We know WPP has decided to merge Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R to create VML. This retirement of Wunderman Thompson is one of the big signs of the demise of traditional creativity.

Creativity stands at a crossroads since 1990s when ad agencies commenced what is called ‘unbundling’. The full agency format offered services like media planning and buying, creative execution, marketing research all under one roof. Later, the industry witnessed the individual functions of the full agency as strategic business units (SBUs), and later as independent businesses. That led to the emergence of media agencies, creative agencies and research organisations.

Creative agencies after this unbundling have never been able to price their offerings independently. In advertising networks, they were treated as ‘cost centres.’ In the last few years, reaching people through the right media has become more important than getting the creative right. It makes the creative output of ‘poor quality’. The point is that even if the quality is poor, the ads reach more number of people. What is the point if ads of good quality reach fewer people? Creative talent in ad agencies will now aim at reaching more people with average quality of creative work quickly.

Veterans in the field lament the lack of value attached to creativity today. Global networks are driven by profitability, rather than creativity. It must be accepted that the new entrants in advertising industry are less passionate about creativity than the old timers who joined a decade ago. DDB Mudra, Ogilvy are those agencies which exhibit this passion. Wunderman Thompson too was passionate about creativity.

All said and done, the global revenues of advertising have fallen. Mergers are theoretically good, but whether they work in practice is a moot point. Organisation culture is at stake. There is insecurity at the top. Top tier talent tends to exit.

Digital advertising has disrupted the industry, as it accounts for 40 per cent of total ad spends in India.