Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications recently asked the question, “is social media too boring for advertising industry?” He recounts his experiences with ad execs who “get” social media enough to not really want to do it. It turns out that it’s not sexy or exciting enough to fit into their campaigns.

I’m sure that boredom is just part of the resistance. Many aspects of social media aren’t as exciting as spending time in casting sessions, commercial shoots, post sessions or at awards ceremonies in Cannes (although there’s no reason that those events couldn’t happen as part of a social media campaign), but I suspect that there are deeper reasons for resistance. In an industry that makes it money via the markup on paid media, relying upon social media can seem like revenue suicide. One of the misbeliefs about social media is that it’s free, and it’s hard to get behind something that cuts your bottom line. Of course social media engagement isn’t free, and there are plenty of ways for agencies to monetize it via content, monitoring and engagement. However, it takes real creativity to conceptualize, produce and propagate social media campaigns which produce impact and awe. Perhaps the rank and file of current advertising leads aren’t creative enough to imagine how this is possible?

I also don’t think it’s right to pat PR on its head at this point either. There are still PR folks who wouldn’t be caught dead managing  a search campaign or producing original, direct to consumer content; or they believe they are doing social media because they pitch bloggers like Walt Mossberg or Engadget. Guess what? That’s still just media relations. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I wrote a blog post about a similar experience with glum ad folks moaning about how social media makes them less creative (The care and feeding of Social Media for creatives), and Mullen’s chief creative officer, Edward Boches just did a great presentation on creativity in the age of social media . It’s really worth watching an ad guy who gets social media.

I've been doing a bit of job interviewing recently. I have to admit. I really hate the process. It's not that I've had any really bad experiences, but I've never been comfortable "selling" myself. I can talk up a storm about creating great digital and social experiences. I'm happy to talk about the future of media, and how I'd take advantage of it. However, I can honestly say that I don't posses the self aggrandizement gene that enables others to overstate, over promise and flim-flam their way through life.

As part of the hiring process at one agency I was recently asked to think about how digital and social media could be used to support California's anti-smoking initiatives.For the past fifty years the approach the approach has been based upon facts and figures. How much tar & nicotine? How many deaths? My thought is to make it personal. Let smokers see what they look like to the rest of us (ridiculous) while helping them kick the habit. Anyway, here's what I put together. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20857925/Mind-if-I-Smoke

This summer I attended an event at a local Seattle agency. They generously invited the local advertising community into their beautiful offices to hear a panel discussion on how social media can play a role in marketing. I expected to hear stories about how social media is creating new opportunities to connect with consumers and examples of how creatives could practically transition from old media to new models of engagement. Instead the 100 or so people in the room heard a glum conversation about how social media limits creativity, doesn’t offer any clear ROI and is generally a pain in the ass. I looked around the room and observed people listening in rapt attention as social media engagement was ripped apart with a series of passive aggressive paper cuts. The three key takeaways:

• Social Media limits creativity
• Some other disconnected group should be in charge of comment moderation and conversations.
• All of this Social Media stuff is just a fad and soon will pass.

At the end of evening I made the observation that if you believe any of those points, YOU SHOULD BE FIRED!

I’ve also seen plenty of presentations from social media messiahs (AKA snake oil salesmen) who set wildly unrealistic expectations about the impact of social media on the world. Their tweet and they will come exuberance drives lots of conversation (mostly in the form of retweets), but these guys offer little in the way of practical guidance on anything other than creating cults of personality. If you are involved with marketing and blindly follow their advice, YOU SHOULD BE FIRED!

OK, so other than saying that a lot of people should be fired (and you guys know who you are), what do I have to offer today? Submitted for your approval is “What Is Creative in the Age of Social Media?” by Edward Boches, the chief creative officer of Mullen. This was presented as part of the AAAA’s Socially Speaking webinar series, and it stands out from my earlier examples by offering great, practical insight into the value of social media and how it can be used creatively to amplify the impact of campaigns of all sorts. He showed examples of work created by Mullen, but he wasn’t afraid to show the great work of others. In fact, the key reason that this is a successful is that Edward is able to pull together the thoughts (sorry, I mean memes) that have been floating around and place them into a context that shows how they can work together. The idea that “consumers want more participation and even control”, “people want to do business with a person, not an institution” and “Expectations are higher” aren’t new; but it’s amazing how often they are ignored by clients and agencies who can’t imagine that the public is worthy of respect, let alone conversation. Via his 7 key observations and 12 practical steps, Edward creates a framework to go forth into social media engagement without leaving your creative chops at the door. Finally, in the spirit of being fair and balanced, YOU SHOULD BE FIRED! if you ignore the wisdom of this presentation.