Viewpoint

By Krikor Khatchikian, Grey Doha

The 360-communication model is coming full circle, with power to the people

Two ex-journalists, one documentarian, an experiential expert, and a comedian walk into a boardroom. A decade ago, this scene would have, at best, been the premise of comical interactions between talents whose crafts were loosely related. At worst, it would have made for a series of frustrating preproduction meetings where big ideas fell through, lost in translation and in the disconnect between all those involved in their making. And for a while, it did. Not today. To say that the communication industry has undergone radical change where rigid talent structures, brand custodianship remits, and revenue models have been turned on their head is to understate the obvious. There is merit to the madness around the survival mode – and models, at that – of communication agencies today. Gone are the days of bureaucratic structures and echo chambers that formed, even if invisibly, departmental siloes in an industry that had ironically thrived on cultural and creative exchange. Our industry’s modus operandi of the last few years was instinctive, and not without reason. Fueled by excessive pitching, budget cuts, and most crucially, the need to stay relevant, the outside market’s cut-throat competition has somehow seeped through agency walls. The internal damage that followed, on creativity as much as on talent, far exceeded the sparkly gains. It threatened the communication industry’s very raison d’être: compelling brand stories and impactful work that connected brands to people, talents to each other, and agencies to their clients. Not today. The new generation of talents is natively fluid, restless, collaborative, and courageous. Open dialogue, cultural exchange, and co-opetition are in its very DNA. And the industry, set in its ways as it may seem, will need to follow suit. Three years ago, Grey’s Doha office reshuffled its talent and operational model against this very realization. It was the conscious integration of all disciplines – advertising, PR, creative, social and digital – from ideation to execution stages that onboarded some of the office’s largest clients today. It was proof that great work, and more importantly, great people, still won the day. This culture of unlearning, breaking down siloes, and channeling competition among talents to work together – rather than against each other – has transformed not only the office’s creative process, but equally, creative output. It is unlikely that the communication industry will return to the ole all-around servicing model of its heyday. And in this uncertain environment, it is anyone’s guess just who and which stakeholders would own this model in the future, if it were to make a comeback at all. But in the time being, the onus is on the communication industry to bring the focus and business back to great creative work; one that always has, and always should, put people first.

To say that the communication industry has undergone radical change where rigid talent structures, brand custodianship remits, and revenue models have been turned on their head is to understate the obvious.