Geeks Vs. Freaks

I've now nearly been at Bluhalo for three months, so I thought it worthwhile to jot down a couple of my key thoughts so far.

I'm lucky (or unlucky if you count my agency that folded spectacularly in the original dot com gold rush!) enough to have experienced working at four very different digital agencies, so it's very interesting for me to look back at compare how they've all approached things. All have had straplines that are designed to sum up their USP or 'difference'. One of them (the biggest agency I've worked for) used 'ideas that work'. This one always made me laugh, as it's hardly going to be 'ideas that don't work'. Look at bit deeper though and you can see the point. There's absolutely no point in presenting an idea to a client that is likely to win a handful of Revolution Awards, a fist of IPA Effectiveness awards and a gold Cyber Lion at Cannes IF the idea isn't based on sound commercial judgement. As a strapline, 'ideas that work' is very noble and tips its hat at commerciality. The reality was occasionally very different though and sometimes it was obvious that an idea was more award-winning than ROI winning.

Bluhalo's strapline is 'Creativity Cultivated'. 'What does that mean?' was one of the first questions I asked in my interview. Spencer explained it with his normal passion and it makes sense. A team built round the skills and ambitions of the individual is more likely to succeed than not. Most agencies talk about a collaborative style of working and this is rightly very important, but it's not only collaboration with our clients that produces the best results, it's also how we work with each internally and produce great ideas. Afterall, without an idea, you are nothing!

It was this idea of collaboration that really got me thinking about my agency experience. It also got me thinking about a phrase Spencer had used as panelist at the E-Den event....'Geeks v Freaks'. I had never heard of this before, but basically it's an old digital description that sums up the age-old battle for control between the tecchies (affectionately named 'geeks'!) and the creatives (equally affectionalty referred to as the 'freaks'). To me, the success of an agency largely depends on how you get these two groups working together.

Alas, not all agencies will agree on this. My first agency (the one that died in the year 2000!), was very much driven by the technical approach and this was reflected in the hierarchy of the agency. Tech first, design second. The Geeks were in control and ruled the roost at brainstorms. At my second agency, now 170 strong and one of the biggest in the UK, the approach was the complete antithesis of my first. Very much formed in the image of BBH advertising (think Levi's, Audi and Vodafone), where the founder was the MD, the Freaks ran the show. To such an extent that I don't ever recall a brainstorm with a tecchie present. Ideas were generated by 'teams', which comprised of an art director and a copywriter. These were then presented back to the client in a pretty much unadulterated form.

I'm not 100% convinced that this traditional advertising approach always works. Yes, creative boundaries are pushed and I would suggest that it is the correct approach for online advertising campaigns, but is it the best approach for websites? Does a creative team consider in enough detail the overall user experience or functionality that will create a killer app? To me, the jury is still out.

So, the big question is how does Bluhalo's approach differ? Well, it's early days for me, but I don't sense a hierarchy between the Geeks and Freaks. We talk about a collaborative style of working and I genuinely think we do a good job of it. Believe me, it's not an easy task and a digital agency without argument or debate is going about things in the wrong way. We also use another strapline when trying to explain our overall approach to clients - 'by making our clients successful, we make ourselves successful. If I were a client in the process of appointing an agency, this is exactly the philosophy I would be looking for. I would want to partner an agency that focuses on achieving my commercial objectives, rather than producing functionality for functionality's sake or design to impress an awards judge. This is what Bluhalo does well and doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.

I'll tell you if I've changed my opinion in another three months!

Michael