Ed Cotton: Why Agencies Need Labs

The thought of an advertising agency having an R&D lab doesn’t make sense to most traditionalists thinking of advertising as represented in the “Mad Men world. Certainly, in the 50s and 60s, there were departments devoted to understanding the science of advertising, but they weren’t about innovating and building.

Fast forward to today and you are starting to see “labs” emerge as a new nomenclature.

You’ve got BBH’s Lab

Labs is BBH’s global innovation unit. We’re tasked with pioneering new outputs and approaches: building new platforms through which brands can engage, and exploring new agency models. The overall ambition is more engaging content, developed more effectively and efficiently. We’re particularly interested in the following areas:

• Innovative new forms of creativity
• Original ways in which technology and collaboration can be powerful forces in the marketing arsenal
• Novel approaches that are rapid, iterative & curatorial
• The mashup of thinking from radically different sources & industries

You’ve got Ogilvy’s Digital Lab

The Ogilvy NY Digital Innovation Lab creates, showcases, and markets digital innovations that deliver competitive advantages to our clients.

The Digital Lab is both:

• A physical space showcasing unique new technologies surrounding daily life centered around home, work, and on-the-go environments, and
• A place where teams can work on developing award-winning and innovative digital work for the benefits of our clients today or tomorrow.

There are probably others, if there are, please let me know.

Both labs, but very different missions. BBH is looking at the big picture- even exploring new agency models and Ogilvy is much more focused on the specifics of innovation in the digital world.

What they both have in common is dedication and space. There’s a sort of implicit understanding that this new stuff is complex and requires effort and brainpower to not only build it, but also imagine what it can be. It’s a recognition of the pace of change in the industry and how important it is to inspire and imagine new things and new ideas for internal employee audiences and clients.

(Continue reading here.)

Ed Cotton is the Director of Strategy at BSSP, and is curious about all things relating to brands, marketing and culture. Read more at influx insights