Independent Creatives Find Your Better Half

Creative teams are like relationships – some are based on friendship, some on respect and some on pure interest. It takes hard work to make the team work, and every once in a while, one or the other has to give up own beliefs and follow the other’s lead.

 Some months ago I wanted to team up with an international art director with whom I could exchange cultural experiences and do some extra work for the portfolio. So I set out to find my creative half.

When it comes to finding a creative partner, the chemistry is crucial—whether you are looking for an art director to collaborate on a shared portfolio after you just finished school or a copywriter to replace the one who just resigned. So where do you start looking?

If you just finished a creative school it’s probably a good idea to look at your school’s alumni. People who have finished at the same time with you probably have the same interests, plus you’ve already met during school years.

Of course your first resort when you look for someone new might be LinkedIn. At least this was for me. I started discussion topics about my search for an art director on schools’ alumni groups, advertising groups and wherever else I thought I could find the right one. But when you’re looking for a creative partner, be sure to be picky.

Up until recently there were no real niche professional networks for creative people. There was no place where creative people could virtually meet, talk and exchange portfolios. Finally, some have realized that portfolio websites are no more than complex databases, and creative people actually need a real social network where they can meet, get to know each other and team up when the time is right.

After a few months I found about FindYourYang a website powered by Ursa that supports independent creatives in Australia. I thought that the idea of offering creative people from one country a platform where they can get together and share thoughts and portfolios, for the sake of teaming up, is great. It’s a new step in social networking that others have delayed doing, it’s low budget and highly effective. The idea should be expanded for all continents and localized to each country.

I immediately joined the network considering some creative people may actually think of relocation. After all, the more people you know, the greater your chances of finding the right one.

Recently though, YoungGuns International has also developed a social-networking section where creatives from all over the world can share their portfolios and make new connections. So if you are looking for your creative half maybe you should start from there. Most of the people joining the network are interested in the competition, and whoever is a YoungGun is probably worth giving a chance. You can look for them based on location; you can share interests and exchange portfolios.

If you are a creative single looking for a better half, don’t give up. Everybody’s got one.

Read the article on AdAge

The Digital Karma

In the past years the development of digital advertising has increased amazingly. Considering the Internet growth and the marketing potential of the new media, digital importance in the marketing strategy is a natural consequence. Aaah! Long gone are the days when the creative agencies would  ask their concept to be implemented by some digital boutique. Today, digital agencies start to fight neck to neck on big accounts with creative agencies, developing their own concepts and there’s a growing migration of people from creative agencies to digital agencies. Digital agencies are developing real creative departments, producing outstanding work and  maybe for the very first time, the digital agency team values the same with a creative agency team. Ouch?!

Soon we might see a new multinational network of digital agencies setting the advertising trends and the agencies ranks turning upside down. But this is just common sense! In a world racing towards the fastest Internet broadband and digital connectivity, mixing between virtual friends and digital books, the ATL advertising is face-lifting, slowly welcoming the digital.

I can’t help noticing the irony of today’s media development. If some years ago advertising festivals were mainly composed of TV, Print and Outdoor, today, a digital award is a must have in your portfolio. And it makes sense! A new position has emerged and gains its glory throughout the advertising world – the digital creative team. The team that can make magic at one click away, that is creative but tech savvy as well. The one that crosses social media smoothly and integrates it into a digital concept the world has never seen before.

These are the days when karma kicks in. I can feel the smile on the face of the Creative Director of a digital agency mumbling to himself ”Finally! World domination!! Muhahahaha!!!”. My guess is in a few years it will be him conducting most of the ATL campaigns, dictating concepts and winning most of the awards. The festivals will soon place cyber as the “must see” event of the show and more and more social media festivals will emerge (e.g. Golden Twits ). Old creative directors will have to get used to the idea of the digital revolution, adapt or disappear.

Big advertising agencies will all open digital departments and possibly affiliate with digital networks around the globe, to support their massive clients. Marketers will allocate bigger and bigger budgets to exclusive online campaigns and accounts will be lost in favor of a digital agency…

So here’s a new 2012 prophecy: the year advertising world will indeed reverse its poles. Are you scared?

The Twitter-In-Mouth Manifesto

I will start my article by quoting CNN’s  very interesting interview with Shel Israel on Twitter habits: “who you follow on Twitter is much more important than the number of people who follow you. That’s because the people you follow become <<your newspaper>> — the way you get the information that you see, that you digest, and that you use.”

I’m an average twitterer. I open my Twitter around 2-3 times per day and update my status maximum 3 times per day (if there’s something to talk about). I generally like to watch what people are saying and follow their thoughts or disagree with them. That’s my twitter habit. But enough about me, let’s talk about him/her. The over excessive daily twitterer, the one that twitters about something every 10 minutes with so much enthusiasm as if it’s the next big thing. Please stop, you give me reasons to become a snob! And I hate that.

When someone follows me on Twitter I tend to follow back, unless I’m not aware I’m being followed. And that’s simply because I give everyone the credit for twittering interesting stuff or at least saying a good joke every once in a while. Yes, I like to be entertained by social media, go ahead, throw rocks at me! And this behavior has made me believe in the old cliche that yes, less is more.

Him/Her, the one with Twitter-in-mouth Syndrome, doesn’t realize that he puts people in the snobbish position of unfollowing them simply because they twitter way too much. Sorry mates, but when you take over the first two pages of someone’s home view you cross the fine line between heavy twittering and spam.

So how can you tell if you have the viral Twitter-in-Mouth Syndrome? Here are some of the most common symptoms. You consider yourself more as followed rather than a follower. If you twitter more than 10 times per day you’re on the right track to becoming the next Hot Air Queen/King. You’re detailed oriented, you twitter about the number of eggs you’ve eaten and the amount of salt used. Of course, this you think only shows you are a perfectionist. Unfortunately details that seem so important to you may bore the others. To you quantity is more important than quality, that’s why you don’t just twitter one article from a newspaper but rather the whole digital edition.  You have a fancy picture, possibly one with a tie or a nice shirt to prove you are a serious person, perhaps a manager. People give a lot of credit to blue ties, you heard, and you take that for real. You have no idea who you follow simply because you think your homepage should show only your twitters. I give you a hint, it shouldn’t.  The whole point of Twitter is to promote yourself because that’s what you read in the media. You’re self-absorbed and egocentric. You have to always end a conversation so if someone, thank God, mentions your name in their twitters you feel the need to end the conversation with a link to an un-related article you read… Yes, we all know by now, you read a lot and we feel small and uneducated.

Hhhhh…I take a deep breath and look at my homepage again. It’s clean. I see 10 people’s twitters and I must say it’s pretty neat. I had to unfollow you, I’m sorry. It’s not you, it’s me…