Author: hack.tomorrow

Copy&Art or Other

I know this is a subject that’s been batted around for years, but I have honestly not seen much change. I look at myself as well with the agencies I have built up and run.

Well I’m now taking a step to change this… ‘finally’, most of you might say. But like I just said, most are talking and not doing.

Saying that, we still need the skills of traditional art and copy – they are not just important, but vital – but we also need other skills such as technology, digital, social media, design, 3D, editing to name a few.

Before I changed, I asked myself a couple of questions: why should I need to change and how do I change?

 

Why

Clients are wanting quicker, cheaper and better solutions, because their customers want the same, therefore we have to deliver on this. Gone are the days where we get a brief and have one month to work on strategy, then another three weeks creative before presenting to the client. Then you have more time, with many rounds of changes.

These days we could have a brief from the client and be asked to respond within 24 hours with solutions, these solutions could be live tested and adapted while in market.

This sort of quick creation takes a mindset that reacts in a different way vs the creation of a 30 second TVC. It takes a different team set up to get the concept from thought to produced in a very short time.

To recap: we need to work quicker and better which equals time and skills.

 

How

Let’s look at how smaller agencies work, most of the time they work on project-based work. When the job comes in they put a team on it that can answer the brief in the quickest and best way possible. Most of the time they hire in freelance specialist to compensate for the lack on knowledge in a certain field such as technology.

So why not use this model in the larger agencies, but instead of freelancing use shared specialists across the group?

Instead of fixed teams why not select people best suited to the project?

We should break the traditional structure to be more flexible in the future. We don’t always need the big teams or groups you would normally see in an ad agency, we could have skilled people that are flexible, and are able to team up with either an art or copy partner one week and a creative technologist the next.

The brief defines the team…

Sounds logical, but how many are really doing this vs firefighting because your structure doesn’t allow you to do otherwise?

To get back to the headline of this post – should the traditional art and copy team still exist?

In my view – yes, but they should open up to working in different constructs otherwise they will become a hindrance rather than helpful.

Amazon Dash Cart

What on earth is the Amazon Dash Cart I hear you say..

Well it could be the future of retail, with a trolley that registers all your purchases with automated scanning and then charges your amazon account accordingly based on your physical basket. 

The cart basically scans your items once they are placed in cart, if the cart flashes orange then the item hasn’t been read and you have to try again. 

Another nice trick is Amazon have linked the cart to your Alexa app so you can check those items off your shopping list as you go.

Here is the video to explain the process in more detail:

The cart will first be made available at the Amazon grocery store opening in Woodland Hills, California later this year, the retailer says. it will only be for 2 bags of shopping max and isn’t really for the larger scale weekly shops.

 

Is this the future and can you upscale this to larger shopping experiences. 

Or could this be automated and you just pick up your shopping in the parking lot?

So many questions.

 

Shoe Projection Mapping to Purchase

Projection mapping on to a sneaker / trainer giving the ability to select designs or even customise on live tangible products.

Projection mapping has been with us for a while now seen in the New Balance concept below, but projection mapping is normally all show and no functionality, this example enables direct purchase instore, giving a unique consumer experience.