When agencies can’t get along

The "HBO Voyeur” campaign from last year captured the industry’s attention and a passel of awards at Cannes. BBDO captured two Grand Prix and six Lions in the South of France for its work that weaved together nearly a dozen different elements to show HBO's storytelling prowess. That’s where the controversy began. The central part of “Voyeur” was a terrific Web site, where users could peer into the windows of New York City apartment building to see what was going on. Big Spaceship created that, although BBDO came up with the concept. Awards, though, credited BBDO, which didn’t sit well with Big Spaceship CEO Michael Lebowitz. It exposed the fault lines between the old school of creativity and the more progressive, digital practitioners. The problem is digital media blurs the line of what creativity means. The old approach of a central idea coming from an ad agency team with some minions doing production work is passé. On the Web, things need to work. A sketch on a napkin isn’t enough. In the words of TBWA digital chief Colleen DeCourcy, it's now about systems, not objects. Now BBDO is back with an HBO campaign to promote “Big Love,” the polygamist series. The New York Times writeup focuses on the non-traditional aspects that have become a hallmark of HBO campaigns. ("Voyeur" broadcast video on the side of a building; “True Blood” sent fake blood to fans.) BBDO created a billboard where passersby can plug in their headphones to hear “secrets” of everyday people. When it came to the Web, though, BBDO didn’t work with Big Spaceship. Instead, it went with Sarkissian Mason to build a “Big Love” microsite. The result: it ain’t “Voyeur,” that’s for sure. The site is your average submit-you-own secret Flash microsite, complete with floating thought bubbles. Agencies fighting each other is nothing new. What I wonder is whether the client ended up losing by the inability of BBDo and Big Spaceship to mend fences.

Comments

[Matt]

Brian,

This is good insight into the daily struggles that interactive agencies have with the traditional agencies. Why BBDO isn't using AtmosphereBBDO is beyond me. The most frustrating aspect of this struggle usually comes down to egos. If you could see how some of the traditional agencies treat the interactive agencies on collaborative projects, you would see why digital agencies in general are trying to capture more direct client work. Even when working with a client directly and having to collaborate with other agencies the client has hired often leads to the client asking "can you all get along?"

Zugara's done some great work for agencies though we decided a few years back that we wanted to focus on strategic work versus production work. Unfortunately, that's where I think the divide in interactive has been occurring as the traditional agencies are really just looking for a production unit that they can view as say a post house and control. It'll be interesting to see how much longer the traditional agencies will be able to 'control' interactive as it's quite a different medium than broadcast, print, etc.

Matt

[Craig Elimeliah]

I completely get your point but throwing Sarkissian Mason's work under the bus is not the way to make it.

Perhaps HBO or BBDO's CD insisted in this stale played out idea and forced it. It wont be the first time an agency has created a less than impressive website.

In terms of execution, its fine, nothing amazing and not sure BS would have done any better. To even compare the two is absurd.

Big Spaceship hasn't impressed since the Voyeur site and in this business its all about the core concept.

I am not so sure BIG LOVE had the same idea foundation that Voyeur had.

If HBO really thought that BS was above and beyond responsible for the success at Cannes they would have gone to them directly or they would have forced BBDO to work with them regardless of the petty ego cat fight that went on.

Who is fighting with one another?

Its a client vendor relationship and the vendor decided to tarnish that relationship. BS is hardly the best out there and BBDO knows that.

However if BS were truly the X factor behind Voyeur then why wouldn't HBO insist or go directly to BS?

[Jon Crowley]

I feel like one could make the same point about directors getting most of the credit and recognition for a film, where an arguably equal portion of the final form could be traced to the cinematographer, and the screenwriter.

I agree that this situation is in part a consequence of the separation between 'old school of creativity and the more progressive, digital practitioners', but I think it's also a matter of the medium still being new enough that there isn't a clear consensus on who gets the lion's share of the credit (apologies for the terrible pun).

[SEAN BOHAN]

This is typical. In discussions with a couple agency leaders, Digital is more important than ever, Integration is more important than ever and "we aren't hiring anyone who doesnt have digital in their experience or book".

In my experience, Brand agency creatives are desperate to get their hands (or in this case fingerprints and cred) on digital projects regardless of how much work they actually do to make it happen. Add that to many large "integrated agencies" where Big Agency folks go around the digital practice for whatever reason (they are too slow, too expensive, not creative enough, they only do banners), and the only player hurt in this sad tale is the client.

Kudos for: "central idea coming from an ad agency team with some minions doing production work is passé." Integration isn't passe. Doing the right thing for the client isn't passe. Creating amazing experiences for users isn't passe. Respecting the ideas and work of the "team" isn't passe. Clients are pitched this work as being integrated... until it's time to split up the budget.

Sometimes stories like this make me wonder if Digital isn't still sitting at the "kid's table".

[Brian Morrissey]

My point isn't to blame BBDO or Sarkissian Mason. Both often do great work. Ultimately, the fault lies with HBO. It had two agencies that created a great campaign with "Voyeur." Now, it's got a half-good campaign with a different lineup. HBO is the client and hires the agencies it wants. (BBDO tells me it didn't pick the digital shop.) The end result, at least when it comes to the digital work, is not in the same league as "Voyeur."

[James Cooper]

Very simple: Money.

As Jon mentioned the 'vendor' agency is no different to the TV director relationship. Everyone knows who the good ones are, they consistently win awards and are the first on (smart, egoless) creatives' lists.

The one difference is that Directors get paid a fortune. They fly around the world on someone elses buck and get laid. So when some spotty little junior creative team picks up an award at Cannes, or wherever, for their film, they really couldn't care less. C'est la vie.

With digital agencies it's slightly different. They work their nuts off, in dark rooms, coding to the wee hours and don't get paid that well (yet). So actually, to be recognized if they have done good work, would actually be quite nice, thanks.

The smart agencies will have a good balance of 'vendor' work, direct client work and making their own products - witness Barbarian selling their visualizer software to Apple. And through that mix they will make good cash and be able to pick and choose the right projects - like all the good TV Production agencies do.

And to whoever said that BS is 'not that good anyway' - just grow up, or chill out.

[Andrea Hill]

Wow Brian, I think you could do an entire series on "agencies fighting each other".. perhaps with an interactive interface highlighting which agencies are friendly and which are not? And the projects that spawned the fights?

[Matt]

I think budget might be another consideration in all of this. Let's figure that BBDO/S&M (Not sure if Sarkissian Mason goes by that shorthand but I like it) started on this campaign 6 - 9 months ago. I can tell you from first hand experience with our clients that if a project budget was not frozen or cancelled around June/July of last year, it was cut by almost 50%. So I think the bigger issue here is not one of how the creative concept was executed but probably more in line with budget/schedule expectations given the clusterf*^k our economy was and is still in...

And while we're on pitching story ideas. Here's 3 for you:

Traditional vs. Digital Agencies - Does employing one Flash designer qualify your agency as 'digital'?
I think this story definitely can be fleshed out quite a bit more especially given the upcoming battles that are going to be fought throughout 2009 with reduced traditional media spend.

Digital Agency East Coast Bias
My personal pain point. And it's been occurring over the last few years in regards to digital. It seems to even be considered an elite or 'best of breed' digital agency, you need to be in NY. There are quite a few agencies on the west coast that do on par if not better work than Big Spaceship, Barbarian Group, Firstborn, etc. Blitz Agency, 2Advanced, Zugara, Whitman-Hart, etc. are just a few West Coast agencies that don't get covered all that often and actually have direct client relationships versus agency relationships.

Evolution of the Digital/Interactive Agency
I think this was touched on briefly last year, but there is definitely an evolution occurring with digital agencies that are leading with creative/production (Big Spaceship, Barbarian Group, Firstborn, etc.) or leading with strategy (R/GA, AKQA, Organic, etc.) Would be insightful to get thoughts from digital companies on how they view themselves vs. how brands/clients view them. Goes back a little bit to a previous poster who commented that if BS was such an integral part of the HBO Voyeur Campaign, then why didn't the client demand that BBDO work with them again?

[Alan Wolk]

I think James Cooper nailed it on why BDAs haven't faced this sort of push back from their non-digital partners.

Pay me a million dollars for a few weeks work and you can call me a "vendor" all you want.

One issue the current crop of digital agencies faces is that the older generation of traditional agency creatives (e.g. the guys in charge) still don't view digital creatives as their equals. To Sean's point, their goal is to wrest the digital work away from their own internal digital teams and give it to "the real creatives." (I've heard it expressed in just those words.)

Matt's third article suggestion is a good one-- there's a big difference between what a lot of the newer digital agencies are doing, both versus each other (as Matt lays out) and versus the old school, 1.0 "we build banners and microsites" model that many of the web shops attached to the big agencies still adhere to.

As for Big Spaceship/BBDO Brian, we'll never know. I'm a big fan of the Spaceship-- and HBO, but unless we know the specifics of how this campaign came about (timing, budget, goals) we can't begin to guess at how it all would have turned out.

[Mona]

Awesome dialogue. I think the idea of integration, or lack thereof, between traditional and digital agencies is becoming more prevalent (as i've seen it) as traditional agencies oftentimes just don't get "digital" and typically try to impose their creative thought on the interactive guys and expect them to produce "matched luggage" for an integrated campaign

On the topic of BBDO, I just got hired to head up their digital department as an AD at their branch in Beirut, with aims to eventually get Proximity off its ground. Luckily the COO at BBDO/Proximity is aligned with the thinking that we need to integrate digital as a department within BBDO first- integrate the non digital folks with the practice so that they are educated and involved. Subsequently once the digital business at BBDO grows organically through existing clients, then leverage that experience to kick start Proximity. That way the two companies are not working in silos because by the time Proximity is up and running with a team, working in harmony with BBDO will not be far reached. The whole notion of "us versus them" is eliminated with you give the opportunity to the traditional guys to get involved with digital first hand.