Life's full of surprises.
Today, I find myself featured in the pages of Adweek. I say life's full of surprises not because of that fact—but because of the irony. When Brian Morrissey approached me about doing the Q+A, to be honest with you—this thought ran through my mind:
"Do I really wanted to be associated that closely with the Ad industry?"
But just as quickly—that thought was replaced with this one:
"How many opportunities do you get to evangelize your beliefs"?
See—though I talk a good good game about the industry we call "advertising"—the reality is that I've never considered myself a product of it. Go through my resume and you'll find that the bulk of my personal experience lies in Web design, graphic design—even broadcast design mixed with 3+ years spent as a information designer embedded in the newsroom. If course I've worn many hats—interaction design as one of them and have done my share of conceptual wireframes, flows and the like.
But Ad Guy?
I never touched an Ad in my life. Which is precisely the irony behind the feature. Consider the interviewer—Brian Morrissey from Adweek is one of the few industry journalists who is genuinely active on multiple social platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
In fact—that's how we met and it's mostly where we interact. Brian also blogs about running. He's one of us. Or at least—I consider him to be. So maybe the best way to look at all of this is to realize that traditional "Ad Guys" no longer exist. Nor do "traditional journalists". Well—they still do, but in a world moving at light speed—it's getting more difficult to draw firm lines between what's considered Advertising, marketing, or just good business. Maybe we're all accidental "Ad Guys and Gals"
Or maybe we're all just accidental marketers.
