always try to go with something else / siempre intenta ir con algo más

i´m a three year working on a creative focused agency creative (web out of date). i graduated from uni with a social communication diploma(5 years) writing a thesis on observation and it´s importance in strategic creativity. when i started working, after the trainee experience where i got to learn how to stand on my own, trust my ideas, keep my eyes and ears open, i got obsessed with observation and how cultural perspectives were fundamental to be able to write ads. after that, i wanted to change everything in the agency. partially i think because of my last course at uni, Integration and Production.

my favorite course, it marked me. i started blogging, making little videos, thinking how tech was at my fingertips, how we could all get in touch and share, how ideas could fly, get "memered".

i did some good ads, i won an award for a viral and a vid for site. i went to portfolio night to see how i was doing, and the DCs said my stuff was good, the traditional stuff, the ambient, the get in your face for real stuff, they said that i was thinking different, i told them i thought it was because i was disillusioned by traditional media, they said to respect it because it was the backbone of strategy and they are right.

but it still lacks legs, too static. i love music (i´m a musician), art, print, tv, radio most of all because i get to do it often and it´s a pure imagination spark, but i´m not satisfied.

i´m trying to find the answers to the questions. i for one don´t want to get old. i´m 27, but life at least now is flying past me. i kinda have a Peter Pan complex with work and thinking and my career and what i want to do in this industry.

i want to grow always, in my head, but never grow old. no prob phisically, never mentally, because that´s where you die. the only place you grow old is in your head.

that´s why i´m going back to uni. i´m starting a post grad program. a Specialization on Interactive Digital Communication. i´m so psyched about it. it´s a year and i´m going to suck it all in and do a bomb of a job for the final. see if i can find the answers to do what i know i want to do. kill the static.

apart from the Peter Pan thing, i am more at ease now. i know what i want. i think i´m getting the job done right. always trying to go with something else. (i do work in a secondary market, away from Buenos Aires, so idea pushing gets tough). but little by little some things happen.

think. integrate. want the best of all worlds.

i don´t want my mind attached to anything. i want to offer solutions that are the solutions, not the whats we do "normally". but what the brand demands, even if we have to change the way we do or think. i don´t want to impress anyone, i don´t care about awards, i just want solve problems creatively.

and it´s not just coming up with a concept or a strap line. it´s rethinking media, the use of media, how people are, think, what they do, how they do it, what they want, what they´ll think, share, discuss and being available to them. we all live in the same place. you Mr. Brand have an email, who ever answers that mail has a name, maybe drives a car, maybe you even go to the same market as me. let´s talk.

it´s thinking that brands are a field to explore. like two dimensions coming together. brand/culture. not consumers, culture! how do we link that?

INTEGRATION. it´s a start. but how does this work? well, slowly, i´m finding the answers. here´s one that starts with a question/post i found on Neil Perkin´s blog (edited by me):

Are we generous?

Dave Winer said "The way to make money on the internet is to send them away". Why? Because "people come back to places that send them away." His point is that the web is counter-intuitive. The more links you share, the more you send people away, the more they come back. The more open you are, the more useful you can be, the more they come back.

This speaks of a greater truth. An insight applicable to all brands, not just media brands.

Generosity is not only a viable business model, it's the only game in town. The more generous you are, the more interesting you are (with everything you do), the more they come back.

The web is people connected and all media is becoming social.

Brands are immersed in what Mark calls a "behavioural soup" where, to quote David, "small, very human, interactions make all the difference."

Media becomes a mass of social interaction governed by social principles. Principles like you get back what you give. As Paul says:

"The more good things you do for people, the more of your thinking and ideas that you share, and the more you help people out, the more good things will come back to you"

Generosity is no longer a luxury in brand strategy. I'm not talking about CSR. I'm not talking about good customer service. And it's about more than just being useful. Being useful is one thing. Being generous is something else entirely. Generous thinking has to run through the organisation. Benevolence has a new power in business. It can power company morale, make your company attractive to work for, provide talkability, help people feel affinity for your business. But best of all it can provide direction and a framework for your decision making - your instinct is always to do whatever is best for your customers.

Being generous is about exceeding expectations. At every touchpoint. Making people happy. And happiness is not a bad thing to base your business on. It's the kind of thing where you end up saying "they didn't have to do that". The kind of thing we intuitively know every brand should be doing yet so rarely happens. And ironically, as we move into leaner times, there has never been a better time to be generous. It doesn't have to be expensive - Amazon's customer reviews add lots of value but cost very little. It doesn't have to be difficult - like the credit card company calling you up before they levy a late payment charge like mine did the other day. It has its own rewards - happy people talk about what makes them happy. Sounds obvious? Why aren't more companies doing it?

right on!

i´ve been thinking like this for sometime now. i put up a creative project proposal on digicynic with this type of thinking. i´m also working on a campaign for a tech company and the proposal we presented works along these lines, CSE (corporate social responsability), my frase for this: if you want to say social responsability, let´s start with social, you´re already responsible, all we need is to think the use of media). it´s a lot more integrated and thought out than the Coke Zero thing but as soon as i have the green light i´d love to share.

are we going back to hippie as Neil said? is this people coming together digitally changing world culture? so many questions. each to his own. take what you can from it. just don´t forget to share.

i have to get back to the use of media idea sometime.

sorry for the rant.

ok, bye!