A month ago, I abandoned the “traditional” advertising world for an account management position here at Spunlogic. Years of being in the advertising box had narrowed my thinking. I began to realize that the manner in which I consumed information was online, and typically not in the form of what is considered advertising. I’m not going to throw dirt on the grave of mass media advertising; it’s still a great way to reach the most people in a short amount of time. However, as most of this blog’s readers certainly believe, the shift to consolidating things online is underway. Unfortunately for a lot of marketers, their advertising agency refuses to recognize this.

Ad agencies have been preaching media agnosticism for years, yet integrated marketing still emphasizes the same methods that have driven the industry for decades. Speaking from my personal experience, it’s not hard to notice that TV is still considered the Holy Grail of marketing. The idea of shooting a $2M TV spot gets people fighting to work on your project – detailed, tactical work – not so much.

So, that brings me to the point of this post. I’m three weeks or so into this thing, and I get the feeling that every problem at Spunlogic starts with a blank page and then gets solved from square one. There’s no call to immediately divvy up a budget into existing disciplines. Instead, we contextualize the problem by understanding how the user interacts with our client’s product and then figure out the best approach - not try to shoehorn the solution into something that fits within a comfort zone (either the agency’s or the client’s). This isn’t a novel idea. But saying you approach problems with an open mind and having the ability to actually do it are two different things.

In the past three weeks, I’ve learned more new technologies than I have in the past five years. That’s the biggest difference between what I’ve done for the last 8 years and what I hope to do for the next 8. Instead of finding new ways to use seemingly antiquated methods, I’m learning new ways to use an ever expanding set of methods. There’s a lot to learn - I’ve been starting with the basics and then asking a lot of questions and abusing the “define:” feature on Google – but people are passionate and patient.

Strategically, my role is similar to what it’s been throughout my career. My job is to bring our clients ideas that add value to their customers (internal, external, shareholders). What’s new is that there’s seemingly no limitation on what can be done. If an idea exists that fits strategically with what our client is looking to accomplish, we’ll try and find a way to make it happen. Now, if we can just convince one our clients to partake in the first Wii Advergame.

So, I’m excited to be in the interactive space. I believe that the power has shifted from the marketer to the consumer, and that companies need to have a well thought out plan for engaging their customers. Increasingly, the only place to accomplish this is on the web.

It must be akin to watching your child go off to their first day of kindergarten – feeling pride, worry, and hope. These are the same emotions I felt on Friday morning as I got into the office to go through everything (again). Yes, the day was finally here. My baby – the project that not only me, but an entire team of folks, poured their heart, soul and sweat into, and who lost countless hours of sleep over – was finally going live.

What am I talking about? The launch of Crowne Plaza’s The Place to Meet Island in Second Life - and the live event that was held to kick it off. Quickly, The Place to Meet in Second Life provides private, corporate meeting rooms (free). Users are able to reserve space, invite attendees and upload media for a close-to-real-life meeting experience - only without the travel or expense of a real life meeting.

With a prestigious panelist and expected media coverage I was nervous, to say the least. Hours before, the functional team gathered in a small conference room, huddled over computers awaiting the hour.  A small hiccup occurred at the beginning, a box needed to be checked to allow users (i.e. press) to teleport into the island. Box checked, the media was let in and with little distractions, the event began and stress levels started to go down.

In the control room in the back, safely out of sight, I was controlling the slides with the media manager that is chockfull of functionality.  It not only provides you with the functionality of changing media but there is a complex logic built into the script to dynamically generate the menu and files that have been uploaded through the equally complex scheduling site. 

Reflecting elements of design from various Crowne Plaza hotels, the rooms have been created to facilitate almost any type of meeting.  The island itself was beautifully crafted, composed of tropical trees and plants that form an idyllic environment to put any user at ease.

The amazingly brilliant team that worked diligently to bring this project to life has to be commended on a job more than well done. Of course, none of this would’ve been possible without the excitement and encouragement that the Crowne Plaza team displayed. Embracing this new medium and technology could have been fraught with tension and hesitations, but they jumped right in.