"Media is now the differentiator:" ZenithOptimedia's Steve King

Collaboration is the way forward. Media and creative may have their issues but when it comes to real and everyday business problems, collaboration is key.

In an interview with Campaign India, Steve King, CEO, ZenithOptimedia Worldwide, spoke about the media and creative equation and how some of their best work has come through a successful partnership with creative agencies.  Talking about the way media agencies have evolved over the years, King says, "Previously media came in right at the end of the process. There was a creative idea, they would decide how much money to spend, and then it would be executed and media was pretty much the tail end of the dog. And now, because you have the opportunity to reach consumers, quite often it is media which is now the differentiator, not just a creative idea. So there is an opportunity for media, in some cases to work in a collaborative way with other parts of the advertising process, and in others to drive the process, particularly for advertisers who have more of a digital orientation."

Collaboration, though, is a much abused word and it's easier to talk about it than put it into practice. Realistically, there are issues of control between media and creative agencies that can cause bumps along the way. 

King says not anymore, " A few years ago, there was a much higher degree of conflict between the creative agencies and the media agencies. I think now better collaboration prevails because clients are demanding it. They are not going to ask who is leading the process, they are simply saying that media and creative need to develop a much more collaborative process and that's forcing us to work in much more collaborative way."

He further adds, "Some of the best platforms that we developed, the work on it has been collaborative. The work for HP (The PC is personal ), which was a global campaign was done after really robust thinking and framing of target audiences along with creative agency Goodby Silverstein among others. We were able to build on that and it delivered a campaign that was hugely impactful and had great efficacy."