Shingy Hits Denver. Karsh Hagan Idea Series Part I.

By / February 28, 2012 / When you read about what CMO’s want, or you talk to clients about what they want, or even just talk to your team around the office, you soon discover that we all want the same thing–ideas. And we all know by now that ideas don’t appear automagically when requested. AdAge calls today’s marketplace the Relationship Era while some are still stuck calling it the digital era. Eras aside, nothing has changed about the power of a truly great idea. To stoke and inspire some new ones (and get around the “I don’t have enough time to think” lament) Karsh Hagan kicked off the Idea Series last Thursday 2.23.12 at the Denver Art Museum to underscore not only our commitment to ideas but the reality that you have to consciously curate time to feed the process of discovering them. We invited a speaker named David Shing, AOL’s Digital Prophet. Sidebar: (Q) Can anyone live up to that job title? (A) Prophet=Inspired teacher, proclaimer. And he was, but not an in-your-face-brash version. Instead he was more of a thoughtful here’s-what-I’ve-seen-what-do-you-think-?-way. Wicked cool. His energy was kinetic and his interest in who we were and our clients was genuine. We heart Shingy and now count him as a friend of KH. (Q) AOL? (A) We salute the image-pivot they’re in the middle of and he did address it. Content is a good play these days and they’re in the middle of it. While everyone undoubtedly left with something different (there was more than enough topics covered) what I took away was a bit meta–but hey, that’s my job. With massive fragmentation taking place and people’s lives becoming more connected, yet disconnected, the ability to create brands and campaigns that have interconnected bridges built-in to enable seamless consumer experiences is the epitome of mission critical. The misstep on that mission, however, tends to surface as an infatuation with likes and clicks and a singular idea or creative look blasted across media vehicles. Instead, the truth serum we have to take reveals that experiences aren’t that simple and who cares whether they’re “digital” or “traditional”? (I predict, sometimes plead, that we stop delineating something that most consumers don’t anymore.) They just have to work. They have to answer the consumer’s question, provide the right utility, a smile, an opportunity, a way to be remembered in consumer’s hectic, frenzied lives. It takes a diversified team (Agency and Client) committed to ideas and gutsy enough to say “yes” to the big ideas, the new experiences to succeed. Creating an experience is far more nuanced and layered than creating an ad. Great experiences along the path to purchase are like leaving tasty bread crumbs that can be found and shared when someone is ready to make a purchase and tell someone about it. It takes a commitment to great experiences + great media + data to make that happen, and oh yeah, it takes guts, intuition and trust in each other to pull it off. So here’s to nurturing, and fighting for, great ideas that are expressed in dynamic and powerful ways that make our jobs amazing, exciting and fulfilling. Ideas Series Part II? TBA… Post by: Rachael Donaldson, VP Account Strategy @MrktFrsh