The Future Of Advertising?
Actually, I'm not going to speculate on the future of advertising. Truth is--I've never created an Ad in my life. Well certainly not in the traditional sense, but in many ways not digitally either. But check out what some digital heavyweights have to say in this video:
Steven Marrs – Vice Chairman & Global Head of Digital & Branded Content, Nitro
Clark Kokich – Worldwide President, Avenue A/Razorfish
Nick Law – Chief Creative Officer, North America, R/GA
Torrence Boone – President Boston, Digitas
My favorite quote comes from the R/GA Nike Running case study.
"A completely new category where the product, the online experience and the marketing are inseparable"
Hmmm. I'm no scholar--but that actually sounds plausible in terms of what "advertising" could look like in the future. I guess we'll have to wait and see to find out for sure. Check out the panel when you have some downtime, it's pretty interesting. On a personal note, I was happy to see that some of my team's work made it into the Digitas demo reel featured in the first few minutes. Our work for GameTap doesn't reflect what's on their current site right now--but at least it lived for nearly a year and was captured on the reel. Shout out to my former teammates in Chicago!
It might be my mood but that's one of the least interesting panel discussions I've seen for sometime....
Posted by: James Cherkoff | Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 05:40 AM
Stop the pontificating! It's just called design.
Posted by: Adam | Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 06:14 AM
I was at the panel; for a cliff notes version to the 50 minute video, see this post: http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2007/04/digital_agencie.html
@James - there was also a panel of research agency CEOs, which was even worse. I'd give Rance Crain credit, though - at least he tried to make it interesting through this questions.
Posted by: Pete | Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 07:43 AM
James,
I agree somewhat, no big "a-ha's", however what intrigued me was to see the once red-headed stepchildren digital firms get such a promimant seat at the table.
Adam,
What's a blog without a little pontification?
Pete,
I just read your post and I thought one of the most interesting things you said was something about digital shops being the new traditional agencies. Personally I hope this never happens. Here's why. While traditional shops are masters of brand building and storytelling, they fall short on creating value. In contrast, they are much more interested in buzz and industry accolades. Not all traditional shops, but a good chunk--especially the "hot" ones.
So yes, digital shops may evolve into similar animals. That said, I think there is an opportunity for some digital shops to differentiate themselves by acting like an "un-agency". Now wouldn't that be something?
Posted by: DA | Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 08:25 AM