Clickfire Media at Boards Summit

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I've never been a big fan of conferences. I've always been stumped by the fact that with all of the desire to communicate with others, nothing really gets said. Either panelists talk to themselves, or the over-eager desire to network and sell yourself keeps you from hearing what others have to say. Lately I have learned that it is a short-sighted point of view, because you can't expect others to tell you everything you need to know. You have to get in there, meet people, and figure out what you are looking to learn.

That may just be a segue, or probably a thinly-veiled excuse for thinly-presented content on my side, but after Jason Mayo, Managing Director, at Click 3X's panel, I moderated a panel on defining the "big idea" in interactive, discussing what a big idea is, and how to make it successful. The panelists were:

- Hashem Bajwa
Digital Strategy Director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in SF

- Noah Brier
Head of Strategic Planning at the Barbarian Group

- Faris Yakob
Senior Strategist & Digital Ninja at Naked Communications

- Justin Crawford
Executive Creative Director at JWT NY

It was a fairly ethereal panel- you have to keep in mind these guys' diverse backgrounds spanning literature, politics and policy, technology, and the arts- so the conversation roamed from the definition of the big idea, to the ways of finding success in digital, how the production process is different between traditional and new media, how you build a team internally, and how you work with a client externally.

A few things that I took away from the discussion are that to be successful in your interactive outreach:

1/ Love the internet
While it sounds odd, it is absolutely true. You can't create ideas on the internet if you aren't immersed in all of its ones and zeroes. Things are happening far too fast. You don't have to do EVERYTHING, but you have to do something, and you have to do what is right for you. Communities are created around similar interests, so get out there and know enough about a community to communicate with them. If you are an interactive producer and don't have a facebook page, you better start one. Download applications, check out twitter, upload some content somewhere- do something, but spend time learning about what is out there. The more time passes, the more we will see a merging of digital and analog, and it is up to us to figure out what that means for our clients. Check out this article from Faris Yakob.

2/ If traditional is sequential, interactive is iterative.
The notion of a big idea has completely changed and that success is relative. Now, it should be noted that there are universal truths in marketing and business (people always act self interested, success is measured in the numbers, and everyone is in business to make money, to name a few), but the way that we are working towards that goal as marketers is different. We can't expect digital to work in the same step-by-step process. Creativity, as Justin Crawford said, "happens in production." This is different than we are used to in traditional, where each sequential step involves a sign-off and we can't go back unless we are willing to spend more. Interactive involves prototyping, strategy, production and creative working together, breaking things, building things, and minimizing risk in order to reach goals.

3/ Utility is back
Philosopher John Stuart Mill talked about morals in relation to utility- or happiness and pleasure. The interactive marketing process inherently involves a two-way transaction, whether it be for eyeballs, opting-in, entertainment, or any variety of communication. Make sure that your big ideas offer something of true benefit to the user. It could be as simple as a laugh, a financial benefit through coupons, or information from a community, but it has to be a genuine benefit to be successful.

It should be noted that there are a few very strong examples of this as mentioned by the panelists:
American Express Members Project
Google's Ten to the Tenth
Taxi's 15 Below Project
Steve Mykolyn's presentation of it was hilarious and endearing, and was almost as good as his presentation of fake graphs at the Boards Creative Workshop in Toronto a bit back.

At any rate, get in the fight and check out some work by the panelists. The links are below along with various independent, creative, and brand-oriented sites.

Blogs from the panelists:
http://farisyakob.typepad.com/
http://www.noahbrier.com/
http://brainsells.blogspot.com/
http://www.nakedcomms.com/
http://www.barbariangroup.com

Independent projects
http://www.brandtags.net
http://www.thewhalehunt.com/whalehunt.html
http://wefeelfine.org/

Design inspiration
http://ffffound.com/
http://www.thefwa.com/

Branded projects
http://kashi.com/
http://www.barbariangroup.com/portfolio/cnn_com_t_shirt_headlines_project
http://www.stridegum.com/#/home/
http://www.thepeople-vs-stride.com/
http://www.happyjetting.com/
http://timeless.adiamondisforever.com/
http://www.nolaf.org/
http://www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com/
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/components/spectra/index.html

Thanks to the panelists, the folks here at Click, Rae Anne Fera, Russell Goldstein, Ed White, and Barry Walsh at 'Boards Magazine.

by Connor Swegle 10.28.2008