What’s my Mom to Do With Social Creativity?
My Mom uses social media pretty well… monitoring my life, making commentary on my latest move and somehow linking up with all my friends, coworkers and even clients. It sucks…sort of. But what can I do, she’s my Mom? This isn’t a post about my relationship with my maternal unit but it’s an anecdote for how social has become a graveyard for basic communications devoid of creative brilliance and amazingness. The question that has bugged me so much over the years is why is social media so lacking in creative spark? What has happened to the promised land?
Doesn’t UGC Mean People Create Stuff?
Alright, admittedly UGC-enabled technology has unlocked some pretty interesting amateur artist endeavors. NGO Creative Commons has helped unknown creatives license their work which has stimulated lots of sharing and modification. Social media sharing is the norm and everyone can be a filmmaker, photographer, citizen journalist, you name it. But “creatives” have failed in my book to step up and face the social challenge. What’s the problem people? Well, think about it for a second. If everybody can generate content, then content creators who have degrees in creative professions have a lot of noise to compete with.
Ad Agencies Suck
Take the ad agency as a prime example. Employing a whole house full of copywriters, art directors and creative directors, this crew should be excellent at coming up with imaginative ways to use social channels to entertain, build new kinds of communities and encourage fans to create really engaging content all in the name of the brand. Unfortunately, really original agency-driven social campaigns are unicorns that I can count on one hand (Old Spice Man is the first one to come to mind.) The problem is ad agencies generally employ the wrong people trained in making TV commercials and print ads. They may even feel threatened by the voices of the social web and fear that their clever campaign could get flamed by them for not being clever enough. It takes a pretty brave CD to put their client’s brand out their for people to play with. Generally social media is an afterthought for agencies and it feels that way.
Digital Agencies Are Sucky, Too
But what about digital agencies? They should be able to do social creatively, right? Usually wrong since their money comes from website and mobile builds charging for IA, design and coding. Social app development has become a substitute to the traditional website, most of these are gimmicky novelties aimed at people’s friend lists, not so different than a chain letter at best and a ponzi scheme at worst. Most distinguishing people can see through them and they do little more than to attract lots of disloyal fans.
Social Media Gurus Are Just Dull
But what about the community managers, social strategists and other self-proclaimed social media gurus looking to social media as the key to profit and improving organizations? Well, frankly creativity is the last thing on these pragmatic people’s minds. To them social media is not so much a chance for titillating social communications but a weapon to maneuver and manage conversation to benefit a client in some way which is part soccer coach, part MBA-bred idealist, part nanny. To them creative breads chaos which is not on the menu. No fun hanging out with these folks unless you need to get your Dell fixed online.
What About Creative Technologists?
This is where definitions get super vague but the only people I would count on are the creative technologists – those people well versed and fanatical about technology with a creative POV that helps them figure out ways to make brands fun, original and surprising. I think surprise is what people want from brands and creative technologists in my book are a hybrid that can potentially realize cool solutions. Google Creative Labs is helping Google stretch a bit and Google Plus is a sign that things are looking up socially for Google (Circles is good creative at work.) Still, creative technologists tend to lean too much on their past coding experience and count on the creative director to determine how social will integrate with the whole media mix. This narrow tech focus can marginalize the creative technologist, making them the go-to guy/gal when people want an add-on digital and social idea.
Not All Sour Grapes
As REM once sang, “Sometimes everything is wrong… but hold on.” Of course there are lots of exceptions in all those above. The passionate ad man who digs social and tweets non-stop. The smart digital agency creative that gets how to design user experiences that build social right in. iiD is closest to this second exception. We’re a digital connections agency that love planning, designing and developing social media for brands that is unexpectedly creative to delight and bring a smile to your face. We think this is a blue ocean for strategists and creatives and a great opportunity for brands to shine. The only thing we ask is that clients suspend their expectations and expect big creative things out of social. The other thing is that integration is key, whereby social becomes a vital part of the communication plan from the first brainstorm onward. Creative executions in social don’t have to always suck. What social creative do you think is exceptional?
– Lance
I guess I just dont feel that social technology was meant to be linked with advertising?I marginally like facebook,its cool that it keeps me connected with my friends and family,but do I really need to be connected to brands that I like?
sometimes Im just a little overwhelmed with the amount of data that is driven through my head on a daily basis.I guess Im a little old school in the fact that I believe a product should speak for itself(make a good product and Ill find it,not the other way around)also I find myself really disliking products that are pushed to hard-If I see the same ad or hear the same commercial to many times chances are I am going to steer very far away from that product.I hope Im not coming across as confrontational Lance,I dont mean to be at all.just some ideas thanks.
Hi Dave (my high school skate punk friend),
Of course I can relate to not liking bad, annoying and meaningless advertising that disrupts instead of entertaining and giving something useful. The way I look at “advertising” in social media is that most is in fact rubbish and as bad as the irritating ads I have to listen to on the radio. But I think brands can be interesting and having really creative solutions in social media (and elsewhere) that people who like those brands can use, play with, create with is potentially good work. It’s a shame that a century of bad ads and a 2-3 years of poor social marketing bothers us. But that also a challenge that I’d like to deal with. I like social for its collaborative and creative potential for people AND brands.