Adland needs factory workers immediately

A quick word association game: Factory. Production line. Churn out.

When you hear these words and phrases in a single sentence, what do you think of?

Cars? Washing machines? Shoes? Handbags?

Did you think of “advertising”?

Unilever’s Rahul Welde did. Speaking (all too briefly) at an event in Mumbai, Welde spoke of the future needs of advertisers in the context of the changing media landscape, especially in-store media.

In-store media would be as far away from the current paradigm of creating communication that would be broadcast to millions on television, requiring, instead of one TVC (with a few language edits), separate and custom made communication for, say, different cities and different branded malls and outlets.

Add to this the factor that the success and failure of in-store media would be known immediately (by sales, or the lack thereof), marketers would require their creative partners to be able to create communication TODAY to replace the current solution which has been found to be wanting.

That’s why the factory, that’s why the production line. A creative factory with a production line that could churn out high quality and effective communication consistently and cost-effectively.

Last month, Scott Goodson was sharing his views (over a drink, not in his keynote) on the future of the “holding companies”. Their structure, he believed, was built on the 30 second spot with budgets in millions (of dollars). This allowed them, indeed encouraged them, to build in redundancies – at a cost. A cost that is borne by the big-budget TVCs.

Take away the big budgets, and what do you have?

Let us overlay Welde’s views with Goodson’s, and let us bear in mind that Welde is a client and Goodson a communication expert.

And the twain do meet.

That’s food for thought for the large agencies, especially in India. The creative departments will need to be restaffed with young blood, with those who can think at the speed that the Weldes of the world will be demanding tomorrow. Young blood who understand the new technologies and new media. Young blood that is not trapped by the “systems” of the old (actually, current) way that advertising is being done.

Young blood that will not see creating communication in 24 hours, day after day, as the drudgery in a factory.

Young blood, all getting their highs seeing today’s germ of an idea selling shampoos in the aisles tomorrow.

Young blood who consume the media in the way tomorrow’s consumers will, and will understand instantly when told by a client that a particular piece of communication did not work.

They will keep creating till one does.