It's been a while since i posted here, been busy in NY helping Dare set up and all that jazz. Anyway, there is an interestng debate going on over these parts about whether digital creativity is up to scratch or not. Randy Rothenberg, president of the IAB no less, has weighed in saying he thinks we are all sub par and will never reach the level of David Ogilvy or Bill Bernbach. Is he right?
Course he's not. Randy's notion that digital creativity sucks is a pretty weak argument. Who is to say who will be the Bernbachs or the Ogilvy's of digital? It's pretty unlikely that there will be *no one* - the odds just don't stack up.
Someone will become that famous, at the time DO and BB were not gods, merely people running their own agencies. They became gods in history. It's so much easier to look back and say there was all this great work but for every 'Lemon' there were a million real lemons - bad press ads, bad commercials, that no one ever talks about.
I should imagine the percentage of 'good' versus 'bad' digital work is identical to the percentage of 'good' versus 'bad' work in every other media in every other era. It just so happens that we are in the middle of a new era so it's easier to scrutinize / criticize.
We can have a sensible debate (if talking about meaningless stuff that sells meaningless products could ever be described as sensible!) in 10, maybe 20 years time.
In the meantime it's always fun to guess though isn't it? So who would you think is the person most likely to be remembered as the digital daddy? At the moment my money would be either on the artist Jonathan Harris or Ben Palmer from Barbarian, with an each way bet on me and Flo ;-)
A Digtial Don Draper, eh? Hmm ... Nope.
Personally, I think those days are over. The notion of advertising industry 'leadership' being represented by one iconic figure is old and tired. ‘Figurehead’ leadership’s days are done (sorry Sir Sorrell), and it is one of the reasons why old-school agency networks are losing out to a plethora of smarter sharper businesses.
So, embrace the network, because that’s where it is at.
Ahh Coops. Since you've been gone, you will have missed out on my new line of sharp suits. Today I was wearing a three-piece.
George,
You're missing the point. While it may be that at the moment digital is a 'community' or 'networked' way of working and the therefore the power of the group is stronger that doesn't mean that someone wont emerge as a powerful figurehead. There are so many good companies starting up, taking over from the ad agencies that the odds of this not happening are just too slim. Maybe there isn't a personality like that now, but I really think there will be.
And who knows, maybe it will be Matt Law now that he has ditched the Richy Cunningham tank-top for a more David Ogilvy style three piece (and pipe?).
mark cridge
flo heiss
james cooper
Francis Lam
Bo Hellberg
James Hilton
Sam Ball
Chris Clarke
Dean Woodhouse
Hugo Bierschenk
Iain Tait
It's going to be a whole bunch of people that are like minded and will change the way that digital works for clients. The spirit of the web is collective and mass so no "giants" will appear and the real change will come from people who probably don't have the massive profile of a David Ogilivy but are nonetheless doing "the right thing" like Tim Beckett at True Digital, Saman Mansourpour at TheAgency and Mark Wooding at Soprano. these people believe in the fusion of creativity and media, the geographical relevance of digital to clients' bottom line, that digital can build brand and drive results, that practitioners need real passion to fuel great work for clients. There will be plenty of others that I haven't mentioned of course and to them apologies. But all will be freedom fighters in a marketing revolution that will overturn ATL once and for all and make it no more than a shop window for the web where the real selling will take place.
Mark, many thanks for the suggestions and helping with my comments stats. I agree with two of them.
A friendly tip, don't ever go to the bookmakers.
Bob greenberg
James Cooper
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