Rather than displacing television, the internet, including social media is doing an excellent job of building the medium.

From an article titled, “7 Things You Need to Know About Social TV Right Now,’ the writer provides proof:

Back in the summer of 2009, we tracked everything from Sonia Sotomayor (then a nominee for the Supreme Court) to "Glee" to Major League Baseball to "True Blood."
Over time, it dawned on us that more than anything else, TV was driving social. Sotomayor would trend on Twitter only when her confirmation hearings were being televised; a specific team would trend because it was doing great (or sucking) in the game being broadcast at that very moment on ESPN; during prime-time hours in the U.S. and the U.K., Twitter's trending topics list would be all but taken over by TV-related chatter.

Why is this? In a word, behaviour.

Social TV is about watching TV with other people -- think of "50s-era family and friends gathered around an old Magnavox console to catch "I Love Lucy." Only now the living room has gone national.

In fact, it’s reversing problems such as time-shifting.

"We did a survey of our 10,000-person TV-fan panel last year," said TVGuide.com's Tanner, "and what we found is that 20% of them said they are watching more live TV specifically to avoid "social spoilers.'"

It’s not just TV that’s benefiting from social media, but brand campaigns running on TV as well, such as Old Spice. The brand was resurrected on television and only somewhat later extended to social media. However, had there not been a huge spend on TV, the social media effort wouldn’t have even been considered.

Pepsi learned this lesson the hard way last year when they shifted much of their budget away from TV to social media. Pepsi is now in third place behind Diet Coke.

So, contrary to the current crop of vested interest ‘experts’ claiming that traditional media such as TV will give way to social media and that, once again, advertising as we know it is dead, the opposite is happening.

Why is this? Why does TV continue to be so dominate? I think there are a couple of reasons. For one, it’s not about the conversation, it’s about what causes the conversation. And TV is really, really good at that.

For another reason, and not to belabour the point, it’s about behaviour.

People understand the internet differently than other forms of media. For one thing other than your hookup, the content is largely free. For another it’s an information medium first, whether that’s checking up on friends or family, or finding out the latest info or price on something you’re interested in.

People fan brands online mainly to get deals. They don’t recommend brands because they like the brand so much as they like their friends and want them to benefit from what’s on offer.

As a CEO of an online media company recently wrote about in Ad Age:

It's time to face the reality that the Internet sucks as a branding medium. I know that statement will rile up a few people, but I am starting to believe that the Internet may not be the right medium for brand development, at least in its current form. Trust me, it doesn't help my business if TV dollars don't come online, but it appears that online advertising is destined to become the greatest direct response medium in history and the greatest branding disappointment ever. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

The thing is, as an advertising medium, the internet and social media have their own value proposition and purpose. It’s an arrow in the quiver, not the whole quiver. It’s up to smart marketers to integrate these tools in the most effective way possible, based on an idea that can be executed across platforms.

Niki and me > First time at the cottage > 04.24.10

Finally, a technology that allows creative businesses to do what they love to do: Draw pictures and scribble everywhere in as many colors as there are dry markers. A heck of a lot more engaging and collaborative presentation method than powerpoint.

From IdeaPaint's website:

When you’re confined to the space of a typical whiteboard, your ideas are destined to be small. IdeaPaint turns virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface, giving you the space you need to collaborate, interact and fully explore your creativity. No matter where you use it, big ideas follow. IdeaPaint has been tested and designed to work with all industry-standard dry-erase markers and should be cleaned with a standard dry-erase eraser or a dry cloth after each use. For periodic and more thorough cleaning, a damp cloth may be used.

http://ideapaint.com

Bill Bernbach forever changed the advertising agency business by knocking down the wall between the copy and art departments and forming the copywriter and art director team. It only made sense at the time and it became the impetus for the agency creative revolution that followed.

But are those days coming to an end?

In the past, the art director had to know things, such as the litho process, marking up type, marker rendering, mechanical art production, etc. These were important trade skills that not just anybody could do. But many of these practices have disappeared due to technology. And whatever’s left are now software applications that anybody can learn.

As more of these practices and disciplines become digitized and commoditized, the once proprietary trade skills and knowledge set of the art director are diminishing.

The copywriter isn’t fairing much better. As information and entertainment becomes ubiquitous, copy - let alone long copy - is disappearing. Attention is at a premium and the demands are that communication be short, simple and understood across media channels and cultures.

Rather than execution, the creative idea has always been the most important thing. Yet, in most copywriter/art director relationships, it’s typically only one of the two that consistently delivers ideas. Often, the idea partner is also equally adept at both copy and art.

Then there’s the cost. Two salaries. Two expense accounts. Two benefits packages. Two yearly reviews and expected raises. Two of everything.

The system is no longer efficient, effective, or valid. As with so many other things, technology is making it redundant.

In this day and age, doesn’t it make more sense that an advertising idea person is teamed with a technology person?

We think so and that’s what we’re doing. We team a strategic planner with a creative idea person and a technology person in what we call a cell. The cell is the key contact and collaborator with our clients. Integration is achieved at the point of planning and each person in the cell is free to collaborate with whoever they need to execute. This is the foundation of our structure and what we believe is a more relevant model for the 21^st century. We also recognize that not many agencies can do this. Especially the large ones, organized as they are around silos.

For example, a former protégé of mine who is now working for a large, well known agency as a creative director, recently lost his art director partner. To replace him and to try something new he suggested to management that he be paired with the creative director of their digital silo. Everybody thought that would be a good idea, until it dawned on them that both are responsible for their own profit and loss, as well as the management of their respective silos and disciplines, making it impossible.

Large agencies are too heavily invested in the old way of doing things and find it difficult enough to experiment, let alone change. In fact, they’re addicted to building silos. As soon as a new discipline, or way of making money is identified, up goes a silo.

The main problem with silos are the walls. Silos force everything through the lens of their own particular discipline. Insulated from the real world, the idea serves execution, rather than vice versa. And miraculously, all client problems can be solved by the thinking inside each particular silo alone.

Is this the best way to serve client needs and solve their problems efficiently, creatively and fast? How can the product coming from this antiquated organizational structure be called integrated, when any sort of integration happens not at the point of planning, but instead is cobbled together sometime after the fact?

More importantly, wasn’t it these very same walls that Bill Bernbach demolished fifty odd years ago, heralding the first creative revolution in advertising?