Wow. Just wow.

UPDATE: The ad has been posted on YouTube.





Maybe it's because I'm at home, nursing a cold, today. But this PSA actually brought tears to my eyes. (Click the text link above to the embedded video in the campaign site, no YouTube yet.)

The UK campaign has already been covered by two industry blogs I follow, Osocio and AdFreak, but I want to share it here with Acart staff, friends and clients because of the considerable road safety work we have done with Transport Canada, CAA, and the Traffic Injury Research Foundation.

When you're "selling" safety, the temptation is to scare people with worst case scenarios and bloody consequences like the interminable brutality of this distracted driving video (also from the U.K.):



But does that really work? It's hard for anyone, especially teens, to really imagine death as an outcome. The Embrace Life ad, on the other hand, aims for a much more influenceable demo/psychographic: responsible husbands and fathers. Me.

We have had many discussions with our clients at TIRF, and their partners in international law enforcement, about how to get people to make smarter decisions about driving based on positive messages rather than scare tactics. Images like this, however, blend both in a perfect symphony of emotion:



It's heart-wrenching and life-affirming at the same time. He has everything to lose, and so do they, over a simple decision that he makes several times a day.

Osocio has this quote from Embrace Life’s Writer and Director, Daniel Cox:

“It was central to the development of the project that we root the concept of wearing a seat belt firmly in the family domain, and create the advert so that it could be viewed by anyone of any age. Children are so important as opinion formers within their family that we felt it imperative to have a child take a pivotal role in relaying our message. One key aspect to the storytelling is that we developed Embrace Life to be non-language specific, so that the message wouldn’t become lost when viewed by visitors to, or residents of, the UK where English might not be their first language.”

I am professionally and emotionally devastated by this PSA. In the good way.

Help me do my Social Media homework

Over the past few months, I've been working on building a network of interested colleagues, competitors, clients, friends, and curious onlookers. Now let's see what this sucker can do.

I am preparing a presentation for a public transit conference. My proposed topic is "Rider Relations 2.0". Basically, I would like to talk to them about the big opportunities for building a more responsive, transparent, and human connection with their customers using Social Media and other interactive channels.

I think the timing is right for public sector organizations, like transit commissions, to start to engage their customers in a conversation about service changes, complaints, concerns, and kudos.

For example, The Globe and Mail recently published an article about how the Toronto Transit Commission "is turning to the private sector for advice on charming customers after a fare increase and last fall's token shortage helped spur nearly a 20-per-cent increase in complaints."

Being both a member of the private sector and of the Canadian Urban Transit Association, I feel a duty to offer some free advice. And seeing as this is pro-bono work, I'm not ashamed to ask for your help.

Basically, I want to lay out for the transit people how public relations disasters, many of which play out in social media, can be turned around using those same channels and attitudes. And I want to use recent private sector consumer marketing examples.



One recent one is Domino's Pizza, who took a beating after some apparent employees posted grossout videos (since deleted, but lives on here) of what they were doing to the food.

This was part of a general brand decline, where words like "cardboard crust" have become popular brand memes.

Did Domino's quietly improve its product? Lower prices and settle for being the 'za of last resort? No, they did market research to figure out how people really felt about their pizza, and launched a viral video telling people how their product had failed, and what they were doing to rectify it:



Still very corporate, but it's a start. Now they're showing up at the doors of people who complained in the past, offering them a sample, and recording their reactions.

What's innovative about this approach is not the media, but the attitude. Brands have been treated like sacred cows by their owners for years, and in the isolation of the boardroom they got arrogant. But times have changed.

The Bush-era posturing of admitting no wrong is over. With social media levelling the playing field between people, criticism is not something to be ignored, but embraced.

Domino's has gone so far as to embed a live Twitterfeed on their campaign site. As of this writing, it includes a range of comments from "The new dominos pizza crust is crack! So delicious" to "Just had dominos new pizza, tasted like I ate 3 cloves of garlic." and "Dominos new pizza recipe is to dip the entire pizza in butter".

So, do you think a transit system can adopt this kind of gutsy strategy? To say "sorry about the fair hikes/strike/rude driver/crowded busses" or whatever, then engage riders in an ongoing conversation about what's being done to fix the problem?

Over the years, I've met many of the people behind public services at all levels of government, and for all the public cynicism aimed at them, you can always find some who are true believers in the good that they are doing. If the culture of these institutions could just evolve to a position of "we're working for you, and we'll work with you to make this as decent as possible" — instead of having a deathly fear of criticism — I think they could make real progress.

So here's my homework for you: if you know of any other good examples of brands breaking down the walls, admitting fault, and trying to make good in an authentic and transparent way, please either comment here, or on whatever channel you use to access this blog. If all goes well, I'll post video of my presentation in May, so we can all share in the results.

Thanks!

This ad has 22 minutes of fame

I've always told my clients that the best indicator of a campaign's success will be if it is parodied by Rick Mercer.

Well, we almost made it.

Last night, This Hour Has 22 Minutes spoofed our latest H1N1 TV ad, starring Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones:



(Link in text above — it's not on YouTube yet.)

Okay, so that parody version is not THH22M's best work. (Their PHAC "proper sneezing" spoof was somewhat better.) The best they've got is that "we bought too much vaccine" and "this flu was a bust". Hardly biting satire, considering that we're talking about the global pandemic we've been bracing ourselves for years for being less deadly than anticipated.

(The "mildness" of the pandemic is hardly a comfort to the loved ones of its 14,000+ victims worldwide, and the World Health Organization says we shouldn't let our guard down just yet, either.)

While I realize it is fun to joke about what a "fail" of a pandemic H1N1 is, I also believe that we need to stay alert and protected from preventable harm. And that's what good primary health care is all about – reducing risk and keeping people healthy.

As ad people, we try not to take ourselves too seriously. And the imitation is quite flattering. And we realize that getting the shot, or not, is your call. But I think it's a tip of the hat to our Chief Public Health Officer that as a passionate and concerned advocate of scientific approaches to managing public health, his message didn't exactly pan out to be comedy gold for the CBC's political jesters.

Oh, and speaking of Rick Mercer, here was his take on the efficacy of seasonal flu shots four years ago:



God, 22 Minutes must miss him. I know I do. If you're going to take a shot at a social marketing campaign, at least bring the wicked funny.

Admen "growing their 'staches to save ther asses"

When it comes to doing great work for an important cause, even an adman's competitive nature can get a temporary reprieve. And that's why I'm going to use today's blog to give props to a local rival, McMillan, for their absolutely hilarious Moustaches! The Men of McMillan 2010 fundraising calendar.

As a spontaneous outgrowth of their hairy efforts for prostate cancer research last Movember (regular readers may recall my caterpillar lip from the time) the lads decided to dress up as 1970s stereotypes, do a photoshoot, and publish a joyfully retro man-a-month calendar to raise even more money for the cause.

Here's an example, starring my good friend (and onetime boss) Creative Director Jake Volt:



The 'staches are outrageous, the outfits absurd, and the copywriting epically ironic.

You can buy your very own Moustaches! The Men of McMillan 2010 calendar for $10 — or just donate to the cause — at this link. I'm told that all materials and services were donated, so every cent goes to the cause.

Great work, guys! And thanks for inspiring us all to be at our best when what we're doing is something that really matters.

Worst case scenario? There's an app for that.

Although the Haiti earthquake decimated the island's infrastructure even as it devastated people, somehow wireless communications remained. And that allowed social networking and telecommunications to live up to its promise of changing people's lives.

According to Wired, Tweets and text messages from people injured or trapped in fallen buildings have been a big help to rescue workers trying to track down survivors. Here's one example:

"Relief workers in Haiti received an emergency text message Tuesday about a collapsed school, with children still alive in the rubble. A search-and-rescue team on the scene, however, couldn’t find the right location.

Then a group of volunteers in Boston pinpointed the origin of the message, sent using the 4636 SMS shortcode. They rapidly relayed the information back to Eric Rasmussen, a former top naval medical officer working with rescue teams in Haiti.

A team was then dispatched to the correct grid location. The coordinates were accurate to five decimal places."

Amazing as this is, it's one among many apparently miraculous uses of the personal technology and media of the now.

CNET reports that Dan Woolley, an American Filmmaker hurt and trapped in the remains of his hotel, used an application on his iPhone to get first aid info on how to stabilize his own serious head and leg wounds. He then set its alarm clock to go off every 20 minutes to keep himself conscious, and (interestingly) preserved what he thought might be his final words in pen and paper. (There's an interview with him here.)

These are just a couple of stories. Twitter users on the scene provided instant (if not always reliable) eyewitness accounts of the devastation in real time, creating an unprecedented global awareness of the tragedy as it happened. And now informational Tweets are being used to get search and rescue information back out to isolated survivors.

In the rest of the world, social media have been mobilized in a massive, multifaceted fundraising effort for Haiti relief. Not only does this help spread the appeal to many people who would not be reached effectively by mainstream media, but it also keeps the story alive when the headlines get smaller and deeper in the news.



I'd be remiss if I didn't end this post with a renewed appeal to join, donate to, or share our own Haiti cause page, Hearts Out to Haiti. We've raised $650 since yesterday for the Canadian Red Cross Society, and if you haven't already found a good online donation site, this one is secure.

Take care.

Hearts Out to Haiti

**QUICK LINK TO CAUSE**

The Haiti earthquake, and the continuing human tragedy it caused, hit us hard at Acart. We spend every day trying to make people's lives better through strategies, ideas, words and images. But this is way, way more tragic and immediate than most of our "official" social issues. It's going to take even more commitment.

Look at the news at any time, and you can feel the hurt — for Haitian nationals, for their friends and families here, and for the many Canadians and other visitors who lost their lives just trying to help.

There are many ways to help disaster relief efforts, and you've probably already received dozens of asks. We're not looking to compete with any other initiative. But we also realize that, as a very connected Social Issues Marketing agency, we are almost duty-bound to use our extended social networks — such as industry and client groups, LinkedIn associates, Facebook friends and fans, Twitter followers, and readers of this blog — to try to stir up just a little more love.

Please visit our cause page on Facebook, "Hearts Out to Haiti", and donate if you can. Even if you can't, please share this link. The money goes directly to the Canadian Red Cross Society, and will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Government of Canada.

Working for the working man (and woman)

Since last June, we've been working with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to help them get out the message of what help Canada's Economic Action Plan has for workers in industries at risk, the recently unemployed, people entering the workforce, the self-employed, and business owners.

Even though Canada is gradually emerging from the recession (we fared much better than the U.S.), the global economic situation has disrupted the lives and livelihoods of many Canadians. This ad lets them know some of the measures that are out there to offer them financial assistance now, and skills training for a new career.

We filmed this back in November, at a venerable Quebec steel mill called Les Forges de Sorel, as well as at an aeronautics school in Montreal.

The steel mill was the most dramatic location I've ever shot in. Quickly built at the very beginning of World War II, it became a key artillery manufacturer for the Allied forces.



Today, supplies custom forged steel materials for heavy machinery, power generation, pulp and paper, steel processing, and mining and petrochemical industries. But on November 17, it served as a generic heavy industry exterior, played itself as a steel mill, was a millwright's shop, and a factory lunch room.



Les Forges was also the recipient of Economic Action Plan assistance, taking advantage of the work sharing program to reduce layoffs. And they were some of the most gracious and patient hosts we've ever had the pleasure to work with.

Want to know more about the shoot? Check out our full behind-the-scenes photo album on Facebook.

Ad Hacks

People have probably been messing with ads since ads first appeared. Whether it's drawing a moustache (or worse) on the fashion model, adding social commentary to the copy, or re-editing TV spots, people just seem to love to repurpose creative and media placements to their own ends.

One of the best-known trends in this phenomenon is culturejamming, a term used by the people of Adbusters and Greenpeace to describe simple changes made to ads or logos that reveal their true nature:




You get the idea.

But in today's electronic media, jamming opportunities can be much more dramatic, such as when people break into electronic billboards.



So it was only inevitable that someone would find a way to access the giant video billboards going up in major cities all over the world.

And it came to pass, last Friday, that late-night traffic in Moscow came to a standstill as a 9 x 6 metre video billboard near the Kremlin suddenly started screening hard core pornography.



As amusing as this is, it kind of seems like a missed opportunity to make a really grand statement. People got out of their cars and videotaped the incident, and it's still making the news rounds three days later.

The billboard company owner accuses the hackers of "hooliganism". I just think they displayed a lack of imagination.

Fighting brutality with brutality

The following PSA was banned from British TV for disturbing imagery:



Created by Beatbullying, a UK charity that works with kids and professionals to try to reduce bullying and give victims a voice.

Produced by M&C Saatchi, the campaign is dedicated to the memory of bullied student Megan Gillan — a 15-year-old who fatally overdosed in her bedroom early in 2009 after an organized campaign of bullying by peers on Bebo.



According to Charities Aid Foundation, the ad was refused permission to air on TV in the UK by Clearcast after it was deemed "too brutal" for younger viewers. Instead, it will air in cinemas during films that only allow unaccompanied kids of 12 and over.

The following is Clearcast's rationale for the broadcast ban, but if you don't have time to view it all, it can be summed up in these words "people don't like to see upsetting images".



Personally, I don't think it's over the line. It's jarring and disturbing, but it makes an important point. And I think it's quite respectful to the victims.

The ironic part is that it is also all over YouTube anyway, a medium young kids are much more likely to be browsing.

Greetings from 'ollywood Nord

We're on-set today, shooting another Federal Government ad. In the past few months, we've shot in locations such as government offices, an aviation school, and a steel mill. But this one is different. We're actually creating a world from scratch.



Welcome to the coolest market in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Don't look for it in Lonely Planet, because it's actually on a sound stage by the chilly banks of the mighty St. Lawrence River. But just for one day, we're transporting a bunch of actors to Sicily. Or maybe it's Cyprus. Or Greece? Turkey? Lebanon?

The point is not to be too specific. The scenario is a Canadian tourist abroad, drinking in the local culture. The market has a region, but not a nation. It should remind viewers of the coolest travel experiences they've ever had... anywhere in the world.



It's our own little exotic Sesame Street, complete with all the people in the neighbourhood... even chickens. We're in Mel's, a group of hangar-like buildings used for Quebec and Hollywood films alike. The posters on the walls of the corridors boast of some of the movies filmed here: 300, Catch Me if You Can, The Aviator, and others.



At Acart, we've long benefited from a tight relationship with the Montreal film industry. Just two hours from our agency's front door, we have access to world-class production resources and people driven by the passion of knowing they are at the epicentre of their own culture's creative expression. This is the real Hollywood North, even if they often drop the "H".

Our production house on this shoot is Traffik, with Director Dominique Laurence. I won't reveal the client, or give any plot spoilers right now. Stay tuned for a full look behind-the-scenes when the ad is done and approved in a few weeks. It's gonna be way cool.

Acartland Who's Who

*cue lilting flute and bird sounds*

Old-school Canadian Announcer:

“The Acart Team is a proud part of the Canadian social issues marketing landscape…




















“This winter, they can be observed coming out of their shells and showing off their diverse personalities and skills on the Internet…























“Watch how they pose unafraid of our camera, Change Agents, Provocateurs, and Continuous Improvers all working together to do work that matters…


















“To learn more about the people of Acart, go to the updated "Who We Are" section of the Acart Web site… in Ottawa.”

We've come a long way... baby?

**First off, let me apologize in advance for blowing any chance that you're going to have a productive day at work.**

You always know you're on to something good when more than one trusted Internet friend forwards you the same awesome new link within the course of a day. That's what happened yesterday, when I was directed to vintageadbrowser.com/ by both a former, and a current, Acart digital boss.

There are lots of vintage ad galleries out there, like AdClassix, and blogs like Found in Mom's Basement. But a new and well-stocked archive is always exciting to browse.



This one goes back to the origins of print advertising, in the Victorian era. That was before the invention of sophisticated creative strategy, which (according to The Age of Persuasion) is when Canadian-born John E. Kennedy summed it up as "salesmanship on paper".



Pretty soon, ads started really talking to people, addressing such modern problems as what to do when the servants fail to bring you a prompt and nutritious breakfast. (We've all been there, haven't we?)



Okay, so the copy was rather primitive. But mass production, a burgeoning middle class, improved logistics and mass communications were on the march. Now, advertising promised you robust and genetically superior children:




And even exotic new foods, like what them Eye-talians is eating:



Speaking of cultural diversity, the site contains plenty of the nasty side of vintage advertising (with a strong disclaimer). We're reminded of a time when lampooning and generally demeaning our fellow human beings was considered jolly good fun:



(But then again, after viewing a recent KFC Australia ad, you're reminded we haven't really progressed that far after all.)

Women were were also treated poorly by the ads of the day, which reinforced the idea that their job was to stay pretty and placate hungover husbands with food:




That attitude actually continued, in more subtle forms, well into my childhood:



And then there are the tobacco ads, promoting patriotic smoking in VA hospitals:



Or eating things that were just plain wrong:



So, how far have we come — as a society and as an industry? Are we still stereotyping people? Selling them stuff they don't need by playing on their insecurities? Making them fat and happy?

Feel free to give me more contemporary examples below. I'll leave you with this ad, which I found oddly endearing:

No sex please, we're Calgarians

Have you seen the Virgin Mobile bus shelter campaign showing people making out with male and female angels?



Apparently, they're too hot for Calgary Transit.

According to CTV:

"Calgary Transit says it received several complaints that the ads were too sexual and were close to areas where children could easily view them."

Heaven forbid kids see a couple making out in a bus shelter. (Considering Calgary's significant hooker problems, we're lucky if that's all they see!)

Mississauga has also pulled the ads, for basically the same reasons.

Chris Baines, spokesperson for Virgin Mobile is unapologetic:

“We’re very proud of our ads. We don’t think there’s anything wrong with them. They are just young couples passionately embracing or kissing. It’s no more than that and they’re a lot of fun.”

An ad featuring this couple was allowed to stay up, because it has less groping.

Meanwhile, in the Toronto market, and in the replacement ad for the two yoinked ads in Mississauga, the angels go both ways.



One can only imagine why that one wasn't chosen for the Calgary market.

Five words that should be banished from the communications industry forever...

.

... then slaughtered, burned, stomped on and salted.

If there's one thing the communications industry should be good at, it's communicating. But whether you're a client, in-agency, or a partner, I'll bet you've encountered these weasel words on more than one occasion. You've probably even used them. Now let's all agree to stop.

Edgy

I get this one all the time. "Be edgy!" It's not that the word is so bad, it's that everyone has their own ideas and tolerances when it comes to "edge".

To me, edgy means risky. As in, "we might get in big trouble for this". That might involve purposeful political incorrectness, blatant sexuality, political or religious outrage, foul language, or making fun of something people hold sacred.



This ad was on The Ad Graveyard, a old gallery of rejected creative. The accompanying story makes the point quite clearly:

"A slightly less graphic but still controversial advert by the same individual which showed a girl with a pierced tongue and a number of other facial deformations was run instead, all in an attempt to show the "wild side" of Alteon's gigabit routing technology. One suspects that the rejected advert was simply a little too wild for the marketing department's tastes."

Were you offended by the bare breast, the use of one of the most intimate aspects of motherhood to sell technology, or simply because it's completely random? Take your pick. But someone considered it "edgy" and someone else considered it "inappropriate".

Just ask WWF...

Wordsmith

I'm a writer, not a smith. But the worse problem here is this word's use as a verb. When someone says I need to "wordsmith" the copy "a bit", they're just saying that they're not happy with the copy, but they don't know exactly why. Unless I know exactly why, I can't really do the specific revisions, edits, or rewrites they should be asking for.

It's a meaningless word that makes what I do for a living seem like something vague and superficial. And it doesn't lead to better copy.

Tweak

Tweaking refers to fine-tuning or adjusting a complex system, usually an electronic device.

Tweaking is also a repetitive or ritualistic movement, posture, or utterance seen in people with physical and mental disorders.

In advertising, design and Web development, excessive requests to do the former often lead to the latter.

Dynamic

One of our industry's most abused words, "dynamic" seems to now mean "garish, animated, energetic and/or cool". It's particularly confusing in the digital world, where "dynamic" has a very specific technical definition.

If you think the creative is powerful, say so. But if giving constructive feedback, "make it more dynamic" is neither precise nor helpful.

Pop

The Oatmeal covered this best:



Have a great weekend. And don't forget to forget these words by Monday.

The other creativity

I'm sitting here this morning putting together a puzzle. No, it's not a scene from Star Wars (I wish!). It's just a normal part of my job.

You see, yesterday we received a request to re-script a commercial that has already been shot and edited. For those of you who have not been involved in TV production, this is kind of a big deal. Weeks of planning and hard work, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, go into producing a 30-second spot based on an approved script. It's usually step one. (Luckily, there's nobody speaking on camera!)

So here I am, figuring out two options: re-edit existing footage to match the new script, or edit the supplied script to existing footage. Both require a fair bit of resourcefulness.

Resourcefulness is not always given due credit in creative circles. We thrive on inspiration, resourcefulness' celebrity older sister. But as exciting as inspiration is (what could be more scary thrilling than a blank page?), resourcefulness deserves its due.

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 1:9

We have a joke among Copywriters, "I need a new word for 'new'". The desire for novelty is what keeps us fresh. At the same time, once you've been doing this for a few years, "Seen it!" becomes a more and more frequent reaction. That shouldn't mean we give up trying, but realizing that inspiration is just recombining — or building on — many other people's ideas is actually liberating. Knowing that inspiration is not magic, but rather natural evolution of ideas, removes the fear of that blank page. You just let the ideas happen. And if they don't, you start looking around for inspiration.

Understanding that you never really have a blank page also gives an insight into the nature of inspiration. It's really just unconscious resourcefulness.

On the other hand, when faced with challenges like today's puzzle, the unconscious just isn't enough. Instead of inspiring myself, I'm problem-solving.

We've all been there. The super-awesome, brilliant, earth-shattering idea that you had at the brainstorming pub lunch five Fridays ago has now been reviewed, approved with changes, focus tested, and generally altered. Some Creatives give up and bemoan the loss of their prodigal daughter. Professionals get resourceful.

Resourcefulness is about taking what you have, evaluating the situation calmly, and using every skill, tool and talent at your disposal to come up with the best possible solution for the situation.

It may not always be art. But resourcefulness is what let humans take over the world.



Now, back to work...

MADD takes a hard left towards denormalization

Adrants yesterday posted some new ads for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, created by TBWA Toronto.

Here's one:



It's funny. It's thought-provoking. And it's a complete change of course for an organization that traditionally uses shock and guilt to hammer home the anti-drinking and driving message:



So, what happened? Obviously, someone at MADD has decided to give "Denormalization" a try.

A tactic in anti-smoking campaigns for decades, denormalization campaigns seek to make previously tolerated behaviours socically unacceptable by exposing them to ridicule or redefining them as just plain dumb.

Let's look at another of MADD's new approach:



The beauty of these ads is not just in the writing, but the casting. These guys look like lifelong drunkards, the dumbass who sits next to you at the bar, tells secondhand stories, then leaves you wondering how he's getting home.



(It's a shame they didn't use the URL, drivebackroads.ca, for some additional viral outreach. It's currently parked on godaddy.)

One of the principals behind denormalization is social shaming through satire. While it is embraced by many current social marketing campaigns, the practice is as old as western civilization. From Greek and Roman playwrights and poets, to Jonathan Swift, to The Onion, hilarious and often brutal satire has been a popular tactic for pushing social self-awareness — and ultimately change.



But will it get through the the thick heads of the hardcore drunk drivers? Probably not. But that's not the point.

According to our longtime client and office neighbour, The Traffic Injury Research Foundation, the repeat offenders need to be dealt with in a more scientific way, through well-informed policies and legislation. That's the other aspect of social change. (Think of how workplace smoking bans almost eliminated indoor social smoking in a very short time, after years of social marketing had had little impact on youth.)

The purpose of satire, or denormalization, isn't to make the offenders see the error of their ways. It's intended to emphasize the unacceptability of their behaviour to people who might otherwise be complacent about it. When we all join in to laugh at the buffoon, then the real power of social shaming comes into play. You might even report them, as the call-to-action asks.

Good campaign. I hope MADD keeps up this more sophisticated approach in their social marketing.

The Agency of the Future

I've been daydreaming lately about what the future of my industry will look like.

Speculation is always laughable when you look back at it, but when you're looking forward it's still fun to imagine: What will the ad agency of 2020 be?

This is particularly interesting to me, because I think the seeds of the new species were planted more than 10 years ago, when stories started circulating about agencies abandoning the office structure for a virtual workplace of cell phones, laptops, and video conferencing. (My boss at the time, Bob Corrall at The Bytown Group, was seriously considering following suit.)

It didn't happen. But I don't think it's because the concept was wrong. Rather, the time was. Technology has a habit of outpacing people's ability to absorb change. People then (and to a large extent, now) still favoured face-to-face meetings over naked text or voice — or even the weird delays and wandering eyes of primitive Internet video conferencing.

Fast-forward to the new, and the fundamentals of the technology haven't changed – only improved. The real revolution has been a cultural one, as older people now cling to their PDAs as they once did to their cigarettes, and younger people live in a world where text messaging someone sitting next to you is not considered odd.

So, why do we still come to the office? Well, telecommuting is steadily rising where permitted. But once again cultural change moves slowly. Business owners like to see their workers at work. And I have to admit that there are some situations — like strategic or creative brainstorming — where you really need human interaction to be efficient.

So my vision of the agency of the future is less office, and more meeting place. It's where teams agree to get together to hash out ideas, and where the ideas get presented to clients. But deskwork? I think it will be for the home office.

And who will do this work? With the decline of massive mainstream media channels, traditional advertising is seen to be failing. I don't believe advertising is dead at all. It just needs to keep up.

For over 50 years, advertising has been driven by massive spending on mass media. The old rule of thumb for ad budgets is 20% for creative and production versus 80% for the media buy. You needed it if you were even going to be seen in primetime.

Well, it's time to think differently. Not only online and social media, but also the million-channel universe, video on demand and timeshifting, have made audiences much harder to find. To borrow a colleague's metaphor for attempted Facebook hookups, it's gone from machine-gunning a message to sharpshooting it.

Sure, there are still media placements to be bought, but they'll be way more targetted and economical — smart online ads and specialty media. What will be needed instead is a big investment in research, strategy, content and a good blend of paid/earned media planning... with maybe 20% left over for actually buying space.

Media departments will change. I see them becoming a hybrid of market research, media planning, and public/media relations. The emphasis will be on defining, finding, and reaching highly-targeted groups, rather than making massive buys. They do the intellectual legwork now. They just need to get paid what it's really worth, since commissions will dry up.

The good news for creatives is that when you have to earn people's attention (rather than buying it) great ideas will still win out. But rather than the old-school Copywriter/Art Director team, I see the next generation of Creatives being more like a sitcom writing team with the ability to design, lay out, and code their own work. Ad schools are already turning out multidisciplinarian graduates. Once we old folk can embrace a blurring of creative and executional roles, the world will be theirs.

I also see these future teams as independent units, maybe even contractors or hired guns. Right now, many teams specialize in specific brands or industries, as do agencies. I see these future teams specializing in target markets, able to speak to them credibly on any subject, and work for any agency or brand. They could be located anywhere, but would have to share a meta-culture with the audience. And agewise, probably a few years older than them so that they are insightful yet self-aware and capable of cultural leadership. (My anecdote on this is always that The Beatles were not technically Baby Boomers, but U2 are.)

Understanding of the brands and industries will be the job of Client Services, as always. But I see them being much more in the role of a Producer in the TV broadcast world, setting the course, lining up the players, performing project management miracles, and internalizing the creative product that they can present it to clients and defend it as their own. (This is a big part of my virtual office, which would mean Client Services people could operate independently in major markets for face-to-face meetings, and deal remotely with far-flung Creative Teams.)

Will this all happen? And when? I have no idea. But things have to change. This isn't all about social media, either. Media come and go, and the ones that work just work. I was reminded of this as I walked to Acart this morning — rather than driving a flying car or being sucked through a pneumatic tube — and saw rows of one of the oldest ad media, hoarding posters, catching my attention the way they always will.



Technology doesn't change us. It just opens up opportunities. It's up to us to take advantages of the right ones — at the right time, and in the right place.

Ten concepts that will be redefined in the Twenteens

Whether or not it is mathematically accurate, most of us consider 2010 to be the beginning of a new decade. And with such a break, naturally, come speculations as to what the next ten years are going to be all about.

I'm no futurist, but as a writer I'm interested in how words change their meanings over time. And more importantly, how the big ideas behind them catch up with social evolution.

Here are 10 terms that I think will mean something very different during this decade:


Shame

Even people of my generation are amazed at younger people's lack of what we would call "shame". Just yesterday, I was reading about how a brother, whose sister narced him out for keeping beer in his room, got his revenge by posting her "hookup list" on Facebook and tagging all the guys' names.

Sibling rivalry may be as old as the hills, but when you see this list and the reactions to it, you can see that we're dealing with a generation that doesn't blush. They get mad, sure. They get embarrassed. But I don't get the impression that this girl really felt shame at having written this list in the first place.

Is that wrong? Not necessarily. In fact, when these kids are running the world, I can't imagine what kind of sex scandal could unseat a political leader, since everyone will have done everything imaginable and shared it by then.


Old

Speaking of which, I'm getting old. Or at least, I should be. But one great thing about trailing the Baby Boomers is that they keep raising the bar. First 30 was the new 20. Then 40 was the new 30. 50 the new 40. 60 the new 50. Etc.

It's gotten to the point where I'm not really that concerned about turning 40 this year. As older friends and relatives have shown me, I never really need to grow old.

Here

I'd like to thank you, my dedicated reader, for being here. But where is "here"? I'm writing this in my office, and you could literally be anywhere in the world. This is nothing new, since telecommunication has always made some of this possible, but the ease and richness of it make us so much more present in each other's lives than ever before.

Online meetings, online games, online parties... people are getting together in places that don't actually exist. So at what point will we need a new word for "here" that means "no, like actually in the flesh (and actually paying attention rather than Blackberrying)".


Now

I think the concept of "Now" has also changed, and will continue to do so, in certain contexts. When I write an e-mail to an friend, and I ask "what are you doing now?" I might mean this year, or even since 1989. But when I see them on Facebook or Twitter, I see that they're trying to clean cat barf out of their carpet.

The immediacy in personal communication is risible, but in business it's downright infuriating. But I've already covered that one in another post.


Brand

Originally, a brand was an attempt to give human attributes to a company or product. Now it's gone full circle, and corporate branding techniques are being applied to people.

Way back in 2007, Fast Company said "Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You."

So if a brand is a person, and a person is a brand, then... ?

Oh, forget it. My head hurts.


Conversation

Are we having a conversation right now? Not really. As far as I know I'm just talking at you (or nobody, for that matter). But we may get into one in the comments thread below.

What's interesting about online ideas exchange isn't just that we can have a little Twitter flamewar in almost real time — it's also that a conversation can play out over hours, days, or even weeks on a thread. And I can have several at a time without being rude.

I've actually caught myself recently stating that I had "had a conversation" with someone at over something important, when in fact we had just messaged each other a few times. Maybe that seems normal to you, but I'm still getting used to it.


Ownership

I was at a social media seminar last year where one participant raised concern about the idea of generating so much content for free: "How do I retain ownership of it, if it's out there for everyone to use as they see fit?"

The idea of ownership is changing — from collaborative authorship on Wikis, to hilarious copyright violations on YouTube.

This obviously bothers some owners of more valuable intellectual capital like U2's Bono, who actually went on record saying that ISPs should use Chinese-style policing of the Internet to stop illegal music sharing.

To some people, this might seem to make sense. But it goes against the ideals of Internet culture, and also seems petty coming from a millionaire rock star.

I'm not saying artists shouldn't have the right to protect, and profit from, their own work. I just don't know how they'll manage in a remixing, sharing online world.


Loyalty

This is more one I'd like to see change, rather than one that necessarily will. But the idea is that as people form more and varied connections with other people, they will stop being such all-or-nothing team players.

What I mean by that is that people will stop labelling themselves "liberal" or "conservative" or whatever, but will instead form loyal connections to the individual people and ideas that suit them best, while at the same time always be ready to change alliances if a person or thing lets them down. Think "cat loyalty" rather than "dog loyalty". I actually think that would make for a smarter, better world.


Responsibility

This is another of those old-school words that often gets misapplied in marketing and life. But I think you will see a new sort of responsibility continue to emerge in the next few years, where people can no longer feign ignorance about the impacts of their behaviours, and companies are answerable for their claims, practices, and supply chains.

At least I hope so.


Ad Agency

We've never really had ad agencies here in Ottawa. Because of the size of the market and the nature of the client base, most of us have evolved from design shops to a more integrated and strategic offering.

There have been times when I regretted not moving to a bigger market with "real" ad agencies, but not anymore. While I'm not ready to proclaim the post-advertising era quite yet, the long death of traditional mainstream media is brutalizing the old media commission model. At the same time, old ways of communicating are eroding as consumers just get their best tips from their extended network.

One of the great things about being at Acart is that we're constantly reinventing ourselves. Because we're always changing, we don't have to fear change.

So what will the Ad Agency of 2020 look like? Tune in for my next installment.