A manifesto of unity.

Has anyone else noticed yet that integration between traditional ad agencies and interactive agencies isn't working very well? Sure NEW agencies that have been started from scratch are doing the job, but existing agencies that are trying to shoehorn together professionals from disparate professions are having limited success as far as I can tell.

This year BBDO took seemingly full credit for a campaign for HBO's "Voyeur", much to the chagrin of Big Spaceship's CEO Michael Liebowitz.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3ibd29ae66455c7a706b91ab7a7a716043

While BBDO executed the campaign, they had major support from Big Spaceship. During the awards ceremony though, BBDO's silent partner remained largely unmentioned which raises questions about authorship and credit.

Why didn't BBDO more prominently credit their partner? Could Big Spaceship have submitted their own work for a Lion and ignored BBDO's contribution? Why is there a division in creative authorship at all based on the division of labor when the two do not have to be so strongly tied? Isn't every major marketing effort that happens today by definition, integrated?

Twenty years from now, or maybe even 5, no one will even remember that there was a difference between traditional creatives and interactive creatives because everyone will have to understand every channel available to us as marketers. So how do we navigate this road?

Delete territorialism. Educate one another. Give up the idea of pure ownership. Unite.

The agencies today that find a way to integrate and deliver powerful brand messages across multiple channels first WILL RISE to the forefront of marketing in the next two decades.

It's uniquely in the hands of all creative directors to bring about true integration so that we can all move into the future together.