Some Fresh Air Into The Stale World of Internet Advertising

It feels like the advertising industry is lagging behind when it comes to the Internet. When looking around I get the feeling that campaigns winning prizes and fame have all been done before, and that the core idea has been around for years and years. I don’t know why. Perhaps the jury people don’t know any better, but I have a hard time believing that. Perhaps it’s the clients who don’t want to risk being on the front lines, or perhaps agencies are just lazy. Why put money and effort into innovation when there is just as much money in doing solutions from the turn of the millennium. Before I wrote this I went through most of the latest “digital” winners in different contests and yawned through most of it. The oldest winning (2008) solution I saw was over 9 years old. Shame on the jury. And shame on the journalists who don’t come down harder on this jury malpractice.

I think it sucks. I think we can do better. I think we are going to try, and I think I know who will get to produce the whole enchilada (but I won’t tell, haha!).

But I don’t want to come off all negative. Here are some hints on where we are going:
I’ve talked before about the invisible Internet. How our Internet connection will just provide access to information, just like our wall sockets provide access to electricity. I don’t think we’ll run things in a slow browser to the same extent, but in local apps where we have processing power to run interfaces and process the information provided through our Internet connection. Look at how an iPhone is set up, and you’ll see what I mean. The perfect technology for it just arrived. It’s called Adobe Air. If you run an agency and don’t know what this is, make bloody sure you find out quick. Adobe Air runs platform independent local apps with all the power and speed that doing so allows, but is Flash based and made for Internet intensive work. It’s easy to work with and it looks amazing. It’s the perfect tool to make real USEFUL tools that are not just branded, but ARE an incarnation of the brand.

If you’ll excuse me, I have to quit now. I have a tutorial to prepare to show clients what is actually possible now, eight years into the new millennium.

Tagged as: Advertising, Brand, clients, Communication Trends, digital, Flash, Idea, innovation, Internet, Technology