Around a month ago, I had the great privilege to moderate a panel with 5 of the best creative minds in Digital during Ad Week. Largely because I hate watching and listening to myself, I’ve been hesitant to review the video my team posted…but I broke down today and watched…thank goodness for the great minds with me…thanks to:

Conor Brady, CCO, Organic
Sophie Kelly, Partner, Strawberry Frog
Marc Lucas, Northeast Creative Director, Razorfish
Benjamin Palmer, CEO, The Barbarian Group
Tor Myrhen, CCO, Grey NY

While I’d say watch the whole 39:13, if you only watch a small section, watch 10:15 to 16:00. Tor Myrhen starts by explaining his paper “Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control” and how we’ve moved from “execution” to the “idea” and how it’s changed creative… and then there’s a great dialogue on whether or not that’s a good thing…what ensues is a excellent debate on where we may be headed with digital creative. All sides are represented and best of all, I’m very quiet!

If you watch through the 21:27 min mark you’ll hear Tor give my favorite quote of the week “That guy uses data the way a drunk uses a lamppost, for support not illumination”.

But you’ll also hear Benjamin talk about a key take away for me, which is that we all need to work with our customers on budgeting differently to allow for use of the data. Great campaigns will use data up front, but then also allow for changes to campaigns (creative and media) that take advantage of the data we gather early on in the campaign.

I do think it’s a key point. We tend to market digitally, then analyze success of failure without planning ahead to allow for changes to the campaign.

The final few minutes are also enthralling (34:20 on). The panels discusses creative they like…good topics here, lack of premium content to associate your brand with, so brands are creating their own experiences; Best job in the world campaign that blurs Advertising, PR, etc, and more!

Whether you’re a client or an agency, this is a great 40 minutes of dialogue on how some of the best see the state of the industry.

Enjoy….

Mark