Peet's blog (beta)

It’s no secret that digital is changing the way our industry works, but I’m still surprised to see how slowly the majority of advertising agencies are adapting to what must be the new marketing paradigm. I certainly don’t think that traditional media is on its way out, especially considering the rise in the quality of content generated for TV and the reach and access offered by radio. However, the way that we interact with traditional media today versus a few years ago has changed dramatically. The proliferation of social media has given rise to a 2-screen culture where content is consumed and discussed on different mediums at the same time. It’s the advertising agency’s inability to recognize the potential of marketing opportunities like these that proves time and time again its inability to leverage brands within the digital landscape.

I often get the sense that agencies believe that paying lip-service to digital mediums (facebook or twitter logo’s anyone?) is enough to vindicate them of their incompetence. Instead of taking charge and creating opportunity, agencies are bringing the same old thinking to the table with just enough of a digital afterthought to keep the client happy. This strategy might have worked 3-4 years ago, but not anymore. If agencies don’t take charge soon they might find themselves without any clients left to bullshit.

Instead of treating it like a separate entity, agencies should start integrating digital as a holistic component in their campaigns. But before they can do that they’ll need to find a way of rethinking the traditional agency structure and incorporating digital on all levels, from strat to creative and right down to client service and production. Skills are what’s important here and finding the right person for the right job will be paramount. It’s bad enough to lie to your clients about your digital capability, but lying to yourself is even worse.

Change isn’t on the horizon – we’ve past that line years ago. If agencies are to survive and if their clients are to thrive we’ve all got a lot of catch-up to do.

Word on the interwebs is that I’ve won two silver Clios in the print category for a campaign for the The Patisserie. Just goes to show that surrounding yourself with good people leads to good things. I’m speaking of course about Miss Yvonne Hall, Sarita Immelman, and Vanessa Pearson who made the idea happen and gave me the chance to work on it with them. Kudos too to Mike Lewis who did a killer job with the photography. Thanks guys. Shiny things are always welcome.

Yup. Two of my students from this year’s D&AD student challenge that I run every year with Tuks have each been nominated for a student pencil in the advertising category. Not gonna lie, I’m super proud. We’ve had a bit of a dry spell the past year or two so these two nominations come very well received. Grats to Amori and Nadia for their amazing work. Let’s hope for some bling come the ceremony on the 16th of June.

I was surprised to hear about the amount of people criticizing David Butler’s lecture about design thinking at this year’s Design Indaba. I’ve even heard it called the “Martha Steward” of the conference – a title that hits back to the craft queen’s highly criticized keynote from last year. Although I’m not saying David’s talk was the most exciting of the bunch I do think that some of the hate is definitely uncalled for.

As creatives it’s very easy to rip on a company the size of Coca-Cola. Here’s a brand that deals with a market that literally includes the population of the planet. The sheer amount of people that deal with their brands are staggering, not to mention the amount of communication that’s required to facilitate that. In terms of the challenges set by a brand the size of Coke, it’s pretty easy to burn a chair and pawn it to a collector for $6000 (I’m talking of course about Maarten Baas who’s experimental work seemed to draw a lot more admiration from the crowd).

It’s this disconnect between experimental design and design for the masses that I find unfair when it comes to criticizing designers like David Butler. It’s scary to see how much designers tend to appreciate work aimed directly at them (Baas & Allesi) as opposed to thinkers that fall outside their field of interest (Butler & Shuttleworth).

I believe that as creative professionals it’s our job to digest the work objectively and not just on the basis on how it appeals to us. If we don’t, we run the risk of our work always becoming designer centric - designing for each other instead of the people the products are intended for. Think about it.

After my time at #Picnic I realised that I desperately need a new blog tied to my digital identity. Not having a blog at picnic is like not owning an Apple product. If you walk in without either; a mac, iphone, ipad or any combination thereof, they drag you to one of the back rooms, strap you into an electric chair (designed by Philip Stark) and dump your body in the canals.

Obviously I don’t have the time to do a brand new design from scratch right now, so, like my website, I’m going to keep the entire thing in Beta and just make improvements as I go along. But in the mean time, this is it: a brand new blog about things advertising and design. I hope you approve (and pray to God that the Dutch design fraternity do too.)