Deep Dive into Dynamic Content
New technologies and consumer interaction have resulted in a dramatic change in the communications landscape that allows for more dynamic storytelling -- in content, structure, and interconnectivity. Over the course of two weekends, BICsters did a deep dive into what's what and what's coming...
We started on Saturday morning, March 25th, for a quick tutorial on how publishers are creating multi-media platforms and sensory rich environments to deliver information. To demonstrate the power of Marshal McLuhan's statement, "The medium is the message," BIC welcomed Graham Roberts (grahaphics.com), Senior Editor in the Graphics Department of The New York Times who deconstructed one of the Time’s most popular video features “Bieber, Diplo & Skrillex Make a Hit,” as well as shared his most recent projects in Virtual Reality.
Graham is a 5-time Emmy Awarded nominated Senior Editor at The New York Times, focusing on innovation in visual journalism. He leads a team that explores new approaches in video, motion graphics, virtual/augmented reality, and immersive visual storytelling. He has received recognition for his work from a number of award-giving bodies, including the Society of News Design, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Pulitzer Awards.
Immediately following, we explored new opportunities in native advertising -- which must authentically mimic the environment in which it's placed. Melanie Deziel (mdeziel.com), Branded Content Consultant, demonstrated new standards and best practices in branded content. She’s the brains behind the lauded and award-winning "Women Inmates: Separate But Not Equal" by The New York Times TBrand Studio for Netflix.
Melanie is the founder of The Overlap League native ad newsletter and on the board of the Native Advertising Institute. She has done branded content strategy work for Time Inc's 35+ US magazines, the Huffington Post, and many other media companies, and worked as an Expert in Residence with BRaVe Ventures, where she offered content strategy consulting, training and advisory to Turner, Viacom, and other major media companies.
After lunch, we explored how the structure and content of storytelling changes from platform to platform with an amazing presentation from Gustavo Quintero, Senior Strategist, at Y&R. Gustavo spoke about the need to integrate different practices and ways of thinking in order to lead to the best work/content. A graduate of the University of Tennessee’s Advertising program, Gustavo started in data and analytics and shifted into brand planning with a focus on digital/social content. Currently at Y&R, he’s worked primarily across tech and finance space. His clients include Dell, JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer, optimum cable, and the ad council (digital literacy).
We wrapped up the day talking about the future with Adriana Krasniansky, Senior Strategist at PSFK who presented the latest immersive and digital tools from PSFK’s Future of Advertising Report. PSFK is the world's leading provider of innovation insights. Since 2004, it's offered the tools, content, and advice to inspire creative professionals to make better products, services, and experiences.
By examining a new class of immersive and interactive digital tools, PSFK’s Future of Advertising report presents strategies that evolve the concept of digital advertising into seamless engagement between person and brand. With traditional advertising formats such as print, TV spots and web banners losing their impact and relevance, organizations must reframe their narrative to complement, or interact with, consumers' lives.
Adriana is PSFK's senior strategist, working with advertising and retail brands to forecast future consumer behaviors and prepare next-generation business strategies. She has led trends research, concept development and prototyping for Coca-Cola, Google Fiber, Nike+ and Verizon. She is also the author of PSFK’s Future of Advertising Report, Future of Work Report, and Forecast 2020.
On Friday evening, March 31st, BICsters went to Facebook's New York Headquarters to explore how to build innovative creative in mobile feeds with Neisha Tweed, Creative Strategist at Facebook, who works with global brands and advertising agencies. Over the last 10 years Neisha has accumulated a huge trunk-load of awards for her copywriting and creative work at a number of ad agencies including Mcgarrybowen, Publicis Kaplan Thaler, GlobalHue and Ogilvy & Mather. She also taught writing at the Miami Ad School for 3 years.
After a dynamic presentation, BICsters had a fifteen minute work session where they had to use one of Facebook's latest apps such as Boomerang, Canvas, and FB Live to create a commercial for Mentos mints. Then they raided Facebook's kitchen and wrote on its wall...
Back on campus again Saturday morning, April, 1st, we explored the most dynamic content of all: immersive experiential campaigns that use multiple platforms in a synergistic, story-building way. Lukas Derksen, Managing Partner of Sid Lee, took us through some of Sid Lee's award-winning campaigns from Stella Artois to Northface.
Entrepreneurial and highly motivated, Lukas excels in finding creative business solutions, managing large-scale teams, business development, business strategies, communications and art direction with special interests in sports, design, lifestyle, fashion, entertainment and technology. Throughout his career, he has worked for many globally loved brands such as adidas, Absolut, Cirque du Soleil, Dom Perignon, Intel and facebook. As Managing Director & Partner of the transformative creative agency, Sid Lee, Lukas helped establish its New York City Office. Founded in 1992, Sid Lee calls itself The Agency Built for the Experience Economy.
On Saturday afternoon, BICsters got to work to create dynamic campaigns of their own. For the last three hours of the course, BICsters work in four teams to create a multi-media campaign on behalf of either Planned Parenthood, Pantone, Live Sport, or Anti-Fetanyl. They were instructed to include four dynamic, synergistic platforms and make a visual presentations of their work. The judges Nancy Tag, Gerardo Blumenkrantz, Nick Scordato, and Omar Kardoudi were deadlocked in their decision and announced a four way tie vote at the end of the session (seriously -- no April Fool's joke).
