Month: January 2015

As video invades almost every aspect of our lives, the trends for 2015 are not surprisingly technology-driven. Although much of what is forecast got it’s start in 2014, they are increasingly the driving force in industry. To not be aware of them is to risk falling behind.

1. Growth of Live Streaming
The 2014 Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup took live streaming content to a new level. Although there aren’t any worldwide sporting events this year, the ability to watch any content on your own time is a huge advantage. Expect live broadcasts of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and sports league (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) to continue to break records along with awards shows like the Oscars and Golden Globes.

2. The Slow Decline of Traditional TV Service
Although the eventual demise of cable TV is years away, almost every major provider is losing subscribers. Comcast, the largest cable provider, has lost 2.5 million subscribers since 2008. That’s a drop of about 10% over six years. Expect to see consolidation and new project offerings from the big conglomerates in hopes of stemming the tide.

3. Mobile Viewing and Second Screen
Viewing content from a mobile device has gone from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for consumers. While the industry has suffered some growing pains in the shift from Flash to HTML5, all that hard work is finally paying off. It’s estimated that by 2016 that 50% of all online video will be viewed from a mobile device.

4. The Rise in Video Quality
Look for HD quality (720p/1080p) to become the rule rather than the exception. Viewers are coming to expect higher video quality. Camera and smart phone manufacturers are rolling out products that shoot 4K. This trend will grow as more 4K TVs become commonplace. Already Amazon and Netflix are now in a tug of war over which will offer the best 4K streaming for their customers.

5. Short and Sweet
Studies show that a one-minute video will be watched by 50% more people than a two-minute video. Why? Viewers attention spans adapt to the technology they use. As smart phones and mobile device screens become our go-to for video viewing and lend themselves best to short video clips, our attention spans decrease. Look at Instagram (15 seconds) and Vine (6 seconds) videos. If you want to stay relevant in video, remember that the more information you can communicate in a short amount of time, the better.

Ideas are a very special thing. We won’t get carried away and lose context – We understand we’re just selling cola or television sets that are just the same as the competitors’. But ideas matter to the people they come from and sometimes to the people we share those ideas with. They are fragile. They are hard won. Very often, we sense that other people think ideas are disposable. That they are easily replaced and it’s easy to just keep regenerating more and more indefinitely until the deadline can’t be pushed back any further. Beware the idea killers, for they know not what they do.

You may even share the feeling that there are only a finite number of ideas in your head and baulk at the sheer waste when good ones get overlooked and cast aside. How many more left in the tank?

Amidst this eternal battle between the besuited and the bejeaned, we call a truce. A moment to reflect and remember the fallen, the deleted, the ‘parked’. And also to honour the countless number we cannot even remember: the tome of the unknown ideas.

To those ideas that died.

That lived awhile, then were sacrificed for the greater good or the creative director’s last-minute thought-starter.

Or at the altar of budget. Or a victim of shifting strategy. Or client reshuffles. We salute you.

To those ideas, poisoned by politics,
Sabotaged by short-sighted paper-shufflers, yes-men and no-women,
Throttled by planners that couldn’t see what was right in front of them;
The work was right; it was the brief that was wrong.

The contradiction, the bittersweet and inevitable light that shines brightly but briefly,
For the joy of a newborn idea is tainted by the sadness in knowing it is almost surely doomed.
Most will not survive, struck down as they draw their first breath.
Others will suffer the death of a thousand cuts.
The rewrites that may yet save them, written in Word but in vain.

Some, we will mourn.
Others will just become a statistic, a casualty of a highly successful marketing director who clearly knows nothing about marketing.
And when they were taken from us, we hid our grief behind anger, behind snide retorts and behind our non-existent open plan office doors.

Here’s to those ideas crushed by those with no concept of concepting.
In our minds, if not yours, our ideas are living things whom we love because they came from us.
How could we not love them? And yet you take them from us so dispassionately.

The hurdles we overcame, the bleakness of the blank pad we began this journey with and the certainty of our genius compel us protect them with our lives, like a mother would her young.

There were times when we were lost.
We didn’t know which way to turn, which answer was right, or of there was an answer.

We even had to murder our own – a mercy killing.
Those ideas would have had no quality of life. It was for the best. We see that now.

And then through the mist, you appeared to us.
Your shimmering radiance slowly forming before our minds’ eyes,
Revealing yourself gradually, transmitting that familiar frisson.
A heady cocktail of exultation and relief. “I can still do this.”
“This is it, my one last work of noble note. Shhh, come to me.”

All those fallen ideas.We shall remember them.
And in our memories they shall shine brighter and brighter as we kid ourselves it had Gold written all over it.
Take a moment to pay silent tribute to all those who have gone to that great bottom drawer in the sky.

Amen.