Uncaging Creativity in Consulting Companies

In an industry filled with polarising buzzwords, 2018 welcomed a new contender – the ‘cagency’. The slightly cringe-worthy term describes a new wave of consultancies venturing into the creative space. In an increasingly data-driven landscape, this seems like a natural trajectory for consultancies and agencies. But is it, really?
A glimpse of the industry’s future.
A look at Cannes Lion 2018 (the ad world’s most prestigious awards ceremony) already points to the increasing presence of consultancies actively desiring a share of the proverbial agency pie. Accenture Interactive set the tone in a big way bagging a Gold Lion for its interactive campaign, JFK Unsilenced. As all good things should be, the idea was simple: give the world the speech that John F. Kennedy was supposed to give before he was assassinated and illustrate the possible social impact. It’s success at Cannes has sent a strong message on the possibilities that abound when solid creative work and data enabled by technology find synergy.
A creative and a consultant walk into a bar…
If it was really that simple, everyone would be playing the same game. But the reality is that creative work and management consulting are often two different creatures – while the currency of the creative is emotion, the consultant banks on data. Finding real synergy is not easy. But easy never made for much fun anyway. And that’s exactly the challenge that PEMANDU Associates has gone head-first into, by setting up its communications subsidiary, COMMUNICATE. Helmed by Managing Director, Alex Iskandar Liew, the company’s approach to this conundrum has been to build a team of creative-consultant hybrids passionate about storytelling and communicating the right messages to the right target audience through focused platforms.
But the main point here isn’t about hybrids. Rather, it’s about breaking down silos or the perception that communication is a last mile of a strategy or an implementation programme. When we stop putting each other in the traditional boxes where planners only do strategy, suits only manage accounts and creatives only tell everyone else they’re wrong (I know, I was a copywriter), individuals within a creative agency can begin to develop a collective sense of ownership for the work at hand. Thus, just as the ad people of yesteryear discovered the magic of bringing an art director and writer into the same room, so too should we be looking to get more people into the bigger rooms of today. And that includes our clients.
