advertising and other stuff. no, really.



Friday, August 21, 2009

These kids today.









Agency Spy has a wrap-up of the session from Thursday PSFK’s Good Ideas conference hosted by George Parker. It was a new guns/old guns, where advertising got to/where it’s going theme. You can check out a complete list of the players, agencies and pics on PSFK. The discussion ran about 90 minutes with some good takes from both sides. Here’s a few thoughts from my comfy as hell comped king’s couch.

- Metaphors for the state of advertising, yes, have some. Curvin O’Reilly had an interesting one:



I passed both Yankee stadiums last night, one is being torn down. but I understand the new one is ultimate in creature comforts...but the interesting thing about the two side by side Yankee Stadiums is that the game is still the same. The game has not changed – it’s all about getting hits. Whether it’s with advertising or other forms of media, that’s it.


- What you heard too was a respect for the business side of the business from both young and old. It’s not about amazing Flashterbation from interactive shops, what agencies do needs to provide more than that. Alain Sylvan of Red Scout:



I’m more impressed with what is the arrow pointing to and how can we impact it. Our job is to stimulate business so if you think of it that way, how can you be what that arrow points to? Be that lighthouse. Be the thing you point to and once you think about that the growth of the industry is flexible.


- One topic that came up was spurred on during the Q&A at the end. Someone asked if advertising was in therapy, what would the therapists on the panel advise it do to help itself. Curvin had the best response:



I want to bring the client in for couple’s therapy. We need to find a way to talk together, to communicate. Client needs to understand I’m not there to steal money, etc. There should be some trust, more trust than there is right now.


I liked that answer because it involves another part of the problem with the business: The client and the Rock Star mindset CMOs seem to have now. Get in, shake things up, move on.

- On the topic of big agencies and even bigger red tape, Domenico Vitale summed it up nicely:



We’ve created factories that employ hundreds of people that have to get paid every month which means we have to produce the same product over and over again.


More when the video goes live. I’ll post a link to it then.

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