Lately my team and myself have been battling the clients and account people on this subject. We created this big idea. It was awesome. Multi-platform. Digital but not a website. Involved and consumer driven. Perfect in our eyes. But the client was scared. Scared it might not catch on. The legal dept. was scared it might scare people. Everyone was fucking scared. So they’ve been slowly reducing it to the parts that they like: the tactics.  Pulling bits and pieces from the big idea and wanting to execute those. Slowly but surely killing the big idea. If the campaign were to be executed in its entirety and based around our big idea, it had the potential to be really effective and maybe even pioneering. Now it’s just tactics.

I read Bart Cleveland’s post on AdAge this week and it touched on this oh-so-touchy subject for me. We are more than just tactic producers. Being reduced to this devalues our brains and our talent.

“It is important agencies have tactical capabilities. But if we acquire them at the expense of our idea-generating capability, we are moving away from our true expertise. Let’s not run away from what makes us valuable just yet. There are plenty of tactic producers. Few can create the idea of the tactic. That’s where we come in.”

Well said Bart. Now how do I/we educate the client to believe in the value of our big ideas? I may be fresh out of school but I still know that without an idea to back up those tactics, our message only resonates for a short time before becoming irrelevant and forgettable. The big idea is key. Tactics are secondary. Period.

- Sean Leonard