I’m still young in my career, and I obviously have a lot to learn. However, one of the major disputes I’ve been having with myself, is where strategy starts and where creativity ends (or vice versa). There is no doubt that strategy in advertising and marketing is important. But at what point do professionals rely to much on strategy and not spend enough time on the creative process.

To me, strategy is like saying, “Here we have a process, a safe process, a proven process.” If we use this strategy, we know or at least can expect the turnout. Makes sense and it is easy to go this route. Creativity to me, is like saying, “Screw the rules, screw the process, we are going to do things our way, a new way.” It is redefining the standards. Creating new rules. This process alone takes people by surprise with the opportunity to create buzz, but at a major risk. You could create nothing. You could catch no one by surprise and create no buzz. It could be so out there, that no one gets it.

However, history has proven that it’s the people taking risk that succeed in the end. The best agencies in the world, are creative agencies. They redefine the standards. Everyone else just follows.

Making them both work together is just a matter of time and experience, I’m sure. It would be interesting to see results of campaigns that are creative, but differ in the terms of on and off strategy.