Monday, July 9, 2007
The Next-Gen Creative
(Preface, this entry is long, but read it when you can. I think its important.)
At portfolio schools we're often driven to chip away relentlessly at the micro end of mass communication. Advertising of course, is only a small piece of the gigantic scope of modern marketing and I think students often lose sight of the bigger picture.
Understanding it however, can be as important as the smaller one--and in fact, these things are often one in the same. So when creatives in the advertising biz are looking for the next big idea--the answer, especially now, may not lie so much in our classical understanding of creative work, as it may lie in a different kind of problem solving.
The future of marketing/advertising is (for lack of a better term) Virtual Reality.
The synergy between instantaneous micro and macro communication (the Internet, fiber optics, wireless communication to name a few) and the video game industry are beginning to understand the true, powerful scope of their synergy.
It started with things like The Sims, World of Warcraft and Second Life. The concept of real-time interactive communication at a global scale. Millions of people all across the world, of many different demographics have caught on. The game console systems (XBox, Playstation and Nintendo) have followed suit making online interactive play possible.
But all this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Advertisers have in fact started to explore in-game marketing avenues--case in point, Fight Night Round 3, where product placement is plastered all over the game. At some arenas, the King leads you into the ring.
But the real future, starts with Sony's yet to be released Play Station Home, the interactive interface for the PlayStation 3. The following taken from Wikipedia:
While Sony's exploration is merely the precipice of the future--this kind of secondary reality, that has been explored in massive interactive RPGs, in which people create societies , based on the same principles that govern our own in the real world including money make this an advertisers dream situation. Consider it reality, all over again.
Vending machines, clothing, shoes, buildings, banks...everything is an opportunity for a new kind of interactive, highly-central product placement. In fact to call it product placement really does it a dis-service. What it really amounts to, is product involvement marketing. The possibilities are essentially unlimited.
So here's where the Ad School thing kicks in again.
For the Ad agency of today--the one that right now at the forefront of cyberspace exploration, where interactive is the hot word--to become the Ad agency of tomorrow, they've got to start investing their ideas into these virtual worlds (where already millions of people worldwide spend millions upon millions upon millions of time and dollars) to remain ahead of the rest of the business. So they don't spend the next 10-15 years catching up.
What does that mean to us? Whereas right now, the line between writer, art director and graphic designer are blurring--soon enough the line between creative and media person will be blurring as much. It's already started to happen. Case in point Cripsin Porter Bogusky.
For our books, that means showing ideas that most of our instructors in the biz now might not get. But ideas that no doubt will soon enough become an unavoidable reality.
So I'm curious. Is anyone putting up marker comps of marketing/advertising ideas that happen in Second Life in your classes? In my opinion they'd be well served to.
All thoughts are more than welcomed.
At portfolio schools we're often driven to chip away relentlessly at the micro end of mass communication. Advertising of course, is only a small piece of the gigantic scope of modern marketing and I think students often lose sight of the bigger picture.
Understanding it however, can be as important as the smaller one--and in fact, these things are often one in the same. So when creatives in the advertising biz are looking for the next big idea--the answer, especially now, may not lie so much in our classical understanding of creative work, as it may lie in a different kind of problem solving.
The future of marketing/advertising is (for lack of a better term) Virtual Reality.
The synergy between instantaneous micro and macro communication (the Internet, fiber optics, wireless communication to name a few) and the video game industry are beginning to understand the true, powerful scope of their synergy.
It started with things like The Sims, World of Warcraft and Second Life. The concept of real-time interactive communication at a global scale. Millions of people all across the world, of many different demographics have caught on. The game console systems (XBox, Playstation and Nintendo) have followed suit making online interactive play possible.
But all this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Advertisers have in fact started to explore in-game marketing avenues--case in point, Fight Night Round 3, where product placement is plastered all over the game. At some arenas, the King leads you into the ring.
But the real future, starts with Sony's yet to be released Play Station Home, the interactive interface for the PlayStation 3. The following taken from Wikipedia:
PlayStation Home (trademarked as "Home™") is a community-based service for the PlayStation Network which has been in development since early 2005. Home allows users to create an avatar for their PlayStation 3 console. This avatar will get their own apartment, which can be adorned by items players can receive in several achievements. In the future the service will also expand, allowing players to have more sorts of clothing, as well as hold pets.[citation needed] When it is available, Home will be launched via its own category in the XMB between the "Game" and "Network" category. This service will be free of charge.
While Sony's exploration is merely the precipice of the future--this kind of secondary reality, that has been explored in massive interactive RPGs, in which people create societies , based on the same principles that govern our own in the real world including money make this an advertisers dream situation. Consider it reality, all over again.
Vending machines, clothing, shoes, buildings, banks...everything is an opportunity for a new kind of interactive, highly-central product placement. In fact to call it product placement really does it a dis-service. What it really amounts to, is product involvement marketing. The possibilities are essentially unlimited.
So here's where the Ad School thing kicks in again.
For the Ad agency of today--the one that right now at the forefront of cyberspace exploration, where interactive is the hot word--to become the Ad agency of tomorrow, they've got to start investing their ideas into these virtual worlds (where already millions of people worldwide spend millions upon millions upon millions of time and dollars) to remain ahead of the rest of the business. So they don't spend the next 10-15 years catching up.
What does that mean to us? Whereas right now, the line between writer, art director and graphic designer are blurring--soon enough the line between creative and media person will be blurring as much. It's already started to happen. Case in point Cripsin Porter Bogusky.
For our books, that means showing ideas that most of our instructors in the biz now might not get. But ideas that no doubt will soon enough become an unavoidable reality.
So I'm curious. Is anyone putting up marker comps of marketing/advertising ideas that happen in Second Life in your classes? In my opinion they'd be well served to.
All thoughts are more than welcomed.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
A word from the designer: fun with gum.
I caught this out at my local gas station, and being the racoon with shiny, new, pretty packaging that I am, I had to admit that it was fairly innovative. I did some research on the gum, and the gum is created by wrigley's, called 5 because it is how many senses that are activated when using this gum. As a designer, I think it's very smart, but also practical, like "why didn't I think of that?" kind of mindset. I only got one of the packs, and the gum is good, but I just want to see what other design students or possibly other ad students think of it.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Importance of Long Copy
This long copy ad was done by Gerald Blanton (AD) and Kevin Dunleavy (CW) at VCU Ad Center. How important is it, both for writers and art directors to have good long copy in their book?
It isn't always the stuff that gets the awards, in fact it seems that it never is--but I've heard professionals say that it is very important as a writer to show that you can write, and as an art director, that you can lay it out.
That said, the changing dynamics in media today seems to driving creatives towards alternatives to high word counts. How beneficial is it really to have in your book. Or imperative?
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Burns Blogging
Not sure of the agency but Montgomery Burns, is blogging for Jet Blue. I think its a pretty cool idea.
Can you show an idea like this in your student book?
Monday, July 2, 2007
Lost in Translation
This was made by Mihnea Gheorghiu, Voldemars Dudums and Alex Daff from Miami Ad School in Hamburg. Clearly there's something lost in translation here, because there's either very little punch--or a confusing slap in the face with this headline driven campaign.
My question is, how does international experience (especially as a writer) work? Do you really have to mostly shoot straight from visual solutions? Really learn the language? What's funny in English, isn't always what's funny in Japanese, or French or Portuguese. But I myself, would be very interested in working abroad--and I wonder how viable this is in a country whose language is foreign to me. Thoughts?
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