onlinemarketing

And if it has does than mean the power is back with the ideas people?

So the summer and awards are over. I judged the One Show earlier this year and kept a pretty close idea on everything else. And although there were some good pieces there was nothing earth-shatteringly good. The closest was Nike Chalkbot.

There could be a number of reasons for this. First up when the economy is tanking no one wants to take risks. Also maybe when the world is in a recession it’s also just a little depressing and you wonder whether you really give a shit or not, you are reluctant to go the extra mile. Who knows?

But one thing I think is true is that there was nothing really new in terms of technology. With regards to technology and advertising we seem to have hit a plateau.

It used to be that judging awards was pretty simple because changes in technology allowed you to do things that no one had seen before. So the first banner to house video: Gong! The first banners that talked to each other: Gong! Papervision doing jazzy things: Gong! Having fun with webcams or more recently Augmented Reality: Gong! First branded iPhone app: Gong! Of course to win really big it wasn’t enough to just use those pieces of tech – you had to do something with a decent idea or well crafted (sometimes even both!). But there was definitely a sense of, ‘ooh I haven’t seen that before. Gong!’ I’m as guilty as anyone in that regard. But this is changing.

And this is a good thing. For too long the interactive world has obsessed with technology and being first. When I award work I like to think it will last the test of time. So that means not blindly awarding something because it’s not been done before but actually studying whether it’s a decent idea and has some story to it. For example the technology behind Chalkbot is nothing special, it’s twitter and a computer controlled spray can, but it has real emotion and tells a story. Bob Greenberg is famous for saying that storytelling is dead in the digital age. I can’t believe that he really believes that, I think he’s just fishing for headlines.

The flip side to this is also not dismissing something because it’s been done before – from a technology point of view. Saying something like a YouTube page takeover has been done and therefore not awarding it is a little like saying 30 second TV ads have been done. Of course if the actual creative idea has been done before then things should be marked down but I think we need to start awarding ideas and craft more rather than media firsts. New does not necessarily mean good.

Have we really reached a plateau? I think so. People are now comfortable with all forms of Social Media, Geo Location, Augmented Reality. The changes I see ahead are more about convergence – Google TV etc than a new piece of technology breaking through. Some recent work that has hit the headlines seems to prove this point. The Uniqlo Lucky Counter site where the price goes down the more you tweet about a garment is a fine example of technology has become mainstream. And the Arcade Fire Google Maps work (which although I think is interesting is perhaps not as good as most people seem to think) is made possible through people feeling comfortable with Google Maps’ functionality.

The correlation of this is of course that if we are no longer obsessing about technology and being the first to use it (technology has become more democratic), the creative power – in theory – swings away from digital agencies and more towards ad agencies. In theory.

It was at least challenging working with Nicolas Pimentel -Director of + castro innovation house- on this project for Nike. The objective was to do something different for the launching of new Nike Air Max in Argentina. So this idea sprang up, mixing online and offline worlds at the same time in a unique racing experience.

The Nike Air Live Show consists in an magnetic platform that allows Air Max shoes to float 1.6 inches from the surface while, at the same time, a mechanism receives the sign from the web that make the shoes move forward. The user can watch the race online and live with video streaming. And you are invited too. From 10am to 10pm (GMT -3) blow your mic here and control a levitating shoe in a Nike Store in Buenos Aires.

[vimeo vimeo.com/14596059]

Here’s a chance to turn the tide a little and encourage those at the helms of the brands to do good things.

Brand Week are doing a marketer of the year award.

My vote goes to Geoff Cottrill of Converse. More than a few of us Socials have an interest, that aside, it’s no coincidence we like the brands that step out and give value.

Many marketeers are glorified accountants, few could ever justify some of the fun Geoff and his team have had – Pharrell Williams, Julian Casablancas & Santogold with My Drive Thru,

Kid Cudi, Rostam & Bethany, “All Summer’. These guys just keep going.

Encouragement given here.