BevLog

For whom? There's a school based in Sweden called Hyper Island. It is "renowned for producing the most coveted digital talent in the ad industry." I never heard of it until I came across a story in Fast Company called "The Future of Advertsing." The Swedes view students in the U.S. as "digital immigrants" vs. "digital natives" back in Sweden.

Digital technology has brought chaos to the advertising industry of the '60s. "Coding is now prized over copywriting." That may be going too far but "analytics" and "inbound links" are all the rage. Metrics not emotion as persuasion. My thought is because Google (ro)bots are searching/reading vs. humans reading.

Lucrative mass market targeting is being displaced by digital technology - "first the news business, then the music business, then advertising." Fragmentation. Job loss. Crowdsourcing and other user-generated content vs. paid jobs like proofreading and copyeditors. "Show me the money." We used to call it "Those who can't - teach." Next?

Contrary to all the doom-and-gloom reports, business writer Jeffrey Cruikshank sees "a wave of technical innovation just ahead." His story to the "Washington Post" compares legendary Albert D. Lasker at Lord & Thomas agency and Steve Jobs with the iPad. He draws a parallel back in the first three decales of the 20th century "for introducing an astonishing array of products that we take for granted" now - including orange juice.

The iPad was launched in January this year and sales continue to increase. How it will evolve and change business models has yet to be determined, but Cruikshank ended up buying an iPad after standing at an iPad display table at an Apple Store. He "watched adults fumble and kids dive effortlessly into the world of iPad gaming." He realized he was looking at a technological revolution and wrote, "Don't start the revolution without me!" Here's more about how Lasker could sell a revolution like no one before him.

You can blame the sluggish economy for retailers/advertisers extending the pre-Christmas season in a trend that accelerated three years ago with displays, ads and emails. "Christmas Creep" takes advantage of this all-important shopping season that accounts for 25 percent to 40 percent of the year's sales, according to the Wharton School of U. of PA.

This year, Abercrombie & Fitch displaced Halloween by sending out an email to customers on Oct. 24 "treating" them with special Christmas deals.

There's even a Black Friday Web site online now way before Thanksgiving leftovers are gone. You can bet that social media opinion (pro and con this marketing trend) won't be far behind.