A Lot of People Are Faking It

A nice piece from the March 26th issue "Creativity" magazine:

Bad advertising is getting a wake up call. Or a pink slip. Or an agency review. All those folks trapped in stifling layers of bureaucracy at agency roll-ups and conglomerates paid to look at brand communications as a single well crafted message to be beaten through the skull of "The Consumer" while you make your quarterly earnings targets—yep, you're dead. If you thought a website tacked onto a campaign made it interactive, cue dirge. Wah waaah. Often overlooked is that this holds true for marketing as well. Bad marketing, that is. Get lost. And good riddance.

...The promises and pitfalls of interactive communications create an extreme situation and in extreme situations, mental maps that don't calibrate with reality can be fatal. Those unwilling to adapt are retiring, getting fired, or dragging their employers (and clients) down. And getting written about it in white papers that TRUST ME, you don't want to be in.

...Interactivity is a broad concept reduced far too often to a discussion of tools and capabilities. And while you need rock solid interactive tools and capabilities, that doesn't mean you "get it." I'm excited because no agency "gets it," from nimble, sub-ten person shops to the big shops. You've got tech shops pretending they understand branding, brand shops hoping that a few technical hires solve their interactive "problem," agency rollups pretending they've got 'best-of-breed' services for every need, and brands with "interactive" separate from traditional brand management. A glorious chaotic mess. My suggestion? Hitch your wagon to the greatest storytellers, because they will find a way to express the joy of their stories using the most effective tools possible.

...Critical interactive skill sets for the space include search strategy, game design (online, console, ARG), mobile development and production, UI/IA, data collection/modeling/interpretation, application developers, server-side technologists...the list grows daily.

But you need to start with an organization excited about the possibilities of the medium—excited, committed and each personally responsible and accountable for full engagement. Every person in your shop should be asking themselves how they master this space. Finding a passion and diving deep into it. Sharing it.

Excerpts from Creativity article "Advertising is dead. So why am I excited?"
BY: RENNY GLEESON
PUBLISHED: MAR 26, 2008

Pool Tournament Announced...

The The 1st Annual FBSPDPTAPSFF (aka, Felt Belt St. Patrick's Day Pool Tournament And Patrick Swayze Film Festival)

St Patrick's Day, Monday the 17th. Beer in green bottles will be served.

Sign up at the pool table. It's the big red felty thing on the 11th floor.