Creative agencies should be involved in consumer interaction

The recently-appointed chief innovation officer for Europe at McCann Erickson, said in a seminar at Spikes Asia 2011 today that the creative process should continue even after a campaign is rolled out, by allowing consumer interaction.

He was speaking at a session entitled 'The rapidly changing agency model: from linear to "pinball" ', that discussed how agencies needed to adapt their agency frameworks and feedback loops to the changing media landscape.

Describing the new model as “pinball” advertising, Palm-Jensen noted that this model would allow consumers to become part of a campaign, as they can react and express their feelings towards the brand.

This model, in turn, can help creative agencies to go further with follow-up campaigns of the brand, he said.

“Creative agencies should change from ‘bowling advertising’ to ‘pinball advertising’. In pinball, you don’t know how the game will be. You just have to flip the ball and if you do it well, you can play for days. The same goes to advertising, the campaign can go on forever with consumer interaction,” he added.

The 'bowling advertising', he explained, is where the creative process ends when the campaign is rolled out - no matter how many pins it has knocked down - and that creative agencies have little or no interaction with the consumers.

“Creative agencies should move from brand planning to pathway planning, community planning, performance planning and business planning,” he noted.