Digital to grow brands since 2000.

Ashok is also the author and founder of The Future of Digital for Brands, a highly regarded global online community of Digital and Marketing folks, that comprises over 3500 members from 65+ countries.

When he’s not at work, Ashok can be found evangelizing the future of Digital, Marketing and Brands at numerous national and international conferences, and also through articles, television interviews and guest lectures at leading B-schools. Ashok tweets @ashoklalla.

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