HOW MANAGEMENT INFLUENCES CREATIVITY
Facts and Misconceptions Related to Advertising Agencies
Groningen, 24th August 2005
Author : C.U.S. De Haan
University of Groningen Faculty of Management and Organisation Supervisor: Prof. Dr. D. Jacobs 2nd Supervisor: Prof. Dr. G. Gemser
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Master of Science degree at the University of Groningen
HOW MANAGEMENT INFLUENCES CREATIVITY
Facts and Misconceptions
Related to Advertising Agencies
Date: 24-08-2005
Submitted by: Chaja Ulla Simone De Haan Student number: 1514806
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. D. Jacobs 2nd Supervisor: Prof. Dr. G. Gemser
University of Groningen
Faculty of Management and Organisation MSc in Business Administration
Strategy & Innovation
Preface
In the framework of my studies in business administration with the specialisation in Strategy &
Innovation, I learnt about the facets and determinants of non-technical innovations in the creative and service industries. The courses focused on, in short, what non-technical innovation is, how to manage it, and how to protect its value. A final thesis had to be written related to Strategy and Innovation, in order to graduate and mine is in front of you.
In the search of a subject for the thesis, I noticed that creativity, together with innovation, is frequently used in the literature. Originally I wanted to find out how creativity is measured and eventually present a model which would show how it could be measured, but with the lack of information and the knowledge that a model to measure creativity could never be perfect, it seemed too ambitious and inadequate to focus on the measurement. The management however is a much more interesting point of view and it is related to my studies as well.
To keep the study legible for the readers, the study starts with why this topic is of importance, what the research question is and how the research has been conducted, followed by the theories found on the subject. The hypotheses are tested with the results from the case study and the final chapter concludes the findings.
By choosing qualitative research for this subject, I had the ability to talk to people who work in the field of advertising and the interviews were extremely interesting. Therefore I want to thank all the interviewees for allowing me to have a ‘look in their kitchen’. I would like to give particular thanks to Prof. Dr. D. Jacobs for his help and invaluable comments throughout this study. Also many thanks to Prof. Dr. G. Gemser, coordinator of the Strategy & Innovation specialisation. Finally I thank my parents and friends too for their moral support.
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text.
Chaja de Haan Groningen, 24th of August 2005
It is better to create than to learn. Creating is the essence of life
Julius Caesar (101-44 BC)
Executive summary
Organisations need creativity to adapt to the fast changing environment. The misconception that creativity comes out of the blue and therefore impossible to manage, is easily made. It places being creative on the opposite of making logic decisions. Many companies do not know how manage creativity. This study clarifies that management can contribute in making creativity a success. A broad view on creativity helps the management using the total organisational approach, which includes people, processes and the final creative products.
The creative people are normal workers, like all the other employees, and management needs to treat them accordingly. However from HRM point of the pay system might be different as the motivation of creative professionals is heavily based on intrinsic motivation. Decisions concerning procedures, human resources and structure have impact on the total performance considering creativity. Also the client has its impact: the client evaluates the creative product is the one who pays the bill in the end.
Therefore management has to be good informed about the client and it’s needs.
The creative professionals also need some kind of structure in order to organise their work, as they can be quite chaotic. But the idea that deadlines and work pressure influence the employees’ creativity is not true, the case study shows that creative professionals in advertising agencies are used to time pressure and to train the brain accordingly. However within the set guidelines of the structure, managers should allow enough space for the creative professionals to use creative thinking skills.
The internal environment, guided by the corporate values, is used to make the creative professional feel comfortable. The internal environment is also very much of influence on creativity. The employees need to feel comfortable to communicate with each other and with the managers. So to grand the success of creativity, the organisation needs to look at creativity from a total organisational point of view. And that will make creativity a success.
.
Index
1 Introduction ... 7
1.1 Need for creativity and innovation ... 7
1.2 Paradoxes... 8
1.3 Research... 9
1.3.1 Objective ... 9
1.3.2 Research Question... 10
1.3.3 Definitions... 11
1.3.4 Research Model ... 12
1.3.5 Approach and Research Setting... 12
1.4 Empirical Analysis ... 13
1.4.1 Case Studies ... 14
1.4.2 Case Study Advertising Agencies ... 14
1.4.3 Data Collection Method ... 15
2 Theory... 17
2.1 Creativity v. Innovation ... 17
2.2 Creativity Defined ... 17
2.3 Interrelated Components... 20
2.4 Creative Capital ... 20
2.5 Organisational Approach towards creativity ... 21
2.6 Creative procedures in advertising ... 27
3 Advertising Agencies – Case Study... 29
3.1 Process in Advertising Agency... 30
3.2 Influencing Aspects on Creativity ... 30
3.3 Perception of Creativity... 33
3.3.1 Creative Capital... 33
3.3.2 Creativity from organisational view... 33
3.3.3 Creativity Valued ... 34
3.4 Motivation for Creativity... 35
4 Conclusions and Recommendations ... 38
Bibliography ... 40
Appendices... 44
1. Introduction
This chapter gives an introduction to the research itself. The first paragraph introduces creativity as subject matter and its competitive aspect in the business environment. Then the second paragraph explains the paradoxes of creativity and how management is of influence on creativity. Why it is of importance to investigate in this subject is explained in § 1.3 together with the research question. The last paragraph (§ 1.4) explains in detail how the research has been conducted and how the data for the empirical findings have been collected.
1.1 Need for creativity and innovation
Globalisation and deregulation have led to an increase in competition. Technical innovations lead to the emergence of products and services at a faster rate than ever before. To survive the increasing pace of change, organizations have to become more responsive, and flexible enough to react to changes (Henri, 2001a). Strategic responses to competition can be twofold: either companies could put emphasis on cost control. The downward pressure on costs makes international competition increase.
Or, in the alternative way, competition is maintained by differentiation (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002). The continuous innovation to survive the pace of change seems natural since ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’
are more frequently seen in business literature nowadays.
There has also been a change of ingredients that add value to products and services. ‘Creativity, knowledge, innovation and learning, add value, rather than land, labour, or capital.’ (Henri, 2001 b, p8). Accordingly creativity is becoming more important these days and can be regarded as an imperative competitive factor. Thus creativity helps to differentiate from others and beat competition
However competing with creativity is not easy and is not always an asset. Creativity should be combined with professional or scientific insights and with a sense of purpose or discipline in order to lead to ‘productive creativity’. Related to this, one speaks of the tension between exploration of innovations and the final exploitation and implementation. The tension could be necessary from economic point of view, but at the same time it could smother creativity (Jacobs, 2005). The pattern of consistent multiplication, imitation and controlling successful formulas may even lead to a decrease of sales (Jacobs, 2004: 30). Amabile specifies that especially management practices can support or kill creativity (Amabile, 1998). So management and its practices could be seen as the factor that positively or negatively influences creativity within a company. The management aspect plays an important role in the research and will be further discussed in the theoretical part of this study (chapter 2).
1.2 Paradoxes
The idea of managing creativity seems to be a contradiction at first sight. When one thinks of creativity, often one supposes that something spontaneously originates from some kind of circumstances, which cannot be managed.
Also in terms of what can be managed, the opposites of intuition and analysis create tensions for managers (de Wit & Meyer, 2004). On the one hand validity plays a role. Strategic actions which are based on the manager’s cognitive map -built through past experience- can be made less unambiguous by strong logical thinking. Logical thinking explains each step made is a result from the previous step, based on valid principles. On the other hand innovation requires taking risks and abandoning old patterns. When creativity is used, the thinker does not take valid steps anymore and by abandoning the disciplined way of thinking, new ways to look at problems are generated, but the conclusion will not be justified by previous steps (de Wit & Meyer, 2004). This paradox applies not only to managers, but also to complete organisations. Finding a method to incorporate both ways of strategic thinking into a workable process is very challenging.
In reality it is hard to distinguish what is wrong and what is right in an organisational approach towards creativity. Most of the time it is not a big problem for organisations to come up with creative ideas, but there is a problem getting creativity converted into innovative products and services.
Especially large organisations still operate according to a business model more appropriate for the last century (Scase, 2004). Whether creativity is something “soft” and uncontrollable (Gaspersz, 1998) is to be argued, but it could be the reason why it is hard for a manager to choose between creativity and logic decisions.
There are special approaches to manage creativity. For instance one of these models is the 15% rule within 3M. The rule indicates that 15 % of the employees’ work time has to be spent on projects which are within their interest. This way 3M tries to stimulate its employees to come up with new solutions and eventually find new interesting business opportunities. Such an approach is belonging to what Gaspersz sees as the third and most developed phase in the management of creativity.
According to Gaspersz there are three phases in the management of creativity (figure 1.1). The first phase is where the management is handling an idea box, where ideas from the employees are evaluated. The second phase is where the management is able to stimulate creativity of employees and teams. In the third phase the management has an integral system, where the focus is not anymore only on the development of personal creativity, but on the situation which allows ideas to develop
(Gaspersz, 1998). The third phase comprises the situation which means the structures, processes and people of the whole organisation.
Although the third phase is the ideal setting for creativity and innovation to blossom towards success and sustainable competitive advantage, most companies have not reached this phase yet (Gaspersz, 1998).
‘Creativity can be managed and developed as competitive strength’ (Kao, 1989).
That managing creativity is manageable has also been argued by Richard Florida in his bestseller ‘The rise of the creative class’. Florida agrees that management models that rely on people’s intrinsic motivation are of ‘soft control’ kinds. The companies try to motivate the workers rather than giving orders. By motivating employees, they are seduced to work harder (Florida, 2002). Business Week puts it as “The smartest companies know this. Instead of ensnaring employees with more signing bonuses and huge salaries, they are trying to hook them emotionally” (Conlin, 2001).
1.3 Research
1.3.1 Research objective
This study explains what the organisational approach towards creativity means. Not many companies are acquainted with coordinating creative ideas and turning them into successful outcomes. This research clarifies the connection between processes, structures and people and tries to find out how managing creativity can be discussed from a more complete view. It is certain that creativity is needed to succeed. What is less certain is how to manage for the maximum creativity. Florida describes the problem as ‘how do you increase efficiency, improve quality, and raise productivity, all while
Figure 1.1. The 3 phases a company deals with when managing creativity (Source: Gaspersz, 1998)
accommodating for the complex and chaotic nature of the creative process?’ (Florida, 2005, p125- 126).
In relation to the literature in the research about how management influences creativity, one can say that the end of the twentieth century has seen an increasing interest in ways of developing and sustaining creativity and innovation in organisations (Henry, 2001a) and the interest to write about creativity has increased as well. Some books and articles can be found on creativity, the importance of the creative sector and the management of creativity (authors who will be used in the research are Amabile, Gaspersz, Henry and others). But not much literature has been written about the paradox between creativity and logic decisions, neither has much been written on the right balance of managerial aspects which influence creativity.
In addition, in relation to the case used in the research, namely the creativity in advertising agencies, much research about advertising creativity has focused on measuring the effectiveness of the advertisement itself (Jones, 1998, El-Murad & West, 2004, Fillis, 2000, Hocevar, 1981, Middleton, 2004a,b Smith & White, 2001). The literature on advertising does not discuss any managerial decision aspects regarding creativity. It does not give attention to the process of how creativity is established within a company and what precisely influences the creativity within the advertising agency. So in relation to management it would be more interesting to focus on where creativity comes from and how this can be managed in order to make it a success.
1.3.2 Research question
Not a lot of literature discusses which aspects are involved in the management of creativity. This research focuses on how management is of influence in the organisational approach towards creativity.
No businesses work without specific processes (even if they are not aware that they have them) but how to influence the process in order to make creativity a success and not killing it? What are the requirements to enhance creativity? These questions lead to the general research question:
Research question: How does management contribute in making creativity a success?
To answer this question, first the relevant literature is analysed (Chapter 2), followed by a case study on advertising agencies (Chapter 3) in which the phases of the process where creativity plays a role and the findings from the interviews are discussed.
1.3.3 Definitions
The definitions are generated from the different views which are discussed in the theoretical framework (Chapter 2).
Innovation
Something new which is presented in such a way that the value will be determined by its selectors (Wijnberg, 2002)
Creativity process
Context and organisation in which new ideas are nurtured and passed on, or made into something more generally useful (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002: 226)
Creative capital
Creative thinkers whose ideas can be turned into valuable products and services (Florida, 2005: p125)
Managing creativity
The complete set of actions, instruments and undertakings which have the common goal to let ideas flower within organisations, to evaluate them and to convert them into concrete actions (Gaspersz, 1998, p19).
1.3.4 Research Model
The research entails a theory analysis and a case study on advertising agencies. The research model (figure 1.2) shows the different stages of the research. The theoretical building block (Chapter 2) will discuss the theoretical aspects of what creativity is, which factors influence creativity and the processes to manage creativity will be discussed. In this part some hypotheses will be formulated.
Then in the empirical building block the hypotheses will be tested with the findings from the study case and the interviews.
The two phases of the research will finally lead to recommendations on how the management of a company, in particular the management of an advertising agency, can influence the process of creativity within the organisation.
Table 1.1 Definitions
1.3.5 Approach and research settings
An exploratory study guides a research when the researcher is new to the field and lacks a clear idea of the problems he will meet during the study and is especially useful for areas of investigation which have not been studied before and are new or very vague (Cooper & Schindler, 2003). Although the topic on managing creativity is relatively new, already enough literature has been written on this subject to form hypotheses and this study is therefore not exploratory. A hypothesis testing study begins with a hypothesis or research question and involves precise procedures and data source specifications (Cooper & Schindler, 2003).
The research type chosen for this research is of a qualitative nature. Qualitative research is any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). In literature qualitative research has been described as
‘naturalistic’, ‘ethnographic’(culture descriptive), or ‘participatory’. Qualitative research implies watching people in their own territory and interacting with them in their own language, on their own terms. This is in contrast with quantitative research which involves measuring the degree to which the feature is present (Kirk, Miller, 1986).
In the literature about reasoning styles to solve problems two approaches can be recognised. When conclusions follow the reasons (premises) given, then the style is deductive. If conclusions are drawn
Figure 1.2 Research Model
from one or more particular facts or pieces of evidence then one can speak of an inductive approach (Cooper & Schindler, 2003). In this study the literature is analysed and hypotheses are formulated. The hypotheses will be related to findings from the case study on advertising agencies, subsequently a deductive approach has been chosen. Cooper & Schindler describe the difference between propositions and hypotheses. A proposition can be defined as a statement about concepts that may be judged true or false. When the proposition is formulated for empirical testing it is called a hypothesis (Cooper &
Schindler, 2003) and such testing is performed in chapter 3. The hypotheses do not only guide the direction of the research, but also identify facts that are relevant or not. Hypotheses suggest which form of research design is the best. They also provide a framework which helps organising the conclusions and results (Cooper & Schindler, 2003).
1.4 Empirical analysis
1.4.1 Case Studies
The tools available to management research are field methods (surveys and case studies), experiments, computerised data bases, simulations, or a combination of those. The field methods dominated in the organisational science, ‘because of the field’s traditionally applied nature’(Snow & Thomas, 1994).
Field studies are ‘those which involve real managers and organizations in contrast to ad hoc groups which are studied in a laboratory’ (Snow & Thomas, 1994).
For this research case studies are providing information for the empirical analysis. Case studies are a method to create grounded theory and have the aim to provide description, test or generate theory.
(Eisenhard, 1989) and they give an in-depth contextual analysis of events or conditions(Cooper &
Schindler, 2003).
Case studies can be done by either using quantitative data or qualitative data. Evidence may come from fieldwork, archival records, verbal reports, or any combination of these (Yin, 1981).
The study may be a source to future research when the hypotheses are plausible in the setting of the case study (Burns, 2000). A strength of using case studies in hypothesis-testing research is, that it is likely that novel theory will be generated from cases. By combining different views it helps the researcher to have creative insights (Eisenhard, 1989).
1.4.2 Case Study Advertising Agencies
It is interesting to take a closer look at the decisions taken by management that play a role in the management of creativity.
It could be questioned which industries imply a creative process and could be investigated in the case study analysis for this research, since, from a post-Fordist point of view, cost effecient methods are not the most important in competition, but in fact differentiation by innovation and creativity can be seen as main source of competitive advantage (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002). However, there are clearly some organisational fields in which creativity is configured at a premium. Jeffcutt and Pratt are of opinion that creativity is developed in a particular setting and cultural or creative industries are such a particular setting (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002).
The creative industry is a “sector that is engaged in producing novel cultural products”(Jeffcutt and Pratt, 2002; 227). According to the British Department of Culture, Media and Sports this industry comprises the following key sectors: Advertising, architecture, art and antiques market, crafts, design, designer fashion, film, interactive leisure software, music, performing arts, publishing, software and television and radio (Jeffcutt and Pratt, 2002). One of the sectors has been chosen for this study, namely the advertising industry.
Advertising is carried out by:
¾ Corporate clients
¾ Media
¾ Agencies
Clients and agencies are both involved in strategy, budgeting, media planning, media buying, and the evaluation of the campaign effects. The distinctive expertise of agencies lies in their flair of developing creative ideas and their skills in supervising implementing those ideas. Creative ideas on their own would not survive and they require knowledge or as Jones it calls ‘negotiating ability’ of developing the creative idea and bring it to the market (Jones, 1998). Creativity has been called the main element for success in advertising (El-Murad & West, 2004) or even the name of the game (Lamons, 2005). This is the reason why advertising agencies have been chosen for this research.
Advertising agencies are also very motivated to deliver creative products (Jones, 1998), so their process could be a source of inspiration for other creative working areas.
Creativity enhances more than only the entertaining factor. Advertising agencies have always put a great emphasis on generating powerful ideas. And in some cases agencies say that ‘creativity is our
end product’ (El-Murad & West, 2004).Then again within advertising the meaning of creativity is also not always used in the right way. Lamons argues that too often creativity is defined by an ad campaign’s entertainment power. ‘I am wondering whatever happened to the carefully crafted selling proposition’ (Lamons, 2005).
Creativity should not be the advertising’s way to success. Some think that advertisement should inform not entertain. ‘Creativity is too often defined by an ad campaign’s entertainment power.’
(Lamons, 2005). Advertising agencies should focus on the objective of an advertisement and relate that to the message. ‘Too often the humor and drama and creativity totally detract from the basic message the advertising should be delivering.’ (Lamons, 2005).
That various elements can play a role in the management of creativity is acknowledged, but its management is regarded as difficult. For example some agencies may have discovered the synergy between extrinsic motivation (salaries, bonuses) and the positive effect of intrinsic motivation on creativity. ‘The balancing act of keeping paying clients happy, building brands, increasing sales, and luring talented creative executives becomes incredibly complex’ (Koslow, 2003). Koslow recommends to research this paradox further in order to understand it more clearly.
In chapter 2 the organisational approach and managagerial aspects of creativity are discussed. The advertising agency business has been chosen, as through the process from getting an assignment up to delivering a creative product, some of the stages in the process can be clarified to see whether creativity is manageable in which way.
1.4.3 Data collection method
Case studies can combine data collection methods such as archives, interviews, and observations (Eisenhard, 1989). In order to answer the research question, information has been collected from literature about advertising agencies, annual reports, previous interviews with CEO´s found in magazines, interviews with agencies and own observation during that interview. For the interviews two types of companies have been chosen, i.e. the big network agencies and the smaller independent agencies.
Network agencies operate on an international/global base and belong to the biggest communication groups in the world. The top three biggest communication groups are WPP, OMNICOM, and PUBLICIS (www.vea.nl). Independent agencies do not belong to those groups, but can still work internationally.
Advertising agencies vary in income, employees, house style, but also in their network. The VEA, the Dutch Association of communication agencies (Vereniging van communicatie- adviesbureaus) listed the most important network players on the international market. This top 10 list consists of international working advertising agencies which belong to the biggest corporations. Nevertheless after 2001, the VEA stopped providing this list. Adformatie, the most important Dutch magazine reporting trends and data on communication agencies in the Netherlands, continued to bring a yearly update of the Dutch agencies’ data (location, income, growth % in comparison to the previous year and number of employees) and the network agencies are not included anymore in this list. For this research 3 network agencies and 3 independent agencies have been selected.
The sample selection for this case study is a purposive sample. The companies chosen for this research are representative, i.e. the chosen companies are in top ten list, or obtained a high score for growth on Dutch list of Adformatie, which means that they are successful. When companies are carefully chosen and the interviewees are experts in the topic, the purposive sample selection is a good method in a small sample to represent the population (Bowen, et al.,1996). Compared to other sampling methods this is a less expensive and less time consuming method to select the sample.
The network agencies were chosen from the top 10 list provided by VEA in 2001. The selection consisted of contacting the agencies from the top down, until three agencies were found who were willing to cooperate. The same top down strategy has been applied to the independent agencies, but here the growth percentage in income was compared with the others in their category, to be assured that they were successful.
Agency type Agency Position interviewee
Network “WWP” Ogilvy Creative Director
Network “OMNICOM” DDB Amsterdam Strategy Senior Consultant
Network “OMNICOM” FHV BBDO Account responsible
Independent Centraal Station creative director & General
Management (2 persons)
Independent Open Communication Art Director & General
Management
Independent Strawberry Frog Previous account planner and
now copy writer
Table 3.1 Agencies questioned in the study
The interviewees were in high level positions (a mixture of general managers, creative directors and strategy senior consultants, N=4), or mid level employees (N=2) who were with the company for more than 3 years and knew the company very well. The interviews took about 1:15 hours per interview. I tape recorded the interviews as ‘taking notes during lead to write-ups based on the data elements from the theoretical study’ (Yin, 1981) and on own impressions. Therefore, nonetheless time consuming activity, narrative writing is a more secure tool to use and is used in this research. The narratives are to be found in the appendices. See also the appendices for the questions used during the interview.
2. Theory
This chapter gives an overview of literature related to the research question How does management contribute in making creativity a success. First the concept of creativity is analysed (§ 2.1 and § 2.2).
Then § 2.3 shows that the literature can focus on the creative person, the creative product, the creative process, or on the internal environment which is the interconnecting aspect of all the components of creativity. § 2.4 Discusses the creative person, followed by the total organisational approach towards creativity (§ 2.5). The literature about managing creativity is combined with the help of the 7-s model which can be regarded as a model which distinguishes the main elements that lead to effective business practices.
2.1 Creativity v. Innovation
First a clear distinction is made between creativity versus innovation, because in the literature they are often seen together, but there is a major difference and should not be confused with each other.
Innovation can be product or process oriented (Hellriegel et. al, 1999), but is something new which is presented in such a way that the value will be determined by its selectors (Wijnberg, 2002).
Creativity can be seen as the process that brings new (Gasperesz, 1998) and appropriate (Watson, 2005) ideas and the ideas can lead to innovations, but can also be incremental improvements to the process. With the innovation process the useful ideas are transformed (Gasperesz, 1998) and successfully implemented (Watson, 2005) into a new way of added value for the organisation, clients, employees or other stakeholders.
Thus in relation to innovation, creativity within a company can be seen as the main element which makes innovation possible.. Innovation relies upon creativity, as in the creation of novel products and services (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002: 225).
2.2 Creativity Defined
Creativity is not something taken for granted within an organisation. As a rule the temptation to choose something familiar and trusted is bigger than the attraction of new visions of how business should be done (Gaspersz, 1998), but creativity is the engine that drives cultural evolution (Henry, p.15) and can be identified as a key competency of a firm (Carson, 1995). Creativity should bring
something novel, original, unique and the new thing that is created is to solve a problem or is of another kind of relevance (Smith & Yang, 2004). However creativity itself has no generally accepted definition in literature (Smith & White, 2001). In table 1.1 an overview is given of some frequently used definitions:
Author Definition
Maslow (1970, 1971) There are two types of creativity. Primary creativeness comes out of the unconscious and is the source of new discovery and can be defined as real novelty. Secondary creativeness is based on logic, common sense and reasoning and is built upon on previous knowledge (Smith & Yang, 2004).
Gustafson & Mumford (1988)
The production of novel, socially valued products (Smith & Yang, 2004: 34).
De Bono (1971) Solving problems by lateral thinking. Getting a different perspective on a problem by breaking up the elements and recombining them in a different way.
Gaspersz (1998) The particularity owned by individuals or groups of individuals which lead to new expressions, new ways of looking at things and new ideas.
Gaspersz also identifies also in particular creativity within organisations as the process which results in new ideas, that will have an added value for the organisation, clients, employees or other stakeholders
Fillis & McAuley (2000) Existing objects can be combined and a new purpose is discovered
The assumptions of what creativity means, changed very much over time and to be in the position to draw out what creativity means in the workforce, one needs to understand the underlying assumptions which changed. In the 1950s creativity was only for those who were gifted with the ability to be creative. In the 1960s it was regarded as a mental flexibility which could be learnt. In the following decade, the role of relevant experience was seen as essential to creativity, and in the 1980s the intrinsic motivation played a key role (Henry, 2001b). The intrinsic motivation is imperative for creativity as it reveals the ‘love people feel for their work’ (Amabile, 1983). In contrast to the extrinsic motivation which is more materialistic and based on rewarding like payment or promotion.
Thus till the 1980s the source of creativity relied on the individual. In the 1990s the organisations became conscious of the environment or ‘work climate’ effect on the potential for creativity on people in organisations. Developing conditions for an open climate and culture favour the creativity within a
Table 2.1 Definitions of creativity
organisation. The UK government supports this approach with initiatives such as the DTI Innovation Unit’s ‘winning company’ programme (Henry, 2001b). Due to the changes over time, it leads to a broader view on creativity within the organisation, this can be noticed when one looks at the different approaches to analyse in the creativity.
2.3 Interrelated Components
In the literature, the different studies on creativity can be divided over 4 areas of attention. Studies on creativity are often related to the person (1), the product (2), the process (3), and the press (4) (El- Murad & West, 2004, Smith & White, 2001).
The person (1), or as Smith & White (2001) describe the ‘creative personality’ can be related to the creative person itself. It often reflects the psychological way of thinking. Creativity can be formed in people’s heads by innocence, experience, accident or even madness (Fillis, 2000). Amabile discusses the quality or quantity of the creative product (2): ‘product or response will be judged creative to the extent that it is a novel and appropriate, useful, correct, or valuable response to the task in hand algorithmic’ (Amabile, 1983). The process (3) of creativity can be interfered by observing the person and combine it with the product. The press (4), i.e. the ‘environmental and cultural influences on creativity’ (Smith & White, 2001), can be studied for its effect it has on the other three (El-Murad &
West, 2004). The latter is a quite recent topic within the literature on creativity.
The environment can be of internal or external nature. As this study is more focusing on business practices, the internal environment is further discussed in § 2.5 where the interconnecting internal environment relates to the organisational approach towards creativity, but first the creative person is further explained in the next paragraph.
2.4 Creative Capital
The creative capital of an organisation is its arsenal of creative persons or ‘creative thinkers’ whose ideas can be turned into valuable products and services (Florida, 2005). As discussed in the introduction, the ingredients to add value to products and services have changed. This creative capital can be regarded as ‘the most important asset’ (Florida, 2005) or ‘hottest competitive resource’ for a company (Tan, 1998).
How does management perceive its employees and in particular the employees on creativity demanding positions? Being creative can be seen as looking at the same thing as everybody else but in a different way. Creative people are often regarded as ‘artistic individuals - people who are extremely knowledgeable and well known in their own right, who are passionate, talented, and have an own vision of how they want particular elements of events designed and executed’ (Allen, 2005: 46).
Having their own vision is the ability to look at situations or problems from a different perspective (Jacobs, 2005, De Bono, 1971). The first hypothesis which is formulated is:
Hypothesis 1: Creative professionals are regarded as artists, in the way that they have their own vision on particular things.
According to the definitions described in table 1.1, the added value created through the new idea is valued by the organisation, clients, employees or other stakeholders. However if the creative person has a different view on a situation, how can this be valued in the same way by outsiders?
The selection system consists of the selector, who is doing the selecting, and the selected, who are being selected. The selectors evaluate the products on the basis of criteria which they find relevant.
The three ideal types of selection are market (by end users), peer (colleagues), and expert selection. In a competitive situation often a combination of those is applicable (Mol & Wijnberg, 2004).
It is important that the value created is recognised by the clients, when it is not, the client’s expectations are not met. For example in the fashion industry, the retailers blame the consumers for holding back buying fashion, but at the same time buyers complain that the size of the clothes does not fit (Jacobs, 2004). The retailers seem to do nothing with studies about changing customer sizes and have not enough client orientation. So who are the most important selectors? Because this tension between producer and client, means that the creator of the product sometimes is the selector himself, leaving the client dissatisfied. Creative professionals should not be spent on ‘untangling messes that could have been avoided’, but rather spend time with the users to find ways to make the product better (Florida, 2005).
Hypothesis 2: The most important selectors of the creative output are the clients.
2.5 An organisational approach towards creativity
In order to look at the whole organisational picture the 7 S-model, developed by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, is used to give a clear indication of the most important aspects of an organisation.
Because an organisation is not just a structure, but it consists out of 7 elements, namely structure, strategy, systems, style, staff, skills and shared values (Peters & Waterman, 1982). All of which influence creativity, as will be shown in the next paragraphs.
For two reasons the 7-S model of Mckinsey serves as tool in this research to connect the different management practices to the organisation of creativity.
First, in differentiating creativity from innovation Watson explains that ‘creativity is a concept and innovation is the process’ (Watson, 2005), however from a management point of view, just as with innovation, it should be noted that new ideas require an organisational context in which the ideas are developed and made in something more generally useful. (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002 :226). Creativity is a process which requires knowledge, networks and technologies. The process interconnects novel ideas with contexts (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002). So creativity and innovation can be regarded as effects of the total system and the 7-S model helps to clarify this. Therefore organisational strategies that only seek to increase the creativity quotient of the person only address on one or two of the 7-S, i.e. staff and skills.
Second, according to Jeffcutt & Pratt another trap is to think that only cultural activities (the shared values ‘S’) are creative or that creativity and management are oxymoronic (Jeffcutt & Pratt, 2002:
227). This means that other activities within an organisation can enhance creativity too.
Strategy
The strategy of a company consists of the plans in response to, or anticipation of the external changes in order to reach the goals.
Not only the changing environment, but also meeting the needs of the market are of importance (Johnson & Scholes, 1999). The degree in which creativity takes place in reaching the goals depends on the industry and on the needs of the organisation itself.
Figure 2.2 The 7-S model – the internal organisational environment (source: Peters & Waterman, 1982)
Structure
The structure of a company is the organisational structure, i.e. the way the organisation’s units relate to each other. The structure is related to the size of the company, the departments and specialisations, the different levels, the tasks and coordination of the work (Peters & Waterman, 1982). Creativity fits in the organisational structure when one brings in chart how the creativity flow is organised, coordinated and by whom.
The organisation structure can be centralised or decentralised. One of the features to excellent performance is ‘simultaneous loose-tight properties’, which means that the combination of centralisation and decentralisation leads to the support of individual autonomy within the boundaries of the organisation’s core values (Peters & Waterman, 1982).
Systems
The systems within a company consists of the procedures (formal), processes and routines (informal).
Technical systems, for instance providing an online forum to exchange and discuss ideas, and honour the creative efforts of for example researchers, are part of for example the communication system. The communication between managers and employees do include regular meetings as well.
The rewards system belongs also to the systems of a company (Tan, 1998). The reward system refers to all forms of pay or rewards going to employees and arising from their employment. It is to reward the effort they make for the company. However in relation to the development of creativity it can also discourage employees from taking risks, as ‘the system can stifle creativity when it is too punitive on failures’(Tan, 1998, Breen, 2004). In addition if group work is important in a company, the creativity is also discouraged when the reward system over emphasises individual creativity (Tan, 1998). Thus the appraisal system is of direct influence on the creativity of a company.
The appraisal system is quite special in the creative sector. Creative people trade their ideas and creative energy for money (Florida, 2003 : p 135). At the same time they want some flexibility to do things within their interest. Thus possibly they trade conformity for freedom when they pursue new jobs. They also see themselves as unique individuals with unique skills and want to be rewarded accordingly (Florida, 2003). They do not work for the money, but for the ‘challenge, the responsibility, for the recognition and the respect it brings. They do it because as creative people, it is a central part of who we are or want to be’ (Florida, 2002: p134). Of course people need to feel that they are compensated fairly, but employees do not think about pay on a day-to-day basis (Breen, 2004)
Hypothesis 3 Extrinsic motivation is less popular and less useful than intrinsic motivation in relation to the enhancement of creativity.
Looking at the organisational systems in general: ‘Creatives themselves would not be creative without the social and material infrastructure to mobilise their creations’ (Jeffcutt and Pratt, 2002:232).
So are organisational processes necessary to direct the creative professionals? ‘When you are working with creative minds, it is crucial to keep them on track so they don’t go off on tangents and disrupt the project’s rhythm or production schedule’ (Allen, 2005). A schedule is needed to keep everybody focused on the general concept and design. The management’s task is to make sure that a team is moving forward, all in the same direction, and while minimizing difficulties and drama. It is important to stick to that schedule (Allen, 2005). Nevertheless a recent study from Amabile showed the opposite and people were least creative when they were under deadline pressure. In that study they even concluded a ‘pressure hangover’, which means that even two days after the deadline the creativity was still down (Breen, 2004). It is not impossible to be creative under pressure, but only when the workers are not distracted.
So on the one hand creative professionals need to accept to be directed and if they do not want to, you have to consider removing them from the project (Allen, 2005), but on the other hand people need time to let the ideas ‘bubble up’ (Breen, 2004).
Hypothesis 4: Creative professionals need to organise their work, but deadlines create tension under which they cannot fully carry out their job.
Staff
The staff involves the number, types, hiring, and developing of employees in the organisation.
Microsoft believes that creativity starts with hiring the right people (Tan, 1998). By training, programmes, team-building activities the employees are further developed and this leads to an improvement in creativity (Tan, 1998).
The relation between staff and the management is also important. People leave jobs not for the salary or the number of stock options. An often heard complaint is that the management does not understand the employees, is inconsistent, incompetent or unpredictable (Florida, 2003).
Style
The cultural style of an organisation can be divided into management behaviour and organisational style. The first is the behaviour of the key managers to reach their goals and second is the cultural style of the organisation, which will be further discussed in the shared values. Within a project, the manager should allow the creative professionals to express their abilities, talents, and ideas (Allen, 2005). It is important that the manager trusts its creative employers. ‘People in general produce better when you trust them’ (Allen, 2005: 48). However to reach the goals a good overview is needed. The characteristic of the most effective leaders is, according to a study, that they have a high degree in emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1998). Of course are IQ and specialised skills important, but without EQ the manager is not a great leader.
Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills are the pillars of EQ. The great leader’s capabilities lie in understanding its emotions and the effect on others, the organisational commitment, the strong drive to achieve optimism, openness to change, expertise in making teams and leading people and great leaders are working with compassion (Goleman, 1998).
Some of the emotional intelligence components are utilised by Amabile (1998) to show how managers can develop of kill creativity within a company. The 6 managerial aspects she defined that affect creativity are challenge, freedom, resources, work-group features, supervisory encouragement, and organizational support. The research shows that even when a person is motivated to be creative, the management can fail, for example, to connect the right person to the right assignment (challenge of making good matches), set goals which allow some kind of freedom, have a clear overview of time and money (resources), creating diversity in teams (work-group features), sustain passion for the job by intrinsic motivation or recognise creative work by extrinsic rewards in the right way (supervisory encouragement), or continuously enhance thinking and share expertise (organisational support) (Amabile, 1998). Consequently in relation to the EQ, the management style is of direct influence on the creativity.
Skills
With skills are meant: the distinctive capabilities of the employees or, in general, of the organisation itself. Various assumptions are made in the literature on what is needed to be creative. Employers recognise the importance of developing the creativity skills of their employees (Tan, 1998). The details of the programmes discussed in staff depend on the organisation and the needs of the organisation. By training expertise and creative thinking, skills can be developed.
Creative thinking is enhanced by setting up new patterns of activity, restructuring them, or thinking in analogies do all help to add stimuli which are needed to expand the perspective (Kaufmann, 2001).
Amabile explains developing creative thinking skills alone are not enough. ‘Creativity needs expertise, creative thinking skills and motivation’ (Amabile, 1998) in order to succeed. Creative thinking skills are important, but have to be combined with the domain relevant skills, for example technical skills in a technical job. So one needs to understand how to apply the creative thinking skills in its own field.
Shared Values
The shared values are the interconnecting centre between the other 6 S’s. They are the beliefs and illustrate where the organisation stands for, hence it is more of internal meaning, as sometimes the outside world may not perceive or understand the shared values (Peters & Waterman, 1982). The culture stands for the dominant values, the beliefs etc. and they develop over time and become part of the organisational life. Organisational culture has a powerful impact on creativity and it is not uncommon ‘to find managers working hard to ensure that their organisations have a nurturing environment to encourage creativity’ (Tan , 1998). A creative internal environment and a push in the right direction makes everybody creative (La Ferla, 2005). The internal environment are the buildings, offices, desks, spaces, light, colours, etc. all according to legal standards, but also to the maximum convenience of the employees.
The internal environment is of influence on creativity. How management should deal with this is not discussed by Amabile in her elements to succeed in creativity. However in figure 2.1 shows the components of creativity and environment has been added, because of to the change in assumptions about creativity over time (§ 2.2) and the role environment plays in the company culture .
Figure 2.1 creativity is a function of 4 components (based on Amabile, 1983 and Henry, 2001b, and Tan, 1998)
Hypothesis 5: Next to expertise, thinking skills, motivation, a new focus concerning the components in successful creativity is on internal environment.
There are also two pitfalls in strong shared values. The first difficulty is the danger that individuals, who are bound to a strong corporate culture, may adopt a fixed mind-sets to solve problems (Tan, 1998). The second difficulty is to change the strong rooted beliefs, if needed, especially when a company is successful. To overcome this problem an open corporate culture and an open minded attitude which allows trial and failure can help develop an place to be creative.
2.6 Creative procedures in advertising
Some literature about creativity in the advertising business is here elucidated to understand the meaning of creativity in that particular industry and whether the structure of the agencies changed overtime.
As with other forms of creativity, advertising creativity embraces both originality and innovation (Fletcher, 1990). But for what reason is creativity of importance in the sense of competition factor? ‘It is the role of creativity to stimulate the involvement necessary to get past the consumer’s screening process and lodge advertising associations in the long-term memory if advertising is to have an impact on purchase decisions or product experience at a later date’ (Jones, 1998). To ensure the ad’s message comes to mind when people think about a brand, the campaign must be well linked to the brand and it must be easy to understand (Jones, 1998). And the advertising must have impact, quality, style and relevance. (El-Murad & West, 2004).
‘Many assume creativity highly related to effectiveness – some would even argue they were the same things- creativity is still important in its own right’ (Koslow et al., 2003). Creativity could even been seen as the company’s raison d’être. Consequently advertising agencies spend a lot of their time and energy in competing for creative awards.
Advertising awards can be focused on different aspects of a campaign. Awards can focus on creativity, for example the Lamp awards in the Netherlands, where the winning advertisements are likely to rate high in imagination and originality, but sometimes low in relevance. At the same time advertisements that generate more favourable sales should possess divergence and relevance. The Effie Awards are focusing on the effectiveness of campaigns.
The structure of advertising agencies itself changed since the last decade. Marketers shift money to the Internet. As traditional media advertising becomes less effective marketers are asking for new ways to reach the market. ‘The objective of business today is to get response. Without there can be no dialogue, no discussion, no progress, no persuasion, no sale. To do that you have to build relationships.’ (Finance Week, 2005).
Initiatives concerning website promotions and web-based advertising are innovative, but companies also tighten up on these actions, as there is the chance of exposure to viruses and spyware. The business objective to get response from consumers also translates into integral marketing and customer insight which have led to circumstances where customer’s wishes must be taken into account. The knowledge a company should be turned into value, using customer intelligence, customer insights and creative excellence (Finance Week, 2005).
3. Advertising Agencies - Case Study
Before moving on to the findings related to the hypotheses, the process in advertising agencies is illuminated (§ 3.1), this not only to show the development of a product within the analysed type of organisation, but also to clarify some field vocabulary. The § 3.2 is the 7-S model implicated in the advertising agencies, it shows the aspects which are of influence on creativity. The perception on creativity follows (§ 3.3), how the company perceives its creative professionals, how the creativity takes place within the advertising agency and how the final product is valuated. The last paragraph discusses how creative people are motivated for the job and how they stay motivated and inspired.
3.1 Process in Advertising Agencies
The phases to make an advertisement is explained in order to be able to show where creativity is of importance in an advertising agency. The work starts with a new assignment or with a ‘pitch’. A pitch, in phase 1 (figure 3.1) is a structured way for the corporate clients to select advertising agencies. First the advertiser sends out a questionnaire, to get to know the capabilities of the different agencies, then they have an interview with some of them and the finalists are asked to make a proposal. The one who makes the best proposal, gets the job (Rothenberg, 1994).
Agencies do not like pitches and they do not regard pitches as the ideal situation to get an assignment.
The competition is a cost and time consuming activity and most of the times it is not worth it. Furthermore the questionnaire does not say much about the creative capabilities of an agency. They often ask how many employees they have, if they do DM (direct marketing) and other questions. To great irritation of the Creative Director (Werkhoven, Ogilvy) these questions have nothing to do with the creative abilities of the company and they are time consuming to fill in. Also it should be questioned whether the capabilities of companies with some kind of reputation are not obvious. The long history of assignments should already be clear enough for the client to decide whether they want to work with an agency, or not (van de Ven, Centraal Station).
The briefing, phase 2, is the proposition made by the advertising agency. Strategic goals and time limits are mentioned in the briefing. Sometimes there are conflicts in the briefing, for example when
Figure 3.1 The phases in the process of making a campaign
the client wants to communicate too many things which cannot be communicated in one campaign and would make it very unclear (Remarque, DDB Amsterdam). ‘Preferably the client should only want to tell one thing and not ten different things, talking to the client and knowing what the goals are. The simpler and smaller the territory is you stand on, the better it is.’ (van Tilburg, Centraal Station). The agency makes a debriefing if necessary (phase 3) and eliminates the contradictions, which means that goals, the communication strategy to follow, or time limits have to be reconsidered together with the client.
When the briefing is satisfactory, the creative workers are making one or more samples. These are reviewed by the creative director (phase 4). When the client accepts the sample, the project is continued and the first takes of the commercial are filmed. In the next phase, the client can have ‘a look in the kitchen’ or take part in ‘kitchen reviews’ to see from every now and then how the project develops. Then the 6th phase is a final meeting is arranged to show the commercial when finished.
3.2 Influencing Aspects on Creativity
Strategy
Most agencies use a business model with the objective to give the client the best service possible, to generate as efficient as possible the process of creating a campaign strategy and to create value for their clients. The business model of big agencies consists of the interaction between clients, account managers, strategic consultants and creative teams.
Creativity is the tool which enables the advertising agencies to differentiate, but what the advertising agency creates should also be useful, because goal they want to reach is to help the client, i.e. to be able to make the client’s business grow. Next to that the agency always has its own image in mind. If they decide to work with a client, the client should also make the advertising agency’s brand grow.
The agency’s purpose is to select clients in such a particular way that it fits to their own brand name.
Structure
In the agency the tasks are divided over the account managers, strategy department, and creative department. The account manager or planner is the contact person in between the creative professional and the client. The account manager plans the whole process (figure 3.1), but the creative director assigns the jobs to the right persons and is involved with every project. The strategy department takes care of carefully planned brand building process. It analyses market researches about the product, the mark and the target group(s). The strategy department advises the client about the type of instrument etc. to reach their goals which are stated in the briefing. The creative department delivers creative concepts and campaigns.
The projects are divided over the creative professionals. It may be that one person is focusing on one brand at the time, but mostly the work is divided over some days or weeks, so variation is created in the work. The network agencies are bigger, have more employees and often sub specialisations in for example direct marketing or internet. They want to make sure that no matter what the clients’ wishes are, it can be made. However it becomes clear that from efficiency point of view the smaller agencies work with people on a freelance basis, also creative teams sometimes.
The great opportunity of using freelancers is that new talents can be analysed and used for a specific project. This is a way of getting fresh ideas. The advertising agency is not restricted to one style for a project, but they can choose a person with a specific style that fits the assignment. The efficiency is also applicable on the fact that the agency can accept an assignment and hires people accordingly, thus it is cost effective. The only risk is that the freelancers do not know the brand as well as the people from the agency. It takes time to inform freelancers and that time is not available. But even in the case of freelancers, one or more persons from the agency have the end responsibility before the creative director reviews the work and shows it to the client.
Systems
All the agencies use communication systems, like meetings and so on, but the network agencies have, due to the fact that they belong to a bigger network, online forums with other agencies all over the world. See § 3.1 for the other procedures and routines.
The only remark on routines in a creative company is that the briefing sets the guidelines from where the creative person should start. In this set space the creative has to develop one or more concepts.
When the first concept has been made and is already in the good direction, then it is easy to improve that concept. However if more concepts are required, from which the client can choose, then it may sometimes be hard to find different angles to look at it and it can take a lot of time to find for example three different concepts for the briefing.
Staff
The appraisal system is harder to describe as money facts are not easily exposed. However in the network companies the interviewees responded that talent is so important, that for sure the right hiring policies make it possible to attract exceptional talented creative professionals with a track record, i.e.
portfolio. As the business of the network agencies is bigger, the creative directors are more willing to pay the price for the creative professionals they ‘hunt’. The smaller agencies try to discover their own talents, by setting up meetings to review students’ works at schools (van Tilburg, Centraal Station).
Style
The management style is related to the culture of the organisation. The managerial behaviour would not be an aspect to analyse by asking the interviewee, but can better be done through (long-term) observation and also asking reactions from the employees under the manager. However a small distinction can be recognised between the network agencies and the independent. The employees in network agencies seemed like the were following the guidelines from the manual. In comparison to them, the employees in the smaller companies were relaxed and had a calm attitude.
Skills
The learning process in an advertising agency consists of learning by doing. The hands-on mentality is good visible and all the employees have to gain experience in order to develop further from junior to senior. The juniors learn from their fellow colleagues by looking at their projects, analysing works from other agencies, and by contributing in little excursions organised by the management. One company went to Viktor and Rolf in the fashion industry, to gain insights on the creative process in another creative company, different from advertising. Another agency went to the Ogilvy agency to have a better idea on how they organise all the work.
Next to that studies are available for example in London where potential copy writers can follow courses specialised in creative thinking skills. This means that within a period of one hour, the student had to show 40 different concepts to one briefing. This is how the brain get trained in order to react fast and use ideas efficiently. However these courses are normally not paid by the agency to every employee, as they believe that creative professionals already followed an art or graphics study.
What an important competent is of the creative director, are great presentation skills. The creative director is the person who should explain and convince the client.
Shared values
The open or flat culture of an agency is very important. When everybody is reachable and willing to work with each other, the employees find it easier to discuss certain topics. The companies also prove their openness by open desks or see through doors to offices. Hypothesis 5 explains the environmental aspect further.
3.3 Perception of Creativity
3.3.1 Creative Capital
Hypothesis 1: Creative people are regarded as artists, in the way that they have their own vision on particular things.
Creative professionals and the employees surrounding them in advertising agencies do not regard creative people as artists, but more as craftsmen. Craftsmen who have a lot of experience in their own field and who understand their job well. Through experience and previous assignments they know how to work with creative problems. They are able to have different insights on a problem and they also understand the psychology of the end consumer. The creative professionals learn to be efficient and understand what the processes steps are that one has to follow (Kok, Open Communications).
One person called the ability to handle the different insights and know what to do with them
‘disciplined imagination’ (Remarque, DDB Amsterdam). But in order to have these different insights, the creative professional wants freedom to be able to look at the problem from different angles and find the right solutions.
3.2.2 Creativity from organisational view
The interviewees agree that creativity comes from all the departments. The whole process between the different departments relies on creativity as all the parties try to search for their strength in their own occupation. For instance the strategy department can be creative more on the content of the campaign, or on the different media types used. The creative department is involved from the beginning of the project, from searching a creative concepts for the brand to showing the final campaign. Besides that the account manager has to try to persuade the advertiser to give as much space as possible to the creative people (Brouwer, FHV BDDO).
The process relies on creativity, but the making of the commercial itself can be seen as more productive. The most phase where creativity is most concentrated is the development of the concepts.
When those are ready, the making of the commercial itself, is expressing what has already been written. That too can request very creative insights, but movie professionals are involved at that stage.
Sometimes creative ideas even come from the clients themselves. A small indication in the briefing or from something what they say about their brand during a meeting, may already be enough for the
creative professionals to continue with that idea. Of course the level of creativity depends on how much freedom the client gives to the creative people. If new ideas are too much blocked, then the creative people are not free. Often one sees that the client likes the idea on paper, but then gets a little bit afraid when he sees the results in for example the kitchen reviews.
So there is a clear tension between the creative professionals who need space and the account managers who are standing in between the clients’s wishes and the ones of the creative professionals.
A good communication is very important here. The tension seen between creation and strategy department is regarded as ‘healthy’, because when one works with people, sometimes misunderstandings happen from bad communication. The creative persons should also trust their account managers as they know best how to organise an assignment. Also the personalities in the different departments may be very different from each other and cause tension.
3.2.3 Creativity Valued
Hypothesis 2: The most important selectors of the creative output are the clients
The interviewees confirm that creativity is regarded to be the agency’s main element to success. It is how the agencies compete with other agencies to get clients or to win prizes on festivals. The prize and award festivals bring extra media attention, but especially to get the recognition from fellow workers and specialists is an important aspect. However the agencies can only discuss if an idea is award- winning-worth when one sees the result, which is after the creative thinking and making of the campaign. It is a nice drive to think of very special insights, but in the end the campaign must work client and that is their goal. However the network companies are very eager on winning awards and being the best. One of the smaller agencies explained that sometimes in network agencies one team can work almost full-time on one big account. Whereas in smaller agencies that is impossible due to the lack of time and staff.
As the agency’s goal is to make the client’s business grow, the selectors are the clients. In the end the client pays the bill. Long relationships with clients build a trust and understanding from both sides: the client knows what to expect from the agency without too much explanation and the agency knows the client and the brand better. In long-term relationships both parties also know which steps to take and when they have to come together to discuss the development of the project. So it is very effective and pleasant when a client stays with the advertising agency for a longer period of time.
