We all know that award-winning campaigns are created when media and creative departments work together. In the past it was traditionally a creative lead idea that was placed in a form of media like TV, Print or Digital.   But in today’s anything is possible, digitally forward world, I believe we are starting to see media become the hero (Harry Crane would be proud that the computers are really working).

As I reviewed the top “creative” campaigns from this past year to me they had one thing in common, really smart creative media placements:
Here are some award winning examples:

Every example took full advantage of their media placement.  Without the media, the creative idea doesn’t work.

We live in a world where consumers see up to 5,000 ad messages a day and consume over 8 hours of media daily.  It’s easy for a message to get lost. The days of a :30 TV spot, print ad or even rich media display ad have passed. For a campaign to standout Brands, Agencies and Media Vendors need to work collaboratively, not in silos.

As we move into the mobile, social, programmatic, native, virtual reality, content, data-driven future, I believe it’s time for the media team to move from shotgun into the drivers seat.