erniesblog

Who's in the details?

There's an old saying:  The Devil is in the details.

There's another old saying:  God is in the details.

So...which is it?

I think what I think a lot of the time when questions like this are posed to me (even if I pose them myself), and that is:  It depends.  It depends on which details we're talking about, and what those details truly contribute to the overall goal of the project.

I hate to be brash here...  Wait.  No, I don't.  If you read me or know me, you know I'm comfortable with brash.  Here's the thing:  If you're good, you're paying attention to one set of details.  If you're not, you're paying attention to another.

Understanding how the caste of a lighting style can not only change the mood of a scene, but the perception of the entire piece (and by extension the product and brand) is putting God in the details.  That's a good thing.  You're contributing to the goal of the piece by paying attention to details that actually make a contribution.

Conversely, if you're spending a week tweaking the third paragraph down in a three-paragraph FAQ entry, it's my opinion that you may have lost the plot, have invited Beelzebub into the project, and aren't really focused on the bigger, more important picture of providing a great brand experience to your user.

Sometimes tiny details are critical.  Sometimes, they're simply tiny details that have little or no actual impact.  Being good as a creative, or being able to recognize creative as good or bad, depends a lot on your ability to know the difference.

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

Just Sayin'

About 5 years ago, I wrote an eBook called, "Use A Stick."  I released it just a little over 4 years ago.  You can tell it was a long time ago by the clunky site, and the fact that you can download it in Palm format.  Several things inspired me to write it.

I knew I was headed back, in some unknown capacity that had something to do with digital, toward the agency side.  Truth is, the production business roller coaster was getting to me, but more importantly, the means of distribution for moving images was beginning to change.  I have been a geek since 1984, so I was keeping up with, and participating heavily in, early forms of social media -- especially this new thing called YouTube.  Seemed like it might turn into something.  I figured agencies wouldn't figure this stuff out very quickly, because my experience with agencies (both inside them, and as a supplier to them) told me that agencies, historically, don't figure out much very quickly.  I wanted in on this new web-based way of approaching moving imagery.  (I called it moving imagery, because back then, if you were good, you were a "film" director.  I was a "film" director, so I couldn't call it "video," even though that was and is the correct, and prevailing, term on the web. It implied cheap, and low-quality.  HD, and then the Red, changed all that, but it hadn't, yet.)

I also knew, from being a director attempting to sell my services to agencies, that agencies tend to pigeon-hole everything and everyone.  I swear to you, I had one agency who considered me only an "action toy" director -- they would only hire me to shoot toys kids pick up and run around with, like Nerf guns and the like.  They would never, ever, hire me to shoot action figures.  And I had another agency who ONLY considered me an action figure director.  Yet another would only hire me for comedy aimed at adults.  And still another would only hire me for fashion.  It was downright weird.  That's a part of the roller coaster I was tired of.  But I digress....the point is, agencies pigeon hole.  So if I was to be taken seriously by agencies, and prospective clients, I had to remind people that I knew, and still know, how to create things for a broad swath of media, and more importantly, how to think strategically.

Before I was a director, I was a creative director.  A copywriter before that.  So, for the entire 15 years I directed, I understood and participated in the marketing conversations surrounding the spots I was shooting.  (Few directors can, or even care to.) Yet, ask one of my agency clients of the time, and they'd tell you I was a guy who took their boards and put it on film.  I wore the director's hat, so I was a director, and nothing else. In order to counter that pigeon-holed perception, I wrote Use A Stick.

The premise of the book was pretty loose.  Knowing strategy, and agency culture, agency-client, and agency-supplier relationships, I found myself in a pretty good cat-bird's seat.  As a director, you're not the client.  So the agency tells you all the dirt about how the spot came to be.  As a director, you're not the agency.  So if you can talk with the client, the client tells you all the dirt about how the spot came to be.  The constant disconnects were enlightening, entertaining, and at times, infuriating. 

So the premise of the book (in my head) was something along the lines of: "Here's a bunch of ways that agencies and clients have consistently messed up with each other for the last 50 or so years.  And guess what?  There's a bunch of new stuff coming along very quickly that's going to radically change the economics and structure of this agency-client relationship, and give them even more ways to mess up.  But the good news is, most of these problems actually have simple solutions.  Be mindful, though, that simple isn't always easy.  But that doesn't change the fact that it's simple."

Ok, so that was a long premise, but you get the drift.  Truth is, the book is a bit of a rant (a nice rant, but a rant, nonetheless) about stupid stuff I saw in agency-client relationships, and particularly in production, over the course of 15 years.  This stuff cost the agencies money, it cost the clients money, and it didn't contribute at all to a better product.  And with the web coming quickly to change the game, I just thought that somebody ought to think about it a little bit.

The other truth is, I think the book is pretty naive, when you read it now.  It's also not the best eBook in the world.  But it was decent for its time, and it served its purpose.  And it's still downloaded regularly, so go figure.

This blog started out as a support mechanism for the book.  Here, in many early posts, and in the book, I wrote about stuff like:  Agencies throw too many people at most projects.  The web allows for much more personal communications and experiences, and thus, narrower targeting -- so your creative product has to be designed with that in mind.  Agencies would do well to think in terms of a production company model, where specialists are hired as needed.  The economics is going to radically change.  The cost of delivery has been reduced dramatically, so the justification for a high cost of production is no longer there, especially in the face of new technologies.  Agencies have to think in terms of ideas that can be accomplished with the new tools, within the new budgets.  And finally, everything is just going to get faster and faster. Stuff like that.

So I find it interesting that today, I read and tweeted an ADWEEK article with the headline:  "Ad Biz Faces the 'New Normal'."  In that article, the author talks about pretty much all the points I just listed.  The catalyst for the change, according to the author, is the recession.  But, I don't think so.  The recession accelerated it.  But the change has been coming for a long time now. Just sayin'.

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

Reach for the Stars

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember.  Like a lot of Floridians, my parents and I were in North Carolina, escaping the summer heat and marveling at the notion that, in some places, the ground didn't actually have to be wet, sandy or flat.  I was about the age my son is now, which is too young to have a real understanding of the significance of, well, anything, really.  But old enough that significant things could have a lasting impact.

Instead of staying at my cousin's vacation cabin, where we and everyone else in the family sometimes stayed for a week or two in the summer, that year my parents wanted to see some different trees and rocks.  They rented a cabin in the woods, down a long rock and dirt road, by a stream.  I have no idea where, in North Carolina, this place was or is, although I can only imagine it's been developed into something much more suburban by now.

I was pretty interested in the stream, because it had rocks that could make really big splashes.  We didn't have rocks in Florida, and we didn't have streams that moved fast.  But a stream can only be so interesting, and only for so long, when you're that young.

There was another Florida family up the rocky road a little bit -- the Dingers.  They owned a small vacation house, and spent every summer escaping the heat.  Unlike our relatively rustic vacation rental, their house had a TV.  They also had a kid, about my age (a year older, actually).  But she was a girl, and she was used to being in North Carolina all summer, so her interest in splashing rocks in the stream, and in me, was minimal, at best.  Still, I remember Sharon Dinger as being pretty nice.

What I really remember about Sharon Dinger is sitting on the couch with her way past either of our bedtimes, with both her parents and mine in the room, all of us silent, and fixated on the television.  Watching Neil Armstrong climb down that ladder and step on the moon was significant.  Significant in that way that has a lasting impact.

Disney didn't own Florida yet.  We had beaches, we had orange groves, we had swamps, and we had the Cape.  And the Cape was cool.  That's where the rockets and the astronauts were.  Just being from Florida, you felt a sort of connection to the space program.  And now, that space program had actually put some guys on the moon. 

After that night, every kid I knew wanted to be be an astronaut or a rocket scientist.  None of the kids I knew ever became one, but none of us became cowboys or Indians, either.  What changed then and there, for a lot of us, was the direction of our imaginations.  Instead of spending days fantasizing about the old west, we spent days fantasizing about the future.  And for more than just a couple of my friends, this realization that you could actually do something that had never, ever been done before translated into successful careers and major accomplishments.

Years after that night in North Carolina, I first heard the famous Leo Burnett quote:  "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud, either."  Clearly, I didn't become an astronaut.  And I'm no rocket scientist.  But I do think that throughout my career as a director, and an ad guy, I've consciously tried to push for stuff that hasn't been done before.  There's not enough of that drive in advertising, imo.  Sometimes, it's little things.  But, to me, it's important to focus forward, even if it means taking small steps. And while I can't be absolutely certain, I'm pretty sure the seed for that thinking in me was planted when I was sitting on Sharon Dinger's parents' couch on July 20, 1969. 

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

Chrome, Smoke, and Beltway BBQ Sauce

Anyone who knows me knows I love barbecue.  And, not to brag, but anyone who's had my barbecue knows I make good stuff.  As it happens, Matt Mason, a friend and a co-worker, also loves good barbecue.  And he makes a great sauce.  So great, in fact, that it's now on the shelves of Whole Foods Markets throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region.  I can attest, it's good.  Get to Whole Foods, and try some.

To get a bit of exposure for Beltway BBQ Sauce, Matt entered the DC Barbecue Battle -- two days, two contests, lots of categories.  Since we're pretty good with ads, and posters, and that kind of thing (you'd hope so, right?), we cooked up some decor for the booth, gathered the trusty cooker from my back yard, and headed to downtown DC over the weekend.

We didn't expect to win anything -- after all, we're just a couple of ad guys cooking some ribs on a back yard cooker.  I've got what most homeowners would consider a big, honkin' grill.  But I got nothin' on the guys who do barbecue contests every week.  These guys have SERIOUS rigs.  Some of them -- a lot of them -- look nicer, have more chrome, and cost more, than my car. 

Our goal was exposure for Beltway, some respectable ribs, and two days of fun.  Mission accomplished.

Thanks to Eric Gilbertsen for the help, and the pics.

Here's Eric's set of shots: http://tinyurl.com/np8jxb

And here are a few more:

Our Rig

An example of the competition


More Beltway Ads

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

Irony, Understanding, and the Bubba Keg

This is my new favorite product.  My Bubba Keg.  Available at Wal-Mart, the Bubba Keg comes in quite a few shapes and sizes, from 20 oz to a whopping 640 oz keg with a push-button valve on the bottom, like the keg-shaped sports Igloos players dump on coaches.  Mine is the 34 oz cupholder-shaped model, which I chose because I wanted it to fit my cupholder.  It must be noted, however, that most Bubba Keg models are available in standard keg shape.  They just won't fit your cupholder, that's all.

Why is this my new favorite product?  Well, aside from the fact that I now have an insulated vessel to hold 34 ounces of sweet tea or Diet Dr. Pepper on a glorious summer day, the Bubba Keg is a favorite because the folks at BubbaBrands.com understand me and my sense of quasi-irony.  Let me explain:

While I certainly can hold, and have held, my own in the worlds of advertising and new media, not to mention trendy New York restaurants, I simply cannot escape my rural Deep South upbringing.  There are some thinks I just naturally like:  Fried Okra, boiled peanuts, barbecue, fishing, hunting -- there's a long list, but you get the idea.  I like this stuff, and I understand this stuff, and I understand why the culture of my upbringing can be, many times, both alien and amusing to people from both the inside and the outside of said culture.  At the same time, I obviously understand the appropriate time to wear the RealTree Peterson's Gun Shop cap, and the time to leave it at home.  I can be amused at the folks at the dirt track races, and simultaneously enjoy and appreciate the race.  I can laugh when someone from the South makes fun of our foibles, and my hackles are raised when the derision has a Yankee accent.  As the saying goes, I can make fun of my mama, but you better not. 

Bubba Keg gets this duality, and this understanding of irony.  If it's not evident by the name, it's certainly evident by the small brochure you'll find inside every new Bubba Keg product.  In addition to cross-selling other Bubba Keg models, the brochure delivers operating instructions with cheek planted firmly in tongue:

• Bubba Keg is Hand Wash Only.  Not intended for the dishwasher, washing machine, automatic carwashes, your pressure-washer -- you get the idea.

• Do Not Use in Microwave.  HELLO!!?  You did see that huge piece of metal on the outside, right?

It goes on, of course, in a similar manner.  The makers of Bubba Keg have developed a line of products that are, essentially, giant, permanent Big Gulps.  And they're selling them at Wal-Mart, where people who might buy giant, permanent Big Gulps are likely to shop.  But they've infused the product with a personality that connects, humorously and emotionally, to guys like me -- who might never seriously buy a Big Gulp-style beverage container, but who get, and appreciate the joke.  And along with getting the joke, I now, seriously, have a product I like.  Am I using it ironicly, like Ashton Kutcher in a trucker hat?  Maybe at first, but not now.  I do like my sweet tea in volume. 

As the bandwidth increases, the opportunity to connect with smaller and smaller niches presents itself.  Present wisely, and that niche can help you spread the word about your product to a larger audience. 

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

Time

Here's something I wrote for adotas.com about the new real-time creative.  Inspired by our effort in CurrentTV's TwitteRFP, which you can read about here.  We didn't make the final cut, but the process, I think, is a wake-up call to any and every agency -- the world works in real time now.

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

A Tweet, two longer reads, and a quick video

Twitter, for some time now, has been my major blogging tool.  While you don't get expansive articles, you do get thoughts and links, etc., on relevant stuff in something closer to real time.  I wouldn't call myself a really active Twitterer - some days I'm lucky if I tweet once.  Other days, though, when there's a lot of interest to share, I share it.  You know this already, though, by the Twitter feed on this page -- and I'm fairly convinced that most people who read this blog regularly probably already follow me.  But since the mainstream world has finally discovered Twitter (good golly, Oprah's tweeting now), I figured I'd encourage anyone who isn't following to follow -- well, whomever you want.  Don't feel you have to be witty or profound, or even prolific.  Twitter makes a really good RSS feed, simply by following the people and organizations you feel will give you updated information you want to receive.

You can follow me at twitter.com/erniemosteller

If you haven't been following, here are a couple of longer things I've posted in other spaces.  Of course, I Tweeted links to them, but since we've established that you might be new to all this, etc....I'll link to them here.

Here's a piece I wrote for adotas.com, about how history repeats itself, in terms of content development for any given medium.  Yes, I compare the web to TV -- but in a good way. 

If you'll remember back a bit, I blogged about writing for the Age of Conversation 2 - a book that contains a collection of essays from various marketing bloggers.  It's now available on Amazon.

And finally, here's a quick video I did for smarterfaster.com, Brunner's space for conversations about creativity in the digital age.  While this piece is on Ppt presentations, and a ton of creative folks never touch ppt, there's still no reason why a little sensible creativity can't be applied in the space.  In fact, there's every reason to apply it, because 90% of all ppt presentations I've ever seen, well, suck.  Hopefully, this video will help you make yours suck less.

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

Move Quickly

So, a couple of weeks go by without a blog post, and there's this nagging thing in the back of your mind that, geez, you really need to put something up.  Thing is, the stuff you want to write about you've already written about for the three other blogs you write for, and if you haven't done that, you Tweeted your thoughts when the subject was fresh, and someone Tweeted back, and the discussion was had, and now it just seems silly to explore it even further.

There was a session at this year's SXSW entitled, "Your Personal Blog is Dead."  I didn't go to the session, believing that mine is not, in fact, dead -- and also believing that my personal blog isn't really a personal blog, after all.  I don't write about my cat, possibly because I don't have a cat, but mainly because I've tried to stick, mostly, to advertising with a digital slant here on this, my, er...personal/not personal blog.

Time moves fast now.  That's what I say a lot in a lot of the talks I give about social media.  Social media has done that -- the web has done that -- and short snippets of information, available on any subject from just about everyone, via Twitter, have done that to the point that time isn't just short anymore, time is instant.  If your reaction to a subject isn't in the realm of minutes, your opportunity to present a relevant opinion is altered, and for the moment, diminished.  It's not eliminated altogether, though, but your entry into the discussion now becomes harder.  Follow me here:

Something happens, and people Tweet.  You know a lot about the subject, but you fail to Tweet, because you're in, say, an all-day meeting.  The Twittersphere bursts with opinions in all directions for a couple of hours (or a couple of minutes, which might as well be hours), and by the time TweetDeck shows you what you've missed you realize that the subject has changed.  While that's usually perfectly fine, there are times when a perspective from someone who truly knows a lot about the subject (remember, that was one of the givens at the beginning of this scenario) would be really, really valuable.  Except now, nobody wants to talk about the subject anymore, because it's been Tweeted to death already, just now, just in the last few minutes.  The bar has been raised, if your goal is to insert your (educated) opinion into the discussion at all. It's like having Wikipedia get the story completely wrong -- and you know exactly why it's wrong.  Except the case has been closed in an instant, and you weren't there.

This, I think is the thing that scares people to death about social media.

Until you realize that the speed at which discussions can go in one direction is also the speed at which they can change course.  And you do have an opportunity to influence discussion, even if you come to it late -- provided what you have to say is relevant, and persuasive.  Yes, it takes a good bit more effort to insert your opinion into a discussion that's deemed "old," but if the discussion is that important to you, then the extra effort will be worth it.

Keeping up is hard, and getting harder all the time.  Actually, it's beyond hard.  It's literally impossible now.  But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to keep up.  And it certainly doesn't mean you should cede every argument to the first responders.  It does mean, however, that if you're not willing to move quickly, your effort to move at all -- on any given subject -- will have to be greater, if you want it to have impact.

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

SXSW, the state of the business, and other odds and ends.

So, it's been a couple of weeks.  Actually a little more.  I just haven't had the time to sit down and compose something thoughtful enough for this space, because I've been working in other spaces (some similar, some not) pretty frantically.  Several major client initiatives, a new biz pitch or two, and tons of prep for what is going to be a very cool trip to South by Southwest Interactive.  Oh, yeah, in the midst of it all, I'm moving -- just down the road a little bit -- to an old farmhouse that, while no longer on a farm, is at least a little less (no, actually, a lot less) urban than the place we've been living.

In case you missed it, my latest piece for adotas.com is here.

But the big news, I think, is the trip to SXSW.  There are 7 of us going from Brunner.  We're all creatives, but from all different disciplines.  We have digital natives, hybrid thinkers, and traditionalists.  All going to Spring Break for Geeks -- it should provide some interesting conversations.  Which is why we've launched:  smarterfaster.com. 

The site is a blog, video blog, and twitter feed that will follow the real time tweets and daily (at minimum) blog and video posts we create while we're at the show.  Kind of "Road Rules" for the digital and traditional advertising set.  Kind of. 

Check it out.

Technorati Tags:
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this      

Be The Next Bandwagon

Economic hard times have, historically, helped spark interesting developments, and surges in creativity in popular culture.  It makes sense that pianos sold well during the Great Depression -- people need something entertaining to get their minds, if even for a moment, off the harsh realities.  British punk emerged from a trashed UK economy.  There are more examples, but in the interest of (relative) brevity, I'll ask you to do the reading on your own.  It happens. 

In my own little simplistic theory of why it happens, in part, I think it's because the armor protecting the business of popular culture develops serious chinks in a harsh downturn.  People spend less on big-name concerts, budgets get cut for bigger productions, established artists and galleries sell fewer paintings etc. -- and it opens up a hole for more experimental, underground, and emerging artists to slip into the public eye.  They become visible because of economic realities (they're cheaper) and the public soon discovers that they like what they see, if for no other reason than it's not the same old crap they're used to seeing.  On top of that, I think the emerging artists speak (sing/paint/shoot/whatever) with a voice that's closer to home for most listeners, especially when both performer and listener are suffering the same harsh realities.  It's gotta be hard to write songs about everyman's trials and tribulations in the workin' world from a balcony overlooking Malibu.  Underground artists don't have that hurdle to overcome.

Interestingly, the Long Tail nature of the web has had exactly the same effect on emerging artists.  They can get exposure -- sometimes, even fame -- based upon the aesthetic they create, period.  There are no real gatekeepers to hand pick and package "all the things that fit in this set." We've already seen cultural and aesthetic shifts in broader contexts, based upon stuff that not only first came to light on the web, but on stuff that is wholly in and of the web.  The thing is, I think we ain't seen nothin' yet.

We're about to witness the coupling of the democratic creativity of the web with a seriously tanked economy.  We've never seen that before.  But from where I sit, I see two things that have already proven potential to seriously shift and explode creativity in our culture, combining.  There's a mushroom cloud building on the horizon.

So, what does that mean for ad agencies?  A few things, I think:

1. Watch out for new bandwagons.  Agencies are notorious bandwagon jumpers.  Always have been.  While most agencies like to think they have a hand in creating popular culture, I think we have to be honest with ourselves and admit that, in this case, we're full of dung.  What we do, really, is spread popular culture that has already been created by jumping onto the newest, greatest bandwagon of style, and riding as far as we possibly can on behalf of our clients' brands.  We do that very, very well, though -- and the very best of us are adept at spotting those bandwagons coming from afar, jumping on early (before any other brands get there) and riding in the front seat.  Agencies already keep an eye on the fringe.  There's soon going to be much more to keep an eye on, coming from directions you won't expect.  Smart agencies will be ready. Even smarter agencies, though, will read on:

2. Understand that you're not the only one who can do that.  Really, where you've got your eye right now, is on your numbers.  Probably, at this point, both eyes.  And that can create myopic vision.  If you're looking solely at hours and utility to determine the success of your agency through the downturn, you have just labeled everything you do a commodity, and it will be valued as such.  The single most important (and possibly the only) differentiator we as agencies bring to the party is our creative contribution to marketing messages.  I don't mean just our creative product -- I mean our ability to out-think the other guy, regardless of agency discipline.  That this differentiator shows up most often in the creative product is simply a statement about the nature of that product.  But creativity, in any form, is your greatest weapon.  It's the only thing you have that can't be duplicated exactly.  Commoditize that, and you're in the same boat with everyone else.  Limit it for use only with existing clients, and you miss the opportunity to use your greatest weapon to emerge from the downturn first and best.  Cut it loose to improve the bottom line, and you have created a formidable competitor.  Technology has already established the fact that two guys in a garage can compete with much larger organizations by simply out-thinking them. The tools needed to produce what we produce are now in everyone's hands.  But now, current economics have actually given those guys in the garage an edge -- they don't cost as much as we do.  And they have less to lose.

3. Actually invent something.  Be the Bandwagon.  Technology, in the form of cheap HD, laptops with Final Cut, 10 Megapixel cameras in phones, etc., etc, -- combined with almost free distribution via the web -- has completely democratized production. That has sparked creativity.  Economic downturn, historically, sparks creativity.  The two sparks are fused now.  So why are you waiting for someone else to dream up something cool and new, so you can capitalize on it?  Agencies, if nothing else, are big rooms full of people who think creatively.  Some are bigger rooms than others, and some of those people think more creatively than others.  But to varying degrees, every agency out there is sitting on some amount of creative resource that, in general, plays at a higher level than average.  Since, in a democratized space like the web, creativity is the thing that gets noticed, doesn't it make sense to use existing creative assets to create something new, never seen before -- on the chance that your creativity is the brand that emerges?  Especially given that the chances have never been better.  It just doesn't make sense to jump on someone else's creative bandwagon when it's so easy now -- both from a functional and cost standpoint -- to create your own.  In order to accomplish this, you're going to have to experiment.  And if you're worried that clients won't pay for it, don't worry -- they won't.  But that still shouldn't keep you from doing it.  Because increasingly, they won't pay for the safe stuff, either.  As I see it, the opportunity here is for agencies to view themselves, rather than purveyors of popular culture, as emerging artists who have the ability to invent new and previously unseen popular culture.  The investment in a new bandwagon is an investment, to be sure, but technology has made sure that the investment will be small.  As I see it, it comes down to a choice:  Do you want to be a commodity, or do you want to be the bandwagon?  I know my answer.

Technorati Tags: 
Advertising  Marketing   Creative   Interactive   Online Marketing Design  Digital Design Blattner Brunner  Ernie Mosteller  BB Digital 

del.icio.us this