Brian Morrissey of Adweek reminds us that ad peeps are often restless souls with gigantic ambitions.
A half-dozen executives from the London operations of DDB, Naked Communications, Isobar, Tribal DDB and Diageo have joined forced to launch AnalogFolk, a shop that is dedicated to what it is calling “communications products” that meld digital technology with real-world interaction. Unlike regular bits of ad messaging, a communications product is sought out by consumers, even bought, the shop believes.
“We need to be thinking of communications as a product rather than something that has finite value that decreases over time,” said Matt Dyke, a founding partner and head of planning at DDB London. “You do a Super Bowl ad, then it loses value and eventually peters out.”
Actually, thanks to YouTube, Super Bowl spots don’t “peter out.” But I get his point, just the same.
Perhaps the structure of the sentence below is to blame, but I’m confused:
“We need to be thinking of communications as a product rather than something that has finite value that decreases over time,”
Don’t products have finite value that decreases over time?
A vacuum cleaner/TV/toaster/suitcase costs a finite amount and will eventually wear out, etc.
FWIW, for years most of the creatives I know have been thinking of communications (ads, spots, collateral, anything else) as products, in the sense that they should be well-crafted, be helpful and be easy to use. Which is an analogy that always made sense to me. Not sure about the one above.