Channel Surfing with Dreighton Pickner (ad critic) : August 2007

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Going binary!

Hey faithful readers - welcome back to Channel Surfing, your monthly installment from the blog world of me, Dreighton Pickner – ad guy extraordinaire. It’s been a fun diversion for me to write these little quips and insights about “the game” while I’m setting up my consulting gig from home. Didn’t you hear? It’s the digital age. Armed with my venerable iMac and fax machine, I can stretch out in the spare bedroom and it’s just like the offices back at YourLogoHere!, minus the bureaucracy and chatty receptionist.

And that brings me to this month’s topic: The World Wide Web v2.0. Just five years ago most companies were still trying to get their act together, but nowadays you can’t find a carpet outlet or above ground swimming pool emporium that doesn’t have exclusive online sales and offers! I spent many a meeting at YLH trying to tell clients like Bill Black Dodge and AmeriTrust Loan (sorry about the namedropping) to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee – only to be met with blank indifference. (I sure hope it wasn’t the concept!)

But now, if I were to get a call from either one of those guys I’d have to ask them, “What do you think about the digital age now?” I may wear tacky ties and listen to my Counting Crows a little loud, but I know what I’m talking about. You have to wise up and see what’s going on out there – these trends are not made in cubicles, they’re made out there in the real world.

My son was here for the weekend and I couldn’t help but notice his mother had bought him a brand new laptop “for back to school.” He was showing me how to make an mp3 - ipod mini, anyone?! - when I saw this curious website in the background. (No, it’s not what you’re thinking. He’s got Pickner Pride and that means good judgment, unlike some former Pickners who let their boyfriends buy their way into kid’s lives with expensive trips to Best Buy.) But anyway – he looked at me and practically laughed because I didn’t know what this Myspace thing was.

So later that night after MoneyBags picked him up, I fired up the old cable modem and started doing a little hacking around myself. All I could think after about 20 minutes was “HEL-LO OPPORTUNITY!” Why pay for a website when you can get one on Myspace for FREE? The networking possibilities are endless and there’s thousands of kids on there just waiting to soak up some creative thinking. That Zeke The Cow character from Dunkables Choco-Yogurt Bites could have been on there in a matter of minutes and I’m betting he’d have hundreds of people sending him cybermails within a week!

I’m going to play that one close, it’s too good an opportunity for other ad guys out there to pick up on. But trust old Dreighton when he tells you that the ad game hasn’t seen the last of him yet and he’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve.

Come say “hi!” at my new Myspace page!! [dp]