The Widening Spread: Response to the Big Squeeze

As a follow up to the article, entitled, “The Big Squeeze” in which I outlined the challenges and progress made by the print community, I ended the article by challenging the creative community by asking a simple question. Has the creative community, long thought to be early adopters of technology, actually adopted new technologies that not only offer them a greater tool set but enable them to be more productive and create well-constructed supplies for various marketing channels?

Let’s start by examining the technological conditions of the last 10 years for the creative community. No one can doubt the impact of the growth of multiple distribution channels has had on content creators and the spread of job responsibilities and skills sets. For the longest time broadcast and print were the channels to plan for and broad demographics the audience to create for.

There’s been a lot of development impacting your world.

Fast forward thru the explosion of cable television, satellite radio, the internet and web development, mobile devices, electronic billboards, e-mail, opt-in campaigns, narrowcasting, and variable data or 1:1 marketing and you have an explosion of content distribution options to choose from, to marry up with marketing campaigns, to plan and create for.

Can all that be accomplished with the same skill set and tools? Will the same workflows apply throughout? Has your marketing counterpart kept up with these technological trends? As the pressure mounts on all these distribution points, are you organized and keeping control of costs — delivering on-time and under budget?

As these distribution options continue to evolve and grow, an interesting economic development is throwing gasoline on the glowing embers or pressure. Your department/agency/company is getting smaller. Creative startups are cropping up at record pace, but the average firm size is no more than 4. The trend in downsizing is undeniable. I hear it all the time, “we need to do more with less.” And so I see creative services, communications, marketing, independent agencies spread thin. Thin in terms of headcount, skill set, and technology.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS , “Although advertising and public relations services firms are located throughout the country, they are concentrated in the largest states and cities. California and New York together account for about 1 in 5 firms and more than 1 in 4 workers in the industry. Firms vary in size, ranging from one-person shops to international agencies employing thousands of workers. However, over half of all advertising and public relations establishments employ fewer than 20 employees.”

This has forced many a creative to wear many a hat: design for print, design for web, design for e-mail or mobile campaigns. Can you do it all, and do it well? Particularly without the tools or the skills? How do you downsize a group of people and maintain or grow the services of that group without even the benefit of current tools and skills?

How many of you train? Really train. Not scour the web for tips, or go to the bookstore and buy a book, but take a class or hire an instructor to transfer some knowledge, to grow a skill, to improve performance? Again, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, “Keeping pace with technology is fundamental to success in the industry.” While statistical information regarding the creative services industry seems to be elusive, GAIN surveyed your production bretheren and 72% responded that they have no training budget at all.

The gap between analysis and the implementation of strategy

Who’s ordering up the brochure and at the same time asking creative services to account for itself. My initial conversation with Vadim Litvak, editor of Designorati: In-House, in “In-House vs. Strategy: a 360-Degree View of Working for the Man” speaks to this specifically. When a project is requested has anyone asked, in the case of the brochure, is this the best way to reach the intended audience? Do we need to know if it was received? Read? Responded to in some way? Did it generate a sale? Can we create the project in such a way as to generate that data? Prove the effectiveness of the brochure. Execute an ROI on the strategy?

How do these average small shops keep up with tools — who has the latest versions of software — creative tools, who has organized their assets or intellectual property? Who is tracking their work and managing the projects, accounting for all costs including time?

Are we starting to see with the creative process the same economic phenomenon that transformed the production community — where only the large firms will have the wherewithall to fund and take advantage of cutting edge technology? Where global competition will increase the pressure to be competitive with your counterparts all over the globe.

As portals like eLance.com and Freelance.com become more commonplace, how will you compete? How will you differentiate your services from your competitions? Will you be more creative? Cheaper? Turn around your work more efficiently? Offer more services? Eventually, won’t your clients be facing the same economic realities?

For an interested take on this perspective see, “Spec Can Be Beaten,” written by Blair Enns, Published on July 21, 2005, on the http://designforum.a...e&aid=1155318\"> AIGA website.

Lack of hard data

In all honesty, this article was difficult to write. I asked many a designer for feedback or resources to investigate to quantify your technology use/adaptation in your given field. When I found information at all, it was anecdotal in nature. I would love to hear from you and your own professional experiences. If you’re willing to spend a moment — write to me and include the following information — perhaps we can start to build valuable information your industry and the technolgy industry needs to see and hear.

Include the following information:

• What is your role in the organization?
• Your educational background?
• Certifications or proficiencies?
• The size of your organization?
• Do you work in a networked environment?
• What platform and what version of that platform?

Do you have any of the following technologies available:

• The most recent versions of graphic arts applications?
• Digital Asset Management?
• Job Tracking or Job Management?
• PDF workflows?
• Publishing workflows, such as InDesign, InCopy and the LiveEdit Workflow?
• Are you print focused?
• Web focused?
• Both?
• Are you working with variable data publishing?

If I get enough of a response I will gladly post the results and hopefully draw some additional conclusions regarding technology usage and the creative industry!