I had an epiphany about 2 years ago. I suddenly realized all the beautiful print work in my book was about to become defunct. The Internet Age, after years of broken promises, was now well and truly upon us. And my portfolio, the prized asset of every creative person, seemed more Victorian than Obamian.
So I decided to set up The Museum of Print on Flickr (click to view it).
You may well enjoy this foray into the past. And remember, that’s exactly what it is. The past. A nice place to visit if you want to reminisce about the good old days, but no place to hang around if you’re looking for a role in the future.
At this point, I can already hear the violent protestations from the die-hard ad guys who still believe the world hasn’t changed. This breed of advertising lunatics, which I like to call Printosaurus, believe the Internet is just a fad that will eventually die out when everybody gets bored with it (I’m not joking. There are senior creative guys out there that truly believe this view of the world).
For the sane ones in the industry, we know our business has changed forever. Print will be dead in 10 years (most probably replaced by digital reading tablets such as Kindle and iPad). We will move away from communications that broadcast at you to ones that allow full participation. And clients will start to move away from bought media (where you have to pay a third party, like Yahoo, to place an ad on their portal) to owned media (where a client can create his own website, attract millions to it and save millions of dollars in media spend).
The future is exciting. But if you’re a bit worried, take a deep breath and wander around a museum for a while. It’s the best way to prepare yourself for what’s to come.
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Advertising's most famous monkey takes on the printosaurus!Now that's 'a happening'!
ReplyDeleteEvery Thing changes and Nothing doesn't change: from the sayings of Shantababa!)
ReplyDeleteI believe it's not just advertising that is changing and that will change forever; in fact the old ad agency itself is an endangered species, struggling to get respect.
unless the very idea of business shifts its context from 'selling' to consumers to 'serving' consumers, we will still try desperately to 'broadcast' our appeals much like a hopelessly sex-starved, overladen-with- Axe guy at a party. When the context shifts, we will see how we can have meaningful conversations with people that help them before we are helped in turn.