Creative is a Commodity

I was having coffee with an aging agency executive. He was once again trying to make his case that his firm's creative had higher value and it justified higher fees.

I countered that whether he and I agreed or not, creative has become a commodity. "A commodity!" he shouted. "We're not a commodity!" I then explained that I could go on the Internet and find at least 3,000 firms similar to his that offered creative slightly weaker or better than his and at about the same price. In short, I explained, he was competing with more than 3,000 competitive options. If his price was too high, I had plenty of options.

Needless to say his morning was not the best.

Yesterday, I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about CrowdSpring . In short, the company is a "crowd sourcing" company that offers a competitive environment among graphic designers who compete for posted projects wityh fixed fees.

Imagine that. No hourly rates. Fixed fee. Best idea wins. Jobs posted included a lot of logo and corporate image work, from small cafes to micro-brewers.

I thought of emailing my friend and telling him about CrowdSpring. I opted against it.