I built my career through on-the-job training over the last 20 years. Yes, I have a traditional “creative” direction/education and therefore have a strong foundation in best practices when it comes to things such as color, composition and concept. And when everything comes together correctly, it results in a well-crafted end product.
Pour a steaming mug of hot cocoa and drop in a handful of marshmallows, kids! It's that special time of year when Justice takes a look at the many facets of branding, marketing, social media, cultural trends and related offshoots, and tries to sound smart by prognosticating on what we can look forward to in 2013.
I figured I'd post this right away because 'oh guess what?' I don't like to wait for anything either! -- This is the second post of a two-part series about how the rapid acceleration of information distribution contributes to an epidemic of anxiety.
This is an interesting subject for me to approach, for it has to do with me personally as well as countless people I feel extremely close to. We are increasingly a society that reaches for pharmaceutical assistance in order to maintain “normality.” About a decade ago, midway through my career, I reached a point where I thought something was wrong with me mentally. Years later I learned this was the result of long-term stress, anxiety and cumulative decision-making that is so prevalent within the world I call my career.
Whether you watched the presidential election results with a “the sky is falling” reaction or a “raise the roof” dance, you can’t argue that we’ve all been affected one way or another. However, the bigger question for me is whether people made their decision early in the campaign season or were influenced by information they picked up closer to Election Day.
There is still a great gap between social storytelling and social media. It’s not nearly as wide as the gulf on Facebook between conservatives and liberals. But it’s a gap nonetheless. The marketer in me says that if I get too far down the storytelling path, the “call to action” for my client may be overlooked within the content. However, social storytellers would say the application of a defined message from an external source could corrupt or misalign the audience’s attention.
Monday, January 7, 2013 at 12:42PM