About

I’ve been described as “a creative director for the 21^st century” by a well-known trade magazine. I’m not sure what that means, but I am quite certain that “a creative director for the 21^st century” is often indescribable.

I’ve also been introduced as a “marketing guru” dozens of times when stepping up to the dais for a keynote speech. I think my agent was overzealous in his assessment, most likely because it’s hard to find a true guru to guide us steadfastly in a topsy-turvy marketing world. It’s just too good to be true.

Perhaps these monikers come from the fact that I am a creative director at a very good advertising agency called Crispin Porter + Bogusky. It too has been hailed at the best agency of the 21^st century (rightly, I may add) by Ad Age magazine, and it has won more industry awards in the past 10 years than any other entity on the planet.

Or that I’ve written two pretty good books that have seemed to anticipate fundamental marketing trends and consumer convictions by a few years.

But I think it’s because, deep-down inside my own head and heart, I really still don’t know what I’m doing. Or rather, I haven’t yet mastered the art of 21^st century marketing. And that’s a good thing.

A creative director for the 21^st century has to do it all: traditional, digital and experiential. The creative needs to know how to design a print ad as well as a website, how to script a spot as well as a press release, make Super Bowl ads and late night, direct response segments. Above all, we must all move away from writing stories to rendering experiences. And then maybe, just maybe, we can make the 21st century just a little bit better for our culture.