Looking Forward to a Creative Digital Future 193Finally we had campaigns as diverse as Pepsi enticing Turkish women to text
and win, and Radiohead using digital in an amazing way to promote their Japa-
nese music tour.
In summary, digital applies to all brands, all markets, all target audiences and
there is really no excuse not to be on board. Social media and mobile are
clearly the two rising stars joining the mighty ‘search’ and other media, but
the really exciting difference now is the attention and emphasis advertisers
place on investment in creative. The results are clear and plain to see. The
other exciting trend to watch in the next few years is the ‘return of display’.
Recent technical innovations by companies such as http://www.struq.com mean
advertisers are seeing better performances from display than search! Watch
that space... display is now growing faster than search for the first time.
Whereas digital got out of the starting blocks by being accountable, cheap to
produce and cheap to distribute, we are now in the middle of a creative burst
of energy as the world’s brands and agencies seek to push deeper and wider
to evoke change.
That for us was the key theme emanating from this work – digital creates real
change. In behaviour, in consciousness, in depth of engagement, in aware-
ness and in buy-in. Whether that ‘buy-in’ takes the form of sales, votes,
samples, downloads, enquiries, prospects or just the commitment of time to
engage with a brand – this stuff works.
Just ask Ben Southall, winner of the ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign
whereby Queensland Tourism achieved awareness among three billion
people of an opportunity for one person to become a paid caretaker on an
island in the Great Barrier Reef for a year – what a change that was.
So what about the future of advertising and the future of creativity?
If there is one reason to invest in creative it is this. Clutter. Like the billions of
stars in the sky, if your message is to shine brightest among the billions of
messages it needs careful and appropriate investment. This shouldn’t dis-
suade smaller advertisers from taking part in this firmament, we have already