3 words: Creating - Digital - Culture
3 words that mean so much and give ay to so many conversations, so many opinions, so many theories.
Last night I had the chance, along with many other ad people, to attend Creating Digital Culture a panel organized by Tangerine @ Saatchi & Saatchi with an impressive lineup of panelists:
Taras Wayner, Executive Director at R/GA
Rick Webb, Co-Founder and COO of the Barbarian Group LLC
Mike Geiger, Chief Digital Officer at Goodby Silverstein and Partners
Matt Spangler, digital marketing entrepreneur and strategic thinker
Hashem Bajwa, Director of Digital Strategy at Droga5
James Cooper, Digital Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi
And it was moderated by John Winsor, Director of Digital Strategy at Crispin Porter + Bogusky
You can find a very good summary of the event at the LatinMinds blog.
Obviously lots of hot issues surfaced directly and indirectly:
• Being Digital is not about technology, is about a way of living... a culture.
• The lines separating departments, thinking and specialization are blurring.
• The story is still the driver and knowing how to tell it is still a craft.
• Hire people with at least two sets of talents. Creative + Strategic, Coder + Account
• Ad agencies seen as Ecosystems: where production, creative and planning sustain and feed each other.
• Expand your interest; If you want to learn about innovation look outside the technology world.
• Collaboration (between disciplines, agencies, talents, brands, technology) is the present, not the future.
• People need to embrace what they don't know.
• Find the right talent, hire them and protect them.
• Everyone has a talent. Let people play their best talents.
• Don't get caught in titles, because the group is more important than the title.
• There are no creatives, just people with ideas, and ideas come from everywhere.
• You can't affect culture if you are not integrated.
As you can see it was an intense and smart panel with lots and lots of info to digest.
Also, hidden among all the words and comments I found these key ingredients of good work:
• Create something worth searching.
• Come up with a name that sticks.
• Make it so it can be used very quickly.
• Produce it so it can be shared very quickly.
• Sell the dream of what it could be, not of what it is.
• Create something that motivates people to get involve.
• All ideas should be interactive at their birth.
• Be hungry and be curious.
A big and honest thank you to all the panelists for their contributions.
I also liked the principle behind the panel's free admission: "We are free, like most thing on the internet"
