Really Grinds My Gears

In the words of the legendary Peter Griffin I just wanted to write a note about what really grinds my gears in the world of Rich Media advertising.

I personally believe that the process behind nearly all online campaigns is undertaken in the wrong manner. I spend so much time speaking to creative agencies who have been given a media plan that has been defined before the idea has even been generated and therefore ends up not fitting the campaign. The worst example of this being when a film campaign has had loads of 468x60 placements bought and then it is expected that a 4:3 aspect ratio video will be squeezed into it.

I think this process needs addressing throughout the entire industry so that the client and the creative agency plan the ideas and THEN the media agency goes and purchases the placements to fit the idea perfectly. This would ensure spend is used in a far more succinct, worthwhile manner and would be more wisely allocated. I also think that then it would enable a lot more niche targeting of campaigns to ensure a far better response from that campaign and give room for far more innovation.

I know there are one or two examples of campaigns being run in this correct fashion however it takes so much strength from the creative agency to literally force the hand of the client that it can sometimes cause a rift between these three elements who need to work as one fluid entity. We somehow need everyone in the industry to start altering their mindset and hopefully we can get all campaigns to be as efficient and outstanding as the few exceptions to the rule that run their camapigns in the correct order end up winning all the online awards.