Creative Problem Solvers

There’s a great interview on Creative Generalist with the recently retired lan Wiggan from Hayhurst Communications in Canada.

Ian has some interesting ideas on the way advertising has to adapt and change over the next few years.

One of the points he touches on is the industry’s need for what I call ‘creative problem solvers’. Here’s a snippet of what he had to say:

“What doesn’t change is the need for communication strategies that spark great creative ideas.

Developing these strategies continues to require really smart people with a generalist and creative approach to thinking about problems.

A significant issue that arises for agencies as media choices multiply is the need to integrate their client’s messages across a fragmented media landscape; to be advertising generalists, simultaneously building the brand to a mass audience and selling very specific benefits to micro fragments.

This in turn means having an incredibly diverse talent pool to draw on - and that requires a change to the traditional structure of agencies.

It is not financially feasible to employ all these folks full-time so the agency will likely, more and more, only be made up of the strategic thinkers, and project creative directors…big picture people with the ability to identify and manage highly skilled freelancers.”

Read the full interview here.