Traditional Vs. Interactive Agency

Will the traditional or interactive advertising agency win the battle for dominance in the future?

This debate has raged in the ad community for quite some time now and many ardently believe that interactive agencies will reign victorious. The reasoning stems back to a mixture of interactive agencies beginning to win “agency of record” posts mixed with the decline of traditional media consumption. Yet the down side being many interactive shops are relatively small agencies that sometimes can’t handle the sheer amount of work from larger brands and bigger concepts.

On the flip side, the traditional rooted agency has structure on it’s side. It already knows how to create big picture, original creative work in a timely fashion and take on the volume of the big brand. Yet the same structure can often cripple it in response to quick fire needs such as negative publicity on social media feeds such as twitter or blogs.

Ultimately my money is on the idea agencies. At the end of the day it’s great to be able to spread the word across the globe or respond quickly to negative twitter backlash; but, if there is no great creative concept that will cut through the clutter there is no point in getting started in the first place. Today the “idea agencies” tend to be rooted in traditional; yet, interactive shops are rapidly catching up to speed.

New Challenge

Although it’s late for resolutions, I thought I’d pose a challenge to myself. Last time I did that on my blog it nearly got me sued, gave my website over 300 unique hits in a day and landed me a job, so I think its worth a shot.

An Ad A Month. I’m going to produce a new campaign each month (outside of my work) to add to my book.

48 Hour Blog. Post a blog every other day on advertising, design, my work, etc.

Brand It. Redefine my personal branding and website.

Easy enough on paper. It should be interesting to see how this pans out. Check out some resolutions on this nicely designed site.

A Life Lesson

“It doesn’t matter how talented they are, no one wants to work with an asshole.” -Anonymous

I use to believe it was unfair that creatives are judged for their personality when being considered for hiring. I always ardently believed that the only thing that should matter is their ability.

Yet, in the creative world collaboration, more now than ever, is truly key. And the creative community is known for their hefty share of prima donnas.

With the experience I have working in four different agencies and on a number of different creative teams (some that worked and some that didn’t). It has become more apparent that what I had overheard an ad man once say to another MCAD student, “It doesn’t matter how talented they are, no one wants to work with an asshole" is pretty true.

2009 British Television Advertising Awards

There are many avenues for inspiration in advertising; but, the one that seems to trump them all every year is the annual British Television Advertising Awards.

I was fortunate enough to be back at home in Minneapolis over Christmas and got a chance to see a showing of the awards this year at the Walker Art Center. Although the work skewed more towards the serious this year (most likely due to the economic climate) the work was still excellent. I have found also that the few that you remember a week later are the ones that I truly need to learn from.

I think the greatest or worst piece of a creative persons’ character can be seen when faced with obvious greatness in their field. Those that see it as a command to rise and those that denounce and hate it in fear.

Some of my favorites this year:

Barnardo’s/////BBH

PG TIPS/////MOTHER

Sony/////Fallon

Virgin Atlantic/////RKCR/Y&R

Economic Recovery?

Will the signs of revitalization be noticeable as they happen or only in hind sight?

I’ve liked looking at each agency as a mini-cosmos of the gradually improving economy and I think one of the best success stories of the past few months has been Fallon in Minneapolis.

Creative Success with Alice

Creative Success with Fizzy Lizzy

Business Success with winning Chrysler

Not a bad way to end the year or to bring a jolt back to the ad community in Minneapolis.

Mobile Marketing

Before the iPhone there was nothing but a void.

The question is, will the mobile market truly serve as a viable arena to truly leverage and sell more product in the future? As an iPhone user and designer myself it seems that the average user goes through three phases of iPhone use including junky, clean up and utility.

Personally I have never been sold on a product on my iPhone as of yet. The future of the apps as a mobile market seems to be in leveraging services. Through making a service fully or partially mobile on one’s phone and being hyper utilitarian you can create a greater hook on keeping a consumer.

So apps can certainly pro-long and enhance a current relationship with a brand/service; but, could it ever create that desire solely on mobile? With the oversaturation of the app store, it seems that the chance of that happening is slim to none.

Non-Existent Hero

Can your hero be non-existent?

Society, across all spectrums, appears to have embraced the idea that one can become a hero to another before their prime has passed or even when it has just started. For example, a few designers and artists that are currently looked up to and studied in art and design schools are still very much active in their fields, such as Barbara Kruger, Michael Graves or Milton Glaser.

My question though is the idea that your hero could actually be someone younger than yourself. The concept of looking up to one that is a fresh up start. An example for me, and a few of the people that I went to MCAD with, is Olly Moss. A relatively younger designer and illustrator in the UK, best know for his movie poster work, that could be at par with some of the greats such as Paul Rand or the Eames.

I don’t think it is unusual because I feel that when one is a great in their field, no matter what their age or industry experience, they deserve the recognition for their ability.