What does a good Digital person look like?

Well, lets reword that a little - Blonde, Brunette??? Well in Finland Blonde but the real questions is "what do you look for in good digital people?".

If your looking for a strategy / concept / project management / account director type, what do you want???

This thought has come to my mind recently and I think there are very mixed feelings about it all.  

I for one have spent approximately the last 10 years working across a range of environments in digital - dotcoms, online trading, eCommerce, web development, advertising ABTL/Digital & Media Communciations...

I think its great to have a broad range of skills as many simply come from 5-10 years in one area which while this makes them great specialists I dont believe it gives them the power to write perhaps broader strategies and come up with through the line ideas encouraging creative & medias to work together... Not aggainst each other! This is perhaps one of the biggest benefits for those of us who have worked in both sides in detail no? We know how to fill that grey gap between creative and digital media.

And then offcourse there are the creatives - what do we want here? Its amazing here in Finland that sometimes I see a role advertised asking for Digital Marketing expert. They want someone who can design, program, big expert on marketing, business, strategy etc... - yes, many of us know how to use Photoshop and create HTML pages in addition to Strategy but really - lets be realistic!!! On top of this they offer ridiculous low salary. I mean if I went in client side and they wanted me to design, manage media, build strategies, manage agencies, market, report, track etc.... - I would never go home!

So... what do you look for in Digital People?  

MySpace and data sharing

OK, so MySpace are offering users the ability to share their profile data across various platforms - ultimately creating "one" centralised update area for your personal data. Yes, we need a centralised platform for this but do we want it to be MySpace?

Personally, no... I don't like MySpace! I think it has been a mess from the beginning - the UI is messy, too many randoms blog you, message you and so on... Not to promote Facebook, but for me it by far did the job better and I think we all know that!

But this isn't a Myspace vs Facebook arguement - rather a statement that yes, I want an app that centralises all my data so when I join a new network, app, all I have to do is point to the data - But I am looking for more of a tool / interface that does this that is like iGoogle for example - Not MySpace!

Anyway, wanted to express this here & if anybody has any input about MySpace taking data centralisation on VS perhaps a privately built app then love to hear more!

Digital Longevity

I thought I’d comment on the longevity & staying power of an online brand/media today such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and the MSN, Google’s & Yahoo’s of the digital space.

Looking at the latest Morgan Stanley stats, YouTube is a clear winner with the only consistent very steep curve since before 2006… Google has a reasonably consistent but slow curve but it seems to be dying a little now & Yahoo has gone from being the king of many years to a steep downward curve also – I am guessing this is due to the popularity of the live site & the birth of many other home engines so to say!

But what does this say about YouTube. Is it so popular? Is it because it’s the strongest viral medium E.g. people posting videos & forwarding them in places like Facebook, MySpace and all the other social networks! Is this further proof that television is dying more and more??? Probably numerous ways we can look at it but the fact is YouTube is the only media that seems to be on a 35+ degree curve upwards and its still going… - find some stats on traditional broadcast/TV that show this impressive curve!

Offshore Creative Talent!

Having just been in Central America for almost 4 months I started to think about offshore development / creative a little more. Something that does exist in developing countries is great creativity but a lack of the right training, skills and experience.

There are now 1000's, if not more "offshore IT/Web houses" in countries like India, Sri-Lanka where experienced IT personnel are working for as little as a few dollars or less! But this wasn't my thinking. I was more actively thinking about helpiing developing countries to expand their networks of training in schools etc... - In Nicaragua for example, 99% of young people have not enough money to study beyond the basics!

The main issue that would exist in my opinion outside of financing which I am sure one could find, would be working with the clients when abroad! Yes, we have the technology these days to do so but how many of you think that clients you work with would be willing to work with a remote "Creative" Agency? And can we develop 110% quality work that western & northern European clients have grown to expect?

Can it be done? If your interested in this then please feel free to contact me directly!

Is your agency doing it right?

First of all, appologies for a very extended break away from blogging... I just returned from Central America after almost 4 months so bare with me while I get back into the swing of things up here in the land of Santa Claus...

The simple question I have for you out there, whether you are in Finland, UK or anywhere else in the world, is "is your agency doing it right"?

I have seen first hand a variety of "so called" approaches to digital here in Finland - some successful and others not so! The two pitfuls I have seen the most is 1) lack of investment in quality specialists & people with 5+ years experience and 2) these so called 1 man specialist digital teams that many ATL agencies are brining in - suddenly all the ATL agencies are claiming true insight into the digital market through the eyes of one digital guy/girl. Possible? - Yes it improves the business model a little but really, how many digital agencies, get one TV guy in and then claim to be specialists in traditional media/broadcast?

In saying the above, there are some great thinkers appearing in the Finnish market that I have met & more and more agencies here seem to have a fresh, dynamic and forward thinking approach which is needed in a quickly evolving market!

I am however interested to hear any thoughts this matter!