Last week, several members of the KIMBO Design team attended the 2nd annual #BCTECH Summit. B.C’s tech sector has been growing rapidly in recent years, and it is a very exciting time to be involved in the digital advertising industry. The conference featured speakers from all fields under the tech umbrella, including high-ranking members of Tesla and Microsoft, academics from a range of BC higher learning institutions, and representatives from a wide variety of local government and tech organizations. A main thread throughout all of the discussion was in regards to how tech will impact all sectors of our economy and lives moving forward, including but not limited to, healthcare, energy, transportation, agriculture, finance, government, entertainment, and e-commerce.
Why Is Digital Advertising Important?
My agency prides itself on being on the cutting edge of digital advertising technologies, so that all of our clients benefit from the innovative work done by tech companies. KIMBO Design was one of the first agencies in B.C. to recognize the value and potential of social media and digital advertising, and our drive for pushing the technological envelope remains strong to this day. By equally prioritizing creative work and innovative strategy, outstanding campaigns become more realistic, and even expected.
Advertisers and artists alike must figure out how to harness new technological platforms to meet their goals. Throughout history, when new media technologies are introduced, people with artistic and marketing intentions quickly utilize them. Radio led to serial dramas and live reads. Television led to sitcoms and commercials. The Internet led to pop-ups and YouTube. As both creatives and strategists, it is important for advertisers to straddle this technological fence. Strong strategy with poor design won’t catch the eyes of the audience. Great design without strategy produces visuals that are engaging, but empty.
What Makes Great Digital Advertising?
With this in mind, it is important to find inspiration in both creative and technological sources. A top class advertiser, marketer, or digital strategist should be able to get the same amount of motivation from a masterpiece or a start-up platform. Your digital advertising campaigns should be driven not only by intriguing visual pieces, but also by the new possibilities presented by the latest digital products. Whether we’re creating explorable environments in virtual reality, or using artificial intelligence to improve targeting, the face of advertising will continue to morph with the technological capabilities of the industry.
In order to take advantage of these changes, we must be open to them. It’s more than natural to feel wary of new technology, but we have evidence that platforms and products that seem silly now, can quickly evolve into media giants. This is why KIMBO focuses on educating our team about the possibilities of these new products, and using them in our own digital advertising, so that we can make faithful recommendations about their value to our clients.
