If you work in advertising you know that only new things matter.
Anything old is worthless.
So you know ‘digital’ will solve every problem that ever existed.
And anyone who doesn’t agree is old-fashioned and out-of-date.
Well that’s one possibility.
Here’s an alternative scenario.
What digital is, is an exciting alternative to the existing choices.
Alternative, not replacement.
You’ll still need great ideas.
Crap thinking will still look like crap thinking.
It won’t suddenly seem exciting because it’s digital.
Any new technology is purely a delivery system,
And anyway, all your competitors will have it too.
So you’ll still need to out think the competition.
That doesn’t change.
That never changes.
In 16th century, the Scuola di San Rocco was one of the richest institutions in Venice.
They wanted a vast mural for the ceiling of their great hall..
It would be one of the biggest, most prestigious commissions of the age.
They invited the great painters of the Renaissance to pitch for it.
Competition would be fierce.
(Sound familiar?)
A date was set for the committee to judge the designs.
In the weeks before the judging, the artist Tintoretto completed an oval painting that perfectly fitted the centre of the ceiling.
The evening before the pitch, he bribed his way in, and erected the painting in place.
Directly over where the judges would be sitting.
Who do you think won the pitch?
When you go to the Scuola di San Marco today, whose work do you see on the ceiling when you look up?
Maybe technology changes.
But great thinking doesn’t.