DIGITAL THINKING FROM THE 1950s.

TECHNOLOGY!!! DIGITAL!!! MOBILE!!! CHANGE!!! The hysteria is out there and growing. Sometimes it does a body some good to sit down and have a little think. Sift the grains of truth from the chaff of hype. Bill Bernbach, the founding father on creativity in advertising and the most influential figure the biz has ever seen, said this a few decades back.

“Human nature hasn’t changed for a million years. It won’t even change in the next million years. Only the superficial things have changed.

It is fashionable to talk about the changing man. A communicator must be concerned with the unchanging man – what compulsions drive him, what instincts dominate his every action, even though

his language too often camouflages what really motivates him.”

In this battle between traditional and new media, this principle has somehow slipped through the cracks of our biased points of view. Oops!

Shall we go on then? Shall we see if the principles laid down by Bill when TV was the new media apply in this digital age?

“Be provocative. But be sure your provocativeness stems from your product. You are NOT right if in your ad you stand a man on his head JUST to get attention. You ARE right if you have him on his head to show how your product keeps things from falling out of his pockets.”

Here’s a lesson to heed before you create another viral. Far too of them tell stories that have nothing to do with what the brand stands for or what it has to say. There’s no point if the world shares it and nobody can tell what it had to do with the brand.

“Execution becomes content in a work of genius.”

Visit www.cinema.philips.com and you will see what Bill meant. The thing is great execution takes time and it takes investment. Just because it is on the net doesn’t mean it should be made for peanuts or in no time at all. Anything that speaks for your brand needs a lot of loving.

“It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.”

Digital translation: Don’t get obsessed with the latest technology, the widgets. If you do not give something of real value to the consumer, it will just be a gimmick and it will be dismissed as such.

“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”

Just because anything goes on the net doesn’t mean we do anything in the name of commerce. Every brand has an obligation to its consumers, an obligation to uphold its values, no matter what the medium.

“Word of mouth is the best medium of all.”

People share stuff that moves them deeply. It’s got to intensely personal. Make them laugh of loud. Induce tears. Make them feel intelligent. Provoke them into thinking differently about something. Stimulate a dialogue, an argument even. Whatever you do, go all the way. A half measure is road kill on the information highway.

We are at the end of this little ramble, but we are not done yet. I urge you all to go to www.ddb.com/bernbach, your mind will be a little richer for it. Namaskaram.