Pulse Creative: A Return to Full-Service

First of all letamp8217s nail one myth Fullservice agencies were great fun to work in they were fantastic places to learn about the advertising business but they werenamp8217t in themselves a cureall for siloed working and an answer to integrated thinkingThe fact is we seem to lurch from one extreme to the otherIn the fullservice days media departments were very much amp8220below the saltamp8221 not to mention often hidden away in a cold dank basement lit only by a flickering candle and heated by a single bar electric fire which was turned on for one hour each day Okay I made some of that upCreative departments and suits ruled the roost Certainly there were many wonderful ads produced but the fact they are still remembered and still talked about has something to do with the limited media choices out there the enormous audiences delivered by each channel and the watercooler effectOf course it also helped there were huge creative talents around at the time Clients didnamp8217t particularly want or even need every element of the fullservice available from their agencies but that was the model on offer Media people whinged and moaned and eventually did something about it by setting up on their own Now we have media vendorsplatformstraderssnakeoil salesmen in the ascendency while itamp8217s the creativesamp8217 turn to whinge and moanBoth extremes are wrong Media was wrongly ignored in the fullservice daysCreativity is being disastrously subsumed by the tide of technology and an obsession with what even the most ardent digital geek is starting to accept are meaningless numbers Campaign last week carried the news that our largest newspaper publisher News UK has reorganized its advertising activities around a new business called Pulse CreativePulse Creative is a JV between The ampamp Partnership and WPP and comprises staff from WPP businesses including Mindshare and The ampamp Partnershipamp8217s CHI and Partners all working to a single PampampLSome will some already have seen this as a return to the old fullservice model Itamp8217s nothing of the sort rather itamp8217s a modern manifestation of how to bring together different disciplines into a single unit designed around the needs of a significant advertiserItamp8217s interesting and significant that WPP isnamp8217t setting up a shop comprising the same disciplines but drawn only from within the WPP stable of businessesI would be surprised if they didnamp8217t try but News UK obviously regards CHI and Partners highly Hence the JV with The ampamp PartnershipA victory for putting the clientamp8217s needs ahead of any internal considerations and thus a victory for common sense Fullservice reengineered history brought uptodateThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet management or associated bloggersamp160

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Pulse Creative: A Return to Full-Service

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Brian Jacobs

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