Technology and creativity – the dilema…

All the industry seems to be able to talk about at the moment is how creativity and technology merge, interact, integrate…whatever advertising word you choose for the coming together of two things. The question in some form or another is usually how do you inspire creativity through technology? Or how can technology direct the early stages of creative thinking?

I just dont get whats so sodding hard about it all. The industry is struggling because of neglect. Neglect of agencies to adapt, train and drive forward those with technical knowledge because they don’t have the right understanding of insight or message or proposition (supposedly). Anyone with technical knowledge is still asked about Facebook apps and building a website which is bollocks. When will people start to wake up and realise the people who understand technology (or digital technology specifically) are the ones plugged into how the consumers want to engage and experience* a brand more than a planner or creative could ever be (unless they have an active interest in technology).

*Yes experience not be shouted at.

That isn’t to say the planner or creative are lesser people, absolutely not these two roles I think are the most important in any agency but without someone to spark the idea of linking Instagram API with the new Facebook Timeline App Installs and then leverage Pinterest to support this activity you will not achieve a well rounded and engaging idea.

The walls are coming down that much is true but what I do see is the likes of RGA that have placed technology at the heart of all they do and getting their hands dirty. They aren’t saying development is to be outsourced its a necessity to them and so it should be all integrated agencies. No wonder they are creating amazing ideas and experiences.

I then see the likes of Wieden + Kennedy who stopped talking about integration 4 years ago and just got on with it developing ideas like the KAISER CHIEFS’ BESPOKE ALBUM CREATION EXPERIENCE. A simple idea, executed well to break the industry convention for album launches. No wonder it has been so effective.

And I am not alone in this way of thinking the great John Hegarty made a point in a talk at the Technology Frontiers conference that I think is sums up the current dilema for agencies and getting the great creative ideas I know we all create out into the wide world and it begins with a C.

“Our clients would love what I did to be a science. Sadly there is a moment when they have to make a leap and that’s when they shit themselves,”

A LEAP OF FAITH….

That’s all it takes. A leap of faith. Some balls and belief in the amazing people trying to do good by your brand, product and service also wouldn’t go amiss.

www.hegartyonadvertising.com/

LEGEND!!!

Gigaom

“By 2017, a CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO.” —Gartner Group

For the first time in history, businesses can leverage big data for the benefit of driving marketing insights. We are at the very beginning of this wave, but this fundamental shift will create several multi-billion dollar winners. And a set of technology companies will emerge as the marketing equivalents of Salesforce and SAP.

Based on this thesis, my partner Scott Friend (founder of Profitlogic) and I have been actively investing in this arena on behalf of our firm, Bain Capital Ventures. BloomReach, CQuotient, HookLogic and TellApart are among our recent early-stage investments in this new category of marketing innovation.

At the heart of each of these companies are CTOs and engineers who have experience with big data and modern techniques for data mining, analytics and machine learning. These companies typically charge on a…

View original post 849 more words

Another insight into Fear – thank you for the post Klaus. John

A life times two

An exciting exploration into a deep sink hole and subsequent ‘march‘ in an underground river in New Zealand. Reflections on fear.

– It takes distrust, not trust, to deal with fear –

She was near panic when we saw her the first time. She stood on a high bridge, her feet tied to a long rubber cord, and she was supposed to jump. It was in New Zealand, but the bungee-jumping fever had broken out every where all over the world. Two big guys stood around her, giving her a highly professional, slightly too often performed brainwashing: “This is totally safe! Nothing can happen to you! It’s a piece of cake; you’ll enjoy it! It will change your life!” etc., etc. I caught a few glimpses of her face, saw her agony, and was deeply moved by the scene. Other bystanders did their best to cajole her into jumping by shouting: “you…

View original post 3,175 more words

What it takes to be successful…

So I had dinner with an entrepreneur and very good friend of mine last night and we discussed (as usual) what we felt it took to achieve true success. We discussed his progress from rags to relative riches, friends of his that found themselves with £12million in the bank at 35 and the 65 yo billionaire businesses who has more energy now than most 25 yo. 

Anthony Robbins ethos has always been that what makes people successful is not more knowledge, skill or experience its taking action, personal power as he branded it.

We took this topic a little further and felt that there were 3 specific traits that if you work on / live by you will have success:

1. Confidence – I believe this to be the key one. If you had total belief that you could handle anything that came your way then what would you attempt to do? How much more would you enjoy your life day to day knowing that you can handle it, whatever it is?

I have a belief that confidence empowers you to make decisions that most other people would view as unsafe or even reckless. Most of the time they are neither – if you have a vision of what you want your life, career, health, etc to be and a path opens up or you create an opportunity follow it – christ we only get one shot at this.

2. Fearlessness – we discussed this in the context of Steve Job’s. He was absolutely fearless. Who in their right mind would build a department (Mac) in their own business to destroy the current business? Who would enter into a market that they had no experience in? Who would have such a focus on achieving goals regardless of what others said?  

That for me is being fearless. Looking at the world as opportunity and pushing at its edges not sticking with what you know because its comfortable.

3. Intellect – This always help but isn’t always required for success but does help. Having loads of the above two however will make up for a total lack of intellect if you have basic common sense.

We finally settled on that fact that in our industry there are many who say but not many that do. Most can talk a good game, intellectualise and postulate but when it comes down to wrapping all of that into a plan and delivering there are few who do / can. 

So my advice. Be confident, fearless, use your common sense and act to achieve all the things you want.

 

 

Facebook TV

Just sat here watching the full fMC 2012 Keynotes (sad like that) and Chris Cox, founding product manager, has just made a short but brilliant observation.

Think of an interface that you current come into contact with that you cannot manipulate based on your environment, change based on your mood or interact with that isn’t intuitive, curated or socially inherent?

I can only think of only one – my TV!

You sit in front of it, try and find or more like hope you stumble across something mildly interesting,  then maybe discuss it at the water cooler the next day, maybe post a tweet about it after catching the last 10 mins.

Then there is  +1, what if im +2? Is that it? Is iPlayer really my only savour? Do I really have to go to that channels website to watch it again? – My head hurts. I want it all in one place. Search, click, ahhh. It isn’t that though is it.

TV is going to be the next medium to go through massive change – it has to be – everything else has been shaken from the ground up and it skill quivering.

So got me thinking.

What if next generation TV’s are totally Facebook integrated? How much would that change the way audiences select programmes, the way advertising agencies create content for brands, the way we use the viewing data of users to inform advertising across online channels such as display (we are already using FB Insights from likes + interests to inform display ad messages: more into drop me an email)?

Can you imagine how this will change TV scheduling, programme creation, advertising. As if advertising hasn’t already been through a seismic (had to Google that ha) shift in the last 4 years with social.

I sense a new frontier of disruption on the horizon that at the moment I see very few agencies, brands, media buyers of content distributors gearing up for, things are in place – take YouTube – if that was integrated into TV along with your account and Google + you have the perfect space for auto searching and alerting about great content.

Watch this space.

Other articles on this:

What Would Facebook TV Look Like? — Tech News and Analysis http://bit.ly/xaMq7e

Facebook TV? How a Facebook TV Would Beat Google & Apple TV Platforms http://bit.ly/yxWYeD