Is there a Digital Ninja in your agency?
December 7 2010, 4:53 am | | 15 Comments
Could a Digital Ninja be near you? Perhaps your agency has recently employed someone that looks, acts and sounds a bit like one?
Could a Digital Ninja be near you? Perhaps your agency has recently employed someone that looks, acts and sounds a bit like one?
15 Comments
If by ninja you mean people who dedicate their whole life to the discipline of no body knowing they’re their. Then yes. I know digital ninjas.
Too true, and too funny that it’s too true. The ‘digital revolution’ is unfortunately only about new grocery stores, not new groceries.
Of what consequence is it to be able to transmit ideas via a myriad of new portals, if you have no new ideas to transmit, and nothing new to say?
By the way, for all the little ‘digital gurus’ out there, who seem to be breeding like rabbits these days, and ‘tweeting’ until their thumbs fall off, that question was rhetorical.
The fact that one can communicate to the world instantaneously, doesn’t negate the responsibility to have something of value to communicate. The medium is not the message. The message is the f#@king message!
http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/watch-faris-yakobs-bdw-presentation-fall-flat_b11036
JULIE!!!
9:45 – As soon as the word ‘digital’ is spoken, there’s always some ponce whinging about it.
Well done.
Digi Ninja to Creative: Help, I need an idea for this online thingy.
Creative: Do you want me to do everything? Idea, design, writing, execution?
DN: Yes.
Creative: Can I have your car park?
DN: No.
Creative: Can I get the glory for the idea?
DN: No. Becaus you are traditional. I need to protect my ever-decreasing area of expertise that’ll soon be farmed out.
10:21, that was fucking agony!
6.45
Creative: I have an idea for TV!
DN: So how will that translate anywhere else but on TV?
Creative: It won’t! but i don’t care. You think up the strategy to engage consumers and provide them with further information, i’m just going to continue making short 30second films.
While I found the video hilarious, i’m pretty 50/50 about it.
On one hand it’s crucial to be able to do the big idea thinking, but on the other it’s only going to get more and more crucial to understand how you will get that thinking out there to those who should receive it – however they will receive it.
If you can’t think conceptually you’re fucked, but if you can only think in terms of “traditional” media you’re also fucked.
Bye bye dinosaurs and bluffers.
Beware they are out there, and loaded up with techo babble rather than ideas.
And yes, we have recently employed one.
And I’m not talking about good creatives who work in the digital domain, so don’t get your cyber knickers in a knot!
As someone who has experienced first-hand one of these vile creatures, I have a few pieces of advice for anybody who may encounter one:
1) Beware the almost-foreign language they will try to bamboozle you with. It sounds complicated, but usually it’s just a mish-mash of techno-jargon used to try and assert their “expertise”.
2) Ask them why “it” can’t be done (the “it” being the proposal in question). Refer to point 1 when dealing with their response. The usual reason “it” can’t be done is because they strive to be the authority/have the final say on anything digital-related, and will happily sacrifice projects if it will support their smoke and mirrors bluff routine.
3) Have somebody on-call who actually KNOWS the ins and outs of creating digital work (especially the ACTUAL paramaters). This is the most crucial piece of advice I can offer – my wax on, wax off if you will. Armed with this real knowledge, you will be able to get those projects over the line before they can say “Well, i’ll have to speak to my contact at……”
Hahha – The pygmies are eating eachother. At the end of the day, the clients will decide the best idea, best strategy and best medium. It’s their money and there are always more things at play back at the sausage factory than appear on your brief.
@Realistic Ninja 10:02
That’s Australian advertising in a nutshell. The clients driving the creative, which of course means that it’s not very creative at all.
If clients could do what creative people do for their brands, they wouldn’t hire them. Reminding the clients of this salient fact is an important exercise that’s been lost from the local market, which is why the work is largely ordinary. It’s time for creative agencies to grow their balls back and have the courage to be willing to lose an account in the process of doing their best work. Yes, it’s the client’s money, but it’s the creatives’ integrity and reputation.
In too many cases, the multitude of ‘digital’ distribution channels are only masking the fact that the ideas and approaches are tragically retail and hopelessly unimaginative. Good ideas are adaptable to all mediums.
10:21
Good post. The reality is way beyond the satire. ‘Reality’ being a relative term here of course.
funny cos its true