“Have you got sore legs? Because you’ve been running through my mind all day.” This was the smarmy chat-up line digital media guru Jamie Moran used as an analogy at Thursday night’s Great Agency Debate.

He likened the ‘big idea’ to the guy in the club who struts around trying to meet someone, using the same chat-up line over and over.

The ‘big idea’ is the light-bulb moment for a creative when something is just bloody brilliant.

“Reaching as many people as possible, that’s what the big idea does,” he quipped.

“Media on the other hand takes its time to speak to people, understand your interests, what you’re into. There’s lifetime value associated with that. Not just a flash in the pan, one size fits all.”

Moran was arguing why channel should come before creativity at the Great Agency Debate held last Thursday night by B&T and AdRoll.

Turns out the channel won over creative.

Pulling a statement from renowned creative director Dave Trott’s book Predatory Thinking, Moran quoted 90 per cent of advertising doesn’t work.

“So what’s the point in having the big idea if no one sees it or even addresses it…” he questioned the audience.

“It’s not the fact that people didn’t like the ad,” he added, “it’s the fact that people didn’t even see the ad. We’ve got to make it relevant and quick to make sure that we’re speaking to people at the right place, at the right time, with the right message.”

On the flip side, Kate Smither, chief strategy officer for creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi, argued the creative idea needs to come first.

“Creativity has the ability to make people engage in important messages and culture, in a way that channels can’t,” she said.

“There’s the ability for the ‘big idea’ to create an emotion and make you react that a channel can’t do. Because a channel, by definition…will never allow for emotion. It’s pure rational.”

Read more of Smither’s argument here.