Adotas

Where media buyers start online

Featured Author

Ernie Mosteller, who describes himself as a “Southern farm boy with an education,” embraces and embodies advertising’s transition from traditional to new media.

His award-winning work as a creative director jump-started a successful 15-year run as a nationally-known commercial director. Energized by the endless possibilities of a changing media landscape, he combined his strategic, creative, narrative and digital skills to found a hybrid digital/traditional boutique, release an early eBook on the changes agencies face today, and cultivate a loyal following of weekly blog readers.

His current position as VP, Interactive Creative Director at Brunner Digital, and VP, Creative Director for the DC office of Brunner, complete the circle – finding him back on the agency side, helping clients, creatives, and agency management understand the possibilities of digital, and create compelling messages across all media.

His personal blog is erniemosteller.com.

More articles by Ernie Mosteller





Features

Creative Inspiration

Written on
Feb 22, 2008 
Author
Ernie Mosteller  |
Share
Creative Inspiration

Digital creatives aren’t much for the past, or even, really, for the now.  They live for the next. If it has come before, especially in a traditional medium, it’s Jurassic. Alpha is the only truly exciting stage. And Beta is perpetual. The goal is to be the first to go with something new — and the first to change when the slightest hint of newness is gone. Again, it works. Like gangbusters.

The truth is both directions are equally valid. Great traditional advertising is great inspiration. Killer interfaces, still in the theoretical stage, are, too. Both are great things to reference when creatives are referencing. And, almost always, it’s a mistake to try to shoehorn one into the other.

Creating advertising is harder than it used to be. The media landscape, now and for the foreseeable future, is a blend of the traditional, new, and emerging techniques. There will be a day when there is no online or offline, but that day isn’t quite here. The way people consume what we make changes daily. And their attitudes about what we make have shifted, considerably.   Plain and simple, they’re wise to our old tricks, and wary of our new ones.

Creatives — agencies — can only begin to understand how to create messages across media in today’s environment when we understand what’s coming to the table from every side. And when we understand, rather than assume, more about what’s going on in the minds of our audience. A creative point of view that grounds everything you do in the techniques of the past will fail in today’s communications environment. Likewise, not everything that glitters new — glitters gold.

The key, as I see it, is to step back from technique and see the essence of what the great work in both old and new media has to show us. 

Great advertising in traditional media is built on a deep understanding of both craft, and emotion. Craft, because once it’s executed, it’s done. There’s no going back. Emotion, because it’s the strongest sales tool on the planet. 

New media has other qualities. It excels at immediacy. It’s frequently encountered when people are actually looking for it, or something just like it, so it’s built on relevant information. And if done well, it’s done with the knowledge that it’s not in control, and is never the final word.

Those elements: craft, emotion, immediacy, relevancy, and a certain amount of deference — in no particular order — start to make up a toolbox that can be used across all media. Find a way to get creatives to see past headlines, layouts, designs and interfaces. Get them to understand how these elemental qualities can help them strike up a conversation with their audience. That’s the real route to creative inspiration.





Reader Comments.

Well said Ernie -

The only thing I’d add is that creative acknowledgement in the digital space doesn’t wait on the cycle of awards designations — it is instantaneous and many times much more objective, certainly more candid and widespread, than an exclusive panel of judges doing the industry circuit. But of course,we’re always very happy to get both kinds of recognition — particualarly when its positive.

Posted by Scott Morgan | 3:50 pm on February 22, 2008.

Smart and thoughtful. I would also add that online measurement of creative effectiveness in many ways can help a lot in defining direction. Too often the data people don’t share with the creative people, and the creative people do not understand the data. Without a wise babblefish in the middle, growth will be slow.

Posted by Bob | 3:59 am on February 23, 2008.

Leave a Comment

Add a comment

Pages: « previous page 1 2

No Tags
Article Sponsor

More Features


  • Are you taking advantage of Twitter's new geolocation service?
    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Polls Archive

Latest News

News Archive

Spotlight

AdBidCentral’s CEO, Vivek Veeraraghavan Talks Openly*What was the inspiration to start AdBidCentral? The conditions that inspired AdBidCentral came from a variety of factors in my personal [...] more...

Adotas Partnership