Digital & Dirt
01:43:35 · Ian Dallimore, David Sable, Anthony Scaramucci
[01:43:35] S0: I Yeah, didn't no know what was. [01:43:37] S9: Great. Like to me, I was ground zero. So I didn't know anything had changed. I just knew what was. I have heard that same thing. I've seen that from that day to today. Everything changes. It changes all the time. When I was there, like literally while I was in the training program, cable launched. Yep. That was gonna put everything else out of business. It didn't. And I'm proud to say that we placed, and I was part of it, the very first cable ad ever placed by a advertising agency. It was on the SciFi channel, was like a big deal back in that early thing. So my sense is that everything's changing and the people who get it right are the people who aren't scared of the change. They understand what doesn't change is as a consumer. What doesn't change is the consumer wants to hear a story. What doesn't change is that the consumer wants to hear a story because they do want brands. Like the biggest mistake and the biggest fallacy is that brands aren't important. Oh yeah, they're pretty important. Like these kids, these Gen Z kids are still running after brands. Let's be really, really clear. And the younger kids, the Gen A, they're also, they're crazy for you. And my grandkids playing, know these squishies? [01:44:55] S0: Yeah, my daughter's. [01:44:56] S9: So you know about squishies, right? Squishies become the biggest thing. You gotta invite, and they know which are the real squishies, [01:45:03] S4: Correct, yeah.
01:45:03 · Anthony Scaramucci, David Sable, Ian Dallimore
[01:45:03] S4: Correct, yeah. [01:45:03] S9: The brass root versus which are the fake squishies. Right. It is the oldest story in history. Right. Right? We crave real things. We crave things that have provenance. We crave things that make us feel good. That is never going to change. Yeah. And I think that the best marketers like Craig on this. Yep. That's what they go for. [01:45:25] S0: So let's let's give Craig a shout out here. There he is. We'll get... We're going get you on. Yeah. Following trends is not something that you've ever done in your career. You've never followed the crowd. Right? So where do you think advertising industry is following the crowd right now successfully? And I'll add the influencer economy. There's so much put into that space. But also... And I love that you're sparking because I agree with you. [01:45:51] S9: But there's... We're lemmings. Let's be [01:45:53] S0: really clear. [01:45:54] S9: We're in a lemming world here. [01:45:55] S0: Yes. We
01:45:55 · Ian Dallimore, David Sable, Jim Norton
[01:45:55] S0: Yes. We [01:45:56] S9: tend to be lemmings. You know, I'll just go back and I'll point out how there was a time everything was going to be gamified. Gamification was it. And I remember agencies are going to their clients and saying, Oh my God, you've got to completely gamify your marketing. Voting is going to be gamified. Now it is sort of, but not in that way. Yeah. So we went through everything is going to be a wearable. Everything is going to be on and on and on. Roblox, oh my God. During COVID, I was on four different panels with otherwise smart people whose point of view was that Roblox was going to replace everything that ever was. And that's what they're telling their clients. And clients were buying this crap. [01:46:43] S0: Buying blocks and lands. Was And [01:46:45] S9: like, what are you talking about? And I kept saying, Guys, it's a great thing. It's nice. And it's very good that a Gucci you know, purse sold for $5,000, nuts, and seven... NFTs. This is my favorite one. Right? NFTs are gonna replace everything. Yep. But what happened was we, an industry, we turned NFTs into crappy digital art that we were that were being sold for crazy. Now the truth is what's an NFT? It's nothing but guaranteeing provenance of something. So for example, we went to a major car company and said, here's the deal. Let's get rid of VINs, vehicle identification number, and we'll create each car as an NFT. Now what happens? All the parts now are NFT. So that whole car, [01:47:31] S6: you can't touch that car.
01:47:31 · Jim Norton, David Sable, Ian Dallimore, Barry Frey, Alex Grieves
[01:47:31] S6: you can't touch that car. [01:47:32] S9: Right. For the rest of its life, without it being noticed because it's on the blockchain, it's an empty. Think about what that would do. But nobody wanted to do that because they didn't believe we had cheapened [01:47:44] S0: what They it [01:47:46] S9: thought, how can we go back to our investors and our customers and tell them? Because they think it's art. They think somehow they're buying a piece of digital. Right. It's like, my god. Congratulations. So one day [01:47:56] S1: that's gonna come back up. [01:47:58] S0: Oh, for sure. Yep. So last question. So in the world of AI and automation and and measurement and those things, sure, there's a time and place for that. But my question more to you is around creativity and creative. What is the biggest fear with utilizing AI? And I know Craig was talking about it on stage as well. Sameness. Sameness. [01:48:16] S9: Yep. Yeah. That's it. It's sameness. Like there is nothing else. That's the problem. [01:48:20] S2: Yeah. [01:48:20] S9: AI is critical. AI is his. See, AI is different than all the trends. It's different than robots. [01:48:25] S0: It's different
01:48:25 · Ian Dallimore, David Sable
[01:48:25] S0: It's different [01:48:26] S9: than wearables. It's real. It's here. It's powerful. We talked about it on stage. I said, well, we've got to get over the self consciousness about it in creative. And so, you know, the example I always like to use is you don't believe... And again, I could be totally wrong, but I don't think that the dragons in Game of Thrones are real. Right. But there's no caveat that says, These are created by CGI. Right. You watch it, you love it, [01:48:52] S0: So [01:48:52] S9: you know it's we to lose the self conscious. I'll just tell you very quickly. I believe that creativity is always going to be driven by what I call the Da Vinci effect. Right? And it's really simple. If you've ever been to see the Last Supper in Milan, you walk into the room, to the left is a big fresco done by Giovanni, somebody rather was Frey's last name, who was the number one fresco painter in Milan. The patron who paid for him, paid for him because he was the best. Everybody knew him. And if you look at it today, it's still bright. It's still beautiful. It's big. Christ in the middle on the cross with halo. Lots of little detail, but not a lot of perspective. Right. [01:49:35] S0: Then you
01:49:35 · Ian Dallimore, David Sable, Anthony Scaramucci
[01:49:35] S0: Then you [01:49:36] S9: look to the right and you see a smaller space paid for by the same patron. Smaller because they didn't know da Vinci. They thought he was nobody. Right. So, hey, heard about this guy. So we figured, okay, great. I'll give him some money. He'll paint this thing. It's faded because da Vinci was an experimenter and didn't use, interestingly enough, he experimented quite the wrong way. Didn't use the same paints or whatever. But the important point of the story is you look from there to there, right to left, right to left, and you say to yourself, How is that possible? How could somebody have just had this synapse leap that went across centuries like no one ever saw artwork? It's like that before. Yep. So my attitude is, had AI been around it, AI would have been fed all the Renaissance art up until that date. The best you would have gotten was the Giovanni. You never ever would have gotten... No matter how you prompted it, you [01:50:32] S4: couldn't have gotten a Da [01:50:33] S9: Vinci because it didn't know it. Didn't know [01:50:35] S0: that existed. [01:50:35] S9: It never would have gotten it. That's the da Vinci effect. That is what's gonna save humanity. Yep. Because we are about da Vinci effects. Don't... You guide people out there, don't lose hope. Just think about the da Vinci effect. Be creative. Be yourself. Think big. It's all good.