Ad Age, the most respected of advertising journals that comes out every week, has only two special issues, where all the whole issue is dedicated to one topic. One is the year end special lists and one more in Jan on Agency Review.
This March they have made an exception to dedicate one whole issue to the Digital Age. The issue speaks of the best digital marketer [Unilever], best digital agency, digital brain etc. Numerous cases, articles, examples tell us how the world of Digital advertising is changing. One big question posed is that : Is Digital really a medium?
The fact Ad Age made an exception to dedicate a full issue to Digital is itself a landmark. Almost as big, well not as big, as Fortune abandoning the Fortune 500 Mfrs and Fortune 500 Service companies listings, and making it one big Fortune 500 list.
We in India do think that the digital revolution is a long long way off. Our bandwidth is poor. Few people blog. No one reads. Etc. But all this will change fast.
For example have you noticed how fast surfing speed has become at Nirmal.
What is also of concern is that a lot of our consumers may be way ahead of us in the way we use multi-media devices. For example in the just concluded Xeta Shoot Out Contest, the winners were two kids who had used a Cybershot [still] camera; not even a handy cam. But their idea did stand out and won them an Xeta.
Are we in danger of losing the plot, by not being Digital enough? By the way who wrote the book Being Digital?
- Ambi Parameswaran
Nicholas Negroponte wrote in his book ‘Being Digital’ that in future everything will be digitalized. While that future may be way off, our consumers are adapting to a digital world much faster than we are. I feel the average agency bloke’s understanding of the digital world is minimal and many of us live in the 30-second TVC world. And ‘being digital’ is limited to creating a one-off website or a viral which gets emailed a few times. I think a fundamental understanding of how consumers ‘consume’ various media and exposure to the latest trends in the online world to all in Account Management & Creative is important. It will help all of us to think of ideas that are media neutral. In the creative brief a question like ‘What kinds of experiences will create the right conversations? would trigger a different thought process than a hoarding or TVC.