Fifteen years ago, there was a pretty clear difference between “regional” and “national” advertising. If you were a creative on a national account, you shot your commercial in Sydney. If you were on a regional account, you were going to Dallas. And you might be sharing a room.
Then, of course, all that stuff happened. The Internet went from novelty to necessity, fundamentally changing the way we communicate. Which was followed by an explosion of overlapping subcultures and economic euphoria. Which was followed by the cold shower of reality. The result of all this reality, in markets like Houston anyway, was the virtual disappearance of the large, regional agency.
The good news is this has created major opportunities for smaller companies–design shops, production companies, consultants and collectives–to fill the void left by the large agencies. Opportunities not just for business, but for doing great work.
Hybrid shops are a fairly recent phenomenon. A combination of ex-agency staffers and production people, they’ve taken off in places like New York and L.A. Things get a little trickier in regional markets where clients don’t have a frame of reference.
For example, as a hybrid shop in Houston, we’ve really struggled with what to call ourselves. When you say hybrid, people think “broccoflower.” Beyond that, we’re not an agency; we’re not a production company. And in the South, you have to be careful about calling yourself a boutique–you’ll get phone calls asking if you cut hair.
Get past the identity crisis, however, and the road to doing great work is wide open.
To begin with, while regional budgets are still smaller than their national counterparts, you can go a lot further in real dollars than you could 15 years ago. And hybrid shops are uniquely suited to go from idea to execution with efficiency.
Also, in response to a changing industry, we’ve had to re-apply our skill sets. As a result, we’ve developed a reputation not as writers, designers, producers or directors, but as problem solvers. Which, arguably, attracts more problems, but it also attracts clients more open to creative solutions. Then, there’s trust. Whether it’s smaller budgets, busier clients, the fact that hybrids are up on the latest, rampant technology or all of the above, I’ve noticed that more clients are trusting us to do our job.
Finally, hybrids enjoy the best of both worlds. On the client side, increasingly self-reliant marketing and advertising departments have assumed roles that once fell under agency jurisdiction. Clients now have a tendency to work with multiple agencies and a willingness to work with specialty creative shops. At the same time, more agencies are outsourcing not only the production, but the creative, to specialty shops.
I’m not implying there’s no downside. For one thing, there’s a void of disciplined, mid-level creatives in regional markets. When you combine that with the emphasis on new technology, the result is a lot of new work that lacks big ideas. But this is the era of small, nimble creative shops. As the industry grows into its own, both clients and creatives will demand more. Whether national or regional, it’s a great time for little guys to make big impressions.
They already are.
Robert Campbell is creative director and partner at Houston-based creative and production studio 808inc.
