011: Unlocking more supplies

[After - Session 3] Thank goodness for the wealth of educators, tools and inspiration impacting the future of advertising

This week ended our three-part contextual introduction to the future of advertising: What is Marketing, Persuading Humans and The Supply Chain of Advertising. We’re primed. We’re ready. Next Monday we’ll dive into the first of our major themes, beginning with Commerce and Selling—i.e. what’s the future of DTC vs B2C, the digital shelf, e-commerce, social selling, et al? We’ve got a savvy guest speaker lined up, too.

While preparing for this week’s topic I gathered a lot more material than I was able to share in class. Here it is as a means of reflection.

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The Supply of Creativity

1️⃣ Start-up founder and VC Michael Mignano wrote a wonderful piece on The Creativity Supply Chain back in October last year. I appreciate his candor, to wit, “The Creator Economy was never about democratization; it was about elitism.” And while I might not agree 100% with his overarching premise, I do concur:

“The costs of creating content are always being reduced by technology, and the abilities of people to create compelling content through technology are always increasing.”

In other words: Get out there! The opportunity for my MCAD students, and for you, is pretty clear…provided you choose to embrace it. And I also firmly agree with Mignano that, technology has “given us the ability to more easily achieve our creative goals (whether they be financial, social, or otherwise).” It’s not always about money. More important, it’s about your desire to create.

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An Abundance of Strategy and Comms Plan Training

2️⃣ I can’t say enough good things about Julian Cole’s work with the Strategy Finishing School. And yes, I’m enrolled. But there are lots of other wildly talented folks providing useful insights and education for those who want to dive deep.

h/t to Faris and Rosie at Strands of Genius (brilliant newsletter) for pointing me to Jenny Chang’s wonderful curation of “How to Become a Strategist” resources. I’m also a student in their School of Stolen Genius, which is equally rife with illuminating and useful strategy frameworks, comms planning process, and creative briefing tips. You should join them.

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The Generosity of Production

3️⃣ Huge thanks again to Ellie Moonen for sharing her career journey with the class, and helping us comprehend the myriad complexities of modern advertising production. There are so many interesting career nooks and crannies once you get into the making of ideas, across every media imaginable. I appreciated this summary from LBB Online documented the Advertising Producers Association’s recent forum, The Industry’s Best Advice to Young Producers. And if you’re ever curious about how films get made, I strongly recommend Sir Roger and James Deakins’ wonderful Team Deakins podcast (Apple, Spotify, Libsyn).

I’m also a fan of the team at Catch+Release for their newsletter and podcast Lost In Found. They explore how ideas get made in this modern age, especially through the realm of Found Content—i.e. curating anything on Insta, TikTok, and the web. As more and more of us ship content, the potential pool of available, i.e. licensable, ideas expands exponentially.

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Okay.

See you on Super Bowl Sunday with a “Before” post, and on Monday with a “During” recap of our first major theme: Commerce and Selling.