We do our best work working with companies that are in a creative industry, like the following:
- Advertising and marketing
- Architecture
- Crafts
- Design: product, graphic and fashion design
- Film, TV, video, radio and photography
- IT, software and computer services
- Print and Electronic Publishing
- Museums, galleries and libraries
- Music, performing and visual arts
- Toys and Games
Creative industries are often characterized by seven economic properties:
- Nobody knows principle: Demand uncertainty exists because the consumers’ reaction to a product are neither known beforehand, nor easily understood afterward.
- Art for art’s sake: Workers care about originality, technical professional skill, harmony, etc. of creative goods and are willing to settle for lower wages than offered by ‘humdrum’ jobs.
- Motley crew principle: For relatively complex creative products (e.g., films), the production requires diversely skilled inputs. Each skilled input must be present and perform at some minimum level to produce a valuable outcome.
- Infinite variety: Products are differentiated by quality and uniqueness; each product is a distinct combination of inputs leading to infinite variety options (e.g., works of creative writing, whether poetry, novel, screenplays or otherwise).
- A list/B list: Skills are vertically differentiated. Artists are ranked on their skills, originality, and proficiency in creative processes and/or products. Small differences in skills and talent may yield huge differences in (financial) success.
- Time flies: When coordinating complex projects with diversely skilled inputs, time is of the essence.
- Ars longa: Some creative products have durability aspects that invoke copyright protection, allowing a creator or performer to collect revenues.
Creative industries are therefore not unique, but they score generally higher on these properties relative to non-creative industries.