‘Why your traditional agency will never really understand digital’ – ‘Mashable’

Nate Houghteling says, “If you compare the techniques of advertising between its “golden era” in the 1940s and ‘50s and today, little has changed, surprisingly.

From a radio spot for Hoover vacuums sixty years ago to the E-Trade baby at the Super Bowl, the underlying premise is more or less the same: Take a broadcast platform with a large, captive audience and interrupt the regularly scheduled programming with a product message.

Because the formula for creating ads has remained intact for over a half century, the agencies that produce these ads haven’t evolved much either. Agencies still silo off creative, production and media buying as entirely different disciplines — or even different companies. They still pair a copywriter and an art director to form the creative nucleus of a campaign. They still hire a small army of account people to interpret the needs of their client. And, like any business that has been operating under the same model for decades, ad agencies have become rigid and increasingly slow to adapt”.

Why your traditional agency will never really understand digital