Dinosaurs Are NOT Extinct...They're Just Hiding In Some Ad Agencies

THIS is innovative AND brave.

Most of what passes as traditional advertising is not. The reason I think that more advertising isn’t innovative is because there are too many dinosaurs preserving the status quo.

Before I get a bunch of emails from people, let me just say that I’m not naming names or pointing fingers…directly that is. I’m willing to bet if that you took a journey to visit 100 different advertising agencies from coast to coast, you’d find a good number of rich, long in the tooth, brontosauruses, wondering the halls.

If you’re involved in managing social media campaigns you’ve probably run into a few of them here or there. They’re not hard to spot. Reason being is they usually announce themselves quite clearly. The often say things like “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I have to tell you what sells (fill-in-the blank) is television commercials.

Like their prehistoric counterparts, they may also be soon meeting their ultimate demise. It’s not like they haven’t been forewarned. Like those who continue to smoke cigarettes, they not only disbelieve the warnings, they scoff at them.

What makes matters worse is that they continue to cough up the remnants of their black lungs all over clients who come to them looking for counsel.

If you’re stuck working with one of those agencies, maybe it’s time to pack up and seek comfort with a house that “gets it”. Fortunately, there are some out there. You just have to look.

Recently, I’ve had the joy of following TED AWS on Google+. I LOVE that page and everything they have to offer. You can find it at www.tedandbravery.com

Notice I did not just use a simple hyperlink. One reason is I wanted you to see the entire name and secondly to have you click on the URL and see the simplicity of innovation that they did just by the utilization of their domain name.

Most dinosaur types won’t tread there. You see that site is all about being bravely creative. Not just being innovative, but courageously innovative. Something the dinosaurs will NEVER be able to become.

Ads Worth Spreading is TED’s initiative to recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising.

TED’s mission is ideas worth spreading. An ad worth spreading is a short way of communicating an idea. The ad can be as long as it takes to communicate the idea powerfully — what matters is the “a-ha” moment, the central idea.

This initiative is a clarion call to companies that want to communicate authentic and interesting ideas to their consumers.

Ads Worth Spreading is TED’s initiative to recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising.

TED is seeking new narratives in advertising, for real brands and causes in the real world.

Well said…and they back it up! Here’s what Jonathan Mildenhall had to say in a recent Q&A on the site:

Seeing what Jonathan wrote gave me hope. I had a rough day yesterday and I was feeling that it might be time to make some serious changes. I’m feeling like a caged animal who is either going to break free or find away to set the dinosaurs out to greener pastures as they await their comet.

I reached out to Gary Vaynerchuk today on Twitter for some insight and what he said caught me by great surprise. To the point of leaving me shell shocked. Here’s the conversation.

It’s obvious to those of us who believe in social media and its power, that we need to work with those “who believe what we believe“. There’s no “convincing” anyone. There’s no re-training of the old dog. Let them be. Don’t argue. Don’t waste time with them and most of all, don’t let them weaken your resolve.

I reached out to Jonathan Mildenhall on Twitter and he pretty much underscored Gary Vee’s sentiments: