Seven Questions

I had the opportunity to get perspective on the current digital advertising landscape from Darren D., a Senior Internet Designer, from what he refers to as a "multinational manufacturing company". For the safety of our interviewee, I've decided to keep his identity anonymous.

BT: Tell me about your career trajectory.
DD: Pretty standard non-management development and design path. Starting working as a freelancer in my field about 12 years ago, and have been steadily moving forward into increasingly stronger positions.

BT: What is your current role?
DD: Lead web designer at a multinational manufacturing company.

BT: How will social media change advertising in the next 5-10 years?
DD: Social media is, at its core from a business perspective, advertising. The difference is that the new media marketers have thrown out the bullhorn and take a more perceptible and personal approach. Given the current direction traditional advertising is heading for the same tar pit that many magazines and newspaper are currently thrashing about in. Advertising will be more like crowdsourcing, and less like one guy on a soapbox at Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park. Online banner ads are already starting to evolve into more interactive pieces of stand-alone media (like Burger King’s Augmented Reality Dollar menu banner), that will be able to engage visitors in a useful or meaningful way rather than just hoping for an impression.

BT: What developing technologies will become the next big thing in advertising?
DD: Augmented Reality is really taking off right now, and has the potential to be extremely influential in ways that marketers and companies could have only dreamed about even a year ago. The biggest technological advance will be ubiquitous computing and having people always on and always connected. Being able to interact with your customer base in real-time when they may not necessarily be in your store or on your website is opening exciting avenues of advertising and engagement every day.

BT: What is one of your favorite advertising programs of all time? Why? (not your own)
DD: Simple. Outpost.com TV ads from the early 90’s. Pure Gold.

These few ads were so far outside of the realm of what anyone had been doing before that it made it near impossible for anyone to not know who outpost.com was. They were unique, edgy, and really done well. They thought about the details, even to the point of having a tag at the end to where you should send your complaints after seeing the ads.

BT: What are five websites/blogs you couldn’t live without?
DD: Reddit.com, SmashingMagazine.com, Flickr.com, Dailywtf.com, CodingHorror.com

BT: Who would you rather take to lunch: Steve Jobs or Bill Gates?
DD: Bill Gates.

I share Darren's interest in augmented reality. While I understand the concept, the technology, and the current utilization, I feel its potential is not even understood yet. Virtual guided tours of the city or museum, multiplayer games, and augmented advertising may crop out of this new technology.

I'd never heard of outpost.com, understandably so, as the site is dead and now redirects to frys.com. Who knows when or why outpost.com went under. It's hard to imagine why the site went away with sweet commercials like this, this, and this. Pretty cool stuff for it's day. Notice the AOL keyword reference at the end of the ads...too funny.