‘It needs to start at the outset’: How agencies can align media and creative

Kim Getty, President, Deutsch LA
Sometimes the answer is not paid media at all but an evolution in the consumer experience or a new product offering. The key is to bring everyone to the table together much farther upstream. If you wait to begin partnering creative with media at the brief, you’ve already prescribed to some degree an approach and set a limit to the collaboration opportunity.

Kingsley Taylor, evp and managing director, MRY West
Creativity needs to flow freely across media and creative businesses. This is easier said than done, as it doesn’t matter your team’s skill set; you need to ensure they share this common creative mindset. This requires a dedication to a conjoined culture, operations, goals and a mutual respect for each other’s discipline. It may take a while to truly achieve, but it is certainly worth the effort.

Bryan Wiener, chairman, 360i
Earned and paid need to be planned together even if the media is bought separately. In a digitally led era, the context of where an ad is seen is paramount — which begs the question of whether planning media and creative separately is a sustainable model at all.

John Sheehy, president of global operations, Starcom Mediavest Group
There is still too much muscle memory that exists between traditional creative and media over roles with clients at a time where content has no swim lanes. The winners will be the clients that can harness the technology, data, partnerships and required specialization. Agency partners who can break with past paradigms will put themselves in a position to attract the best talent and win.