Proof that clients hate creative agencies

Here’s the final proof, if it were ever needed, that clients are about to call time on their traditional creative agencies: Unilever has just announced plans to crowdsource creative work for 13 of its most important global brands.  For a mere £7,000 (which is the prize for the suppliers of the winning idea), Unilever will be able to acquire hours of creative content.  And even if most of it is complete rubbish, there is bound to be some decent material, and all for the cost of a typical day’s photo-shoot or a creative director’s bar bill at Cannes.

This isn’t about tapping into consumer empowerment or engaging customers (the vast majority of whom will be completely a of the crowdsourcing initiative), it is about driving cost out of the creative process.  Agencies can protest that this undervalues the strategic thinking and creative originality that their expensively assembled teams can bring to a brief, but it is likely to fall on death ears.  Make a note of the date: 21 April 2010 – the day the creative agency died.