A creative network of the idea, by the idea, for the idea

Monday, March 16, 2009

One year from now?

The advertising world is changing. In fact, this business is always changing. But today the changes seem to be happening faster and with deeper and more significant repercussions.

  • The media outlets are redefined as new ones become more relevant to connect with a more dynamic and complex consumer.
  • Therefore the consumer is playing now a more important role in the marketing equation.
  • Turning marketing plans into experience driven initiatives.
  • Changing the way creative departments are built and organized.
  • Digital is the new innovative branch of advertising.
  • Social media is the new golden child of marketing.
  • New agencies are being established as the true leaders of innovation in advertising.
  • Lessons that looked rock solid about the internet 2.0 just one year ago, are being challenged today by new discoveries and new players (twitter).
  • New brands are on top of the charts of consumer's trust, as classic brands struggle to sync with customers.
With so many exciting changes and adjustments happening in the marketing world, some terms are becoming part of our vocabulary that perhaps are leading to misinterpretation.

Participation vs Collaboration.
The single most important factor that enables the changes and wonders happening today in the internet is collaboration.
Collaboration is the element that has allowed human kind to get to where we are today. It's the basis of our evolutionary dominance and the reason for our success as species.
In marketing, brands are looking for the collaboration of consumers to engage with their brands initiatives. (Nike +) But its turning more difficult than expected to make a significant transfer from participation with a brand into collaboration to build a brand.
And I think that this is because brands are still thinking about all this in the wrong terms. Thinking too much about themselves and too little about us, the consumer.


Social People vs Social Media.

We are a social species. We have been social for thousands of years. And the media has always been a social medium.
Now, the brands are coming to where consumers are, beyond the obvious and not always welcome intimacy of our home.
Brands today are becoming more human, talking more plain, and behaving more like a good neighbor.
The media is not social, the consumer is social. And that should be the starting point of branding efforts and marketing programs.


Innovation vs Creativity.
Creativity is the creation of ideas that stand out, that are different.
It is true that we have gotten careless using this term. And today, creative is a term used by any agency, any CEO as a banner displayed to lure clients.
The truth is being creative is no longer enough.
The new person in charge of generating concepts and ideas won't be a person, but a group of people with different knowledge and skills. All of them, Planners, creatives, brand executives, content developers or Media directors will be part of an innovation process, that is bigger than them, but built by them.
Innovation will take over as the driving force of an agency, small or big, to create experiences and build brands with a complex multi-channel net that delivers customized experiences to groups where people with similar interest gather.
Prima dona creatives with the ability to create one amazing idea for the TV or print will give way to humble innovators with the ability to collaborate with brilliant people from different fields.


That's how it looks from here.

what do you think?