The best time for creativity.

A few days ago, one of our professors surprisingly stated that working in advertising is not exciting enough to grab you like it did to him back in the day. I brutally disagree. I think (although it may be a cliché) that this is the most exciting time to work in anything that involves ideas and communication. Call it advertising, branding, content, production, entertainment, digital engagement. Whatever. With the economy being what it is and "consumers" loosing faith in spending, the game just turns more interesting; we have to be smarter about how much we spend in advertising and communications, but we also have tools we didn't have before that enhance messages that go directly to the people we're trying to reach. We have realized that it's not only advertising (what you say) that affects a brand, but the way it behaves (what you do) is as important. Packaging, logos, store displays, retail architecture and design, web design, events, these are all things that are open for creative companies to concept around with. Twenty years ago you made an ad and put it on TV or on a national magazine to reach a small percentage of people inside a much bigger audience. Millions of dollars where unnecesarily spent trying to reach people by the frequency system. Today, nobody wants to spend that much, so we carefully choose the media that's most adequate for the idea and the brand, we make the media part of our communication, it plays a bigger role. So we don't create headlines or TV ads, we create ideas that live anyhwere. Like John Hegarty said when he was here last year: "The best media is the one between someones ears." And today's world enables the use of the mind so much better. You can't get away with writing a great TV ad and walking away like a super-hero anymore. Maybe you'll get an award for it, but you will do a better job when you make that TV ad make sense inside a bigger integrated idea.
It's a more interesting world, more complex, more options, with more chaos and less money. This is the perfect place for a creative mind to work in. I read in Time magazine this morning an interesting article about how with the end of ER this week we close an era in entertainment when big networks with big shows, big ratings and big money ruled. But it opens a door to smaller shows in smaller networks and cable, and this means better quality and filtered content, where your TV options are not only the big names anymore but you have the option of choosing your entertainment by what interests you. Proof of this is not only TiVo, cable and digital TV, but websites like Hulu.
This is the world we are living in today, and it's an exciting time to come up with great ideas for everything that can touch people's hearts and minds. So yes, this is something you can be passionate about.

Hola, hablo español.

Después de haber vivido casi dos años fuera de México y haber escrito este blog completamente en inglés, y después de tomar la decisión de que a partir de este verano me convertiré una vez más en residente de la Gran Ciudad de México, este espacio se convertirá en uno bilingüe. Todavía habrá posts en inglés pero empezaré a incorporar algunos en español y con temas más mexicanos (si, la política es uno de esos temas, ¿qué chiste tendría hablar de México si no hablas de su chiste más grande?)

Por lo pronto, ojalá y gane la selección mañana.

Why CD's matter(ed)

Last Sunday I heard a Depeche Mode song I hadn't heard in years. It was Personal Jesus. Yeah, I know, the typical Depeche Mode song, but nonetheless a good one.
The song triggered a trip down my memories to remember how I got really into the band after buying a CD during a trip to Phoenix when I was about 15 years old (I'm talking about a compilation, the original song was included in "Violator", 1990.)
It got me thinking on how the CD culture, or the album culture, something we are losing if not lost already, was an enhancer of people appreciating and knowing about music. I wonder if generations who start getting into music today will be as musically savvy as past, since they always seem to get a surface glance at bands by downloading only the songs they like and missing out on the album experience.
It got me thinking about how when I listened to the song I instantly thought about that Phoenix trip. Maybe I can't remember when I and where I bought ever album I'd ever bought in my life, but there's not a chance that I could remember at least when I downloaded a certain song.
It got me thinking about how because I bought that album I got into the band and went back and bought their past albums.
I am guilty. Up to this point I have gone mostly digital. I uploaded a large part of my musical collection to my computer and that is now my musical source. But I have to say, the album experience was an essential part of my musical education. And it's something that we cannot afford to loose.