Switching from traditional to digital advertising - A suits view

First up, this is not a rant at digital, no matter how it sounds. I’m not against advertising in any sort of digital format, nor am saying it's the wrong thing to be doing. There’s sooooo many benefits that i’m not going to sit here and bore you with. Because you’ve all been in as many presentations as I have from people telling you about it being ‘the future’ of advertising and I don’t necessarily disagree. I’m not here to preach, i’m here to try and give some simple advice from someone that’s made the switch, and yes there is a little bit of me that misses the power a great piece of TV or Print used to have without having to integrate digital into the mix. Click here, go there, sign up for this, download this app, share this, like that for a chance to WIN this amazing prize, for this product I haven’t told you anything about yet because I was too busy wanking you off with my digital toys. All of which are great, used in the right way, with the right mix of other toys, for the right product. I’m a huge believer that if a traditional ad has the right creative idea, backed up by the right media, you don’t always need these bells and whistles to sell more product.

Before making the switch to digital, think long and hard about it. What aspects of the digital are you working on? Because there’s so many. Are you a website based, a social campaign manager, a display campaign manager? Are you all of the above? 

Yes, digital is the way forward. So, if you do decide to make the jump, DO NOT forget your roots. There’s so many transferrable skills, a few different technical terms and practices to pick up along the way, but fundamentally you can pretty much match up digital and traditional methods fairly easily. Everyone will try and over-wankify everything, that’s the nature of digital. My advice, keep it as simple as you possibly can, otherwise you end up confusing yourself and in turn the client. A confused client is probably one of the worst things to have to deal with, even worse than angry. At least you know what you need to do with any angry client.

Go forth and conquer, you’ll be great.