Think Small

Rumors suggest Omnicom may discard the DDB brand –– icon of creative advertising.

Simultaneously, a new creative revolution is unfolding.

Holding companies used to treat creativity as the soul of their business. Now, it’s treated as overhead.

Media fragmentation has become the cash machine. Creativity — once their advantage — became a weak line item. Talent that fueled iconic campaigns struggles for air inside organizations built for dashboards, not ideas.

Demand for programmatic and retail media networks where performance can be easily measured is growing; naturally, premiums can be charged. Wall Street loves those premiums.

Creative, at least the way they do it, doesn’t deliver that level of profitability.

At Omnicom and the others, creative brilliance is no longer required to sell V-dubs or anything else, at least not as measured in terms of profits for the holding companies themselves.

So, the rumored death of the long-celebrated DDB brand is not a surprise.

Creative headcount is shrinking as a share of the holding company workforce. Creative is low-margin compared to media; labor costs are high, and it’s always been hard to scale –– and, from the perspective of the financialized owners, it’s hard to own. The talent has a mind of its own –– and walks out every night to get a good night’s sleep so they can do their magic anew the following day.

Media, tech, and data can scale with automation, be easily centralized, and be sold as subscriptions, dashboards, and specialized platforms, bringing in cash.

And that’s what’s happening.

But here’s the dilemma. Brands need creativity more than ever to stand out in this fragmented media world. Brands need stories that are unmistakably their own. And their stories must be able to relate to individual customers through influencers, YouTube, TikTok, and so on, with constant creative iteration.

AI can provide creative based on the past –– the Christmas Coke commercial is a great example of that. But it’s not so good at giving us the creative of the future.

You can’t differentiate through media alone. Everyone uses, essentially, the same platforms, same data, same tools.

So, we’re seeing a new creative revolution: independent shops, small studios, specialized talent, fractional leaders and CMOs, and tech companies integrating AI and other tools with creative to provide measurement and creative impact.

Three of my faves…

Liquid Death worked with a bunch of small creative teams and individuals, as well as using an internal team that operates much like an “SNL writer’s room,” creating original, funny, shareable content.

Farm League is an independent that does Patagonia’s environmental storytelling. They create documentaries that Patagonia underwrites. The content feels authentic, not commercial.

And of course, Wieden+Kennedy’s success as an independent with work for Coke, Nike, Old Spice, and countless others has long shown the power of independence and a focus on its roots as a creatively driven place.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of other creatively driven shops spinning up, both as independents and as inhouse creative groups, to take advantage of the newly available talent resulting from the holding company layoffs.

The fire that inspired DDB’s Think Small campaign still lives in the hearts of creatives everywhere.

But now the spark is coming from small, focused groups and individuals.

With creative, we’re seeing a shift — from holding companies to independents, from scale to talent, from dashboards to ideas.

Brands see it too. In a world overflowing with content, it’s the small, the fearless that carve out actual distinction.

Think small isn’t nostalgia.

It’s the strategy again.

~

I help creatives go from fear of failure to income growth without being pushy, manipulative, “scammy,” or doing awkward self-promotion. I do this through a series of in-depth conversations that uncover new revenue within my clients’ communities and often reveal completely new, more valuable opportunities. Interested? Reach out!