- Noreen O'Leary

NEW YORK Robert Rasmussen understands the challenges of creative integration better than most art directors from traditional agencies. The 39-year-old R/GA executive creative director on Nike made the move to the digital agency last July after working at JWT and Wieden + Kennedy.

At W+K, Rasmussen led one of the first "fractured narrative" campaigns for Sega Beta 7 in 2004, using various Web sites, viral video, blogs, TV, print and direct mail. For JWT's JetBlue account, he combined digital and traditional creatives into a single team that conceived "Story Booth" in 2006, an interactive video installation that gathered stories from airline fans for use across multiple online and offline channels.

What are the challenges in forging a common culture between traditional creative staffers and their digital counterparts?
The biggest challenge is just the perception that the two camps are so different from each other. The natural tendency is to group into our separate cliques and talk about how the other doesn't get it. Actually, there is little difference between the two. One difference, however, is communication. Traditional creatives tend to be very good at talking about the industry, their work and selling to clients. Interactives tend to be more introverted and prefer to communicate through their work.

What are the biggest differences in the mind-set and problem-solving approach of each?
Traditionals appreciate and feel comfortable in a linear, controlled system of execution. There is always a beginning and an end to engagement and you know going in what that will be. Interactives function inside a chaotic, unstructured, ever-changing environment. Engagement could be 20 seconds or years. You never know.

In an interactive experience, there is no linear path. The consumer can enter at any point in the experience. They can travel backward and forward. There can be a million points of entry. And the conversation, or engagement as it were, can be very short or go on forever. The consumer can come back later if they so choose and spend more time with the experience. They can choose to share it, change it or participate in it.

How does that manifest itself in collaborative efforts like a new business pitch?
Words such as "interactive," "digital" and "traditional" are going to have less and less place in reference to agencies. Clients want consistent ideas and branding that spreads across all media, and it will take blended shops to do it. New business pitches are a great place to reflect this: With a clean media, planning and creative slate you can approach a new client in a completely connected way.

What can each kind of creative staffer learn from one another?
Traditionals can learn how to embrace technology and interaction as creative disciplines that lead to new ways of solving problems they never dreamed of. They can learn how to let go a bit and let consumers generate, aggregate and even shape their executions. Through this collaboration and transparency they may achieve an expanded view of what we do. Digitals can learn how to lead a client and the benefits of guiding a piece of business through planning, account management and brand connections. They can learn how to schmooze, inspire and present on a bigger level. They can learn how to conceive truly big ideas, not just execute them.