Remember the good old days?
We used to watch TV just for the iconic commercials that we loved to recite. On Budweiser’s prompt, we greeted each other with an affectionate “Wassup??” and serenaded friends when they acted as “real men of genius.” Remember this gem…
We can thank the creative minds at DDB for these well-loved campaigns that permeated into our national culture. But despite apparent recent turbulence, we may again look forward to a golden age of commercial creativity. One of the most acclaimed creative talents in London is returning to DDB, this time in Chicago, as Executive Creative Director. The American creative industry will soon greet Ewan Paterson.
Ad Age printed a short interview with Paterson yesterday, in which he explained his bounding expectations and high hopes for DDB Chicago. Even in just five questions, he continued to reference the lasting iconic and crowd-pleasing campaigns of DDB past, and the potential for future pop culture greatness.
So what peaked out interest so much about this interview? Besides the fact that insight from one of the top industry insiders, Paterson, and coming from probably the most impressive hub of creativity and communications in the world, London, is invaluable, he said something quite poignant in the short interview. He talked about one of our favorite new mediums: digital.
“A lot of people say, ‘Digital is the answer.’ But, really, the answer is integrated. It has to be about participation and getting ideas people want to be involved in.”
Interesting take on what so many have been touting as the next step, and we’re still going to keep raving about the effectiveness of digital advertising. But Paterson makes a good point here. No matter what medium you use, it’s got to be a quality campaign!! It should be something that people want to share. It should be something that you’d want to be a part of, even if you weren’t the mastermind. It should be something that makes you say, “now why didn’t I think of that?!”
And that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about with the idea of going viral. It’s what Hi-Tec did with their liquid mountaineering video and micro site (and did we mention that their campaign was so convincing that a local news station covered the “new sport”).
It’s what we’ve been talking about since, well, we first started talking. It’s about interaction with people. Let them be a part, feel a part of your campaign and brand, and that’s the spark.
