The year the internet turned into one gigantic video player.

Remember a few years back when all the digital kids in advertising agencies used to whisper in the halls how the traditional creative folks needed to adapt or just go away? The soon-to-be dinosaurs. People that relied on mass media (TV) to get the message out were old school. The next level advertising was getting users to seek out and interact with a brand experience on their own. Viral was the buzziest buzzword of all time.

Well that doomsday never really happened. At least not in 2014. Instead the industry transitioned into what some call the post-digital era. Others call it the “maturation of internet” or the “modern web”. In the post-digital era things are different. The internet runs more TV commercials than your TV does.

And online advertising experimentation and innovation by the big brands has slowly been replaced by lots and lots of video players.

In the digital era we mass produced all sorts of shiny web things. There weren’t a lot of good places to put brand content on the on the internet so we had to make our own from scratch. Flash microsites. Facebook apps. Webcam things. Native apps. Augmented Reality was a real thing. Advergames. Expandable banners. Long scrolly web things. Digital installations. Rinse and repeat.

In the post-digital era the production of shiny web things has slowed down (but not gone away). And new things have emerged to take their place. Mega social platforms, newsfeeds, ad networks, native advertising, Like buttons, etc. Agencies now have a more robust suite of advertising tools and products at their disposal than ever before. And those products are demanding more content than ever before. And yes. Most of that content is video.

Brands still need a ton of help from digitally savvy agencies sorting it all out. Then figuring out where brand content intersects with culture.

But making content where users push “play” or “like” just isn’t nearly as much fun. And we’ve lost some of that magical “wow” factor. Agencies played a key role for a long time to push the internet forward with innovation. In the post-digital era the internet is no longer just the home of interactive experiences and magic. That’s because the internet also happens to be a way more efficient way to distribute video content than TV. It’s a good time to be good at making videos.

But this is (mostly) old news. Faris Yakob wrote an article earlier this year called “What Ever Happened to Digital Advertising?” where he addresses the fact that real “interactivity” has left the building. Rick Webb of Barbarian Group fame also commented on the halt of advertising innovation in his critique of Subservient Chicken 2.0.

What does this mean if your job is to make non-video advertising?

It means we have to understand the new landscape.

Your clients can make stuff too. And sometimes their internal development teams are pretty good. In the post-digital era there aren’t many major companies that don’t have a few dozen folks on staff that know photoshop and code. Agencies with great design, production, and development teams will keep winning projects. Agencies that aren’t world class at digital will continue to be replaced by internal client side teams or specialist vendors. Or more videos.

Technology driven creative ideas are in high demand. And those executions will continue to come from agencies. Agencies are uniquely positioned to bring product and platform ideas that are fueled by the same strategic insight that drives an advertising campaign.

And the result is a product that tells a brand story in a more compelling and action oriented way.

It will always be easier to present and sell an idea where a user just hits a play button. To create demand for technology driven creative ideas the agency has to be able to connect the CMO with the CTO and work outside of normal marketing campaign windows during the discovery and prototyping phases. It takes a total organizational commitment from both the agency and client.

Not all problems need ads. And not every innovation or prototype needs to end up as a full-blown consumer facing platform. The brands that are doing it right know how to leverage their agencies as an R&D partner. When positioned correctly, agencies can side step some of the red tape, A/B testing, and other barriers that slow forward progress on product innovation. Technology experiments can and will inspire new products, services, and content. Agencies can’t lose their ability to tinker, create, and make.

Ad tech and data are major forces driving the industry. Each piece of content has to reach more users than ever. And they need to be the right users. In the post-digital era harnessing the means of distribution is just as important as making something worth distributing.

Everything ends up on the internet in some shape or form.

As each new channel or social network reaches it saturation point another one will be created. It’s a moving target of users, CPM’s, algorithm updates, and brand clutter. But it is one that can be easily be hit if you understand how that system works and then hack it.

The reinvention of agency production is already happening. Agencies are now being staffed with multifaceted creators and looking outside traditional production strategy, roles, and partners. A culture of integrated production is not the same as being an integrated producer. And integrated no longer means just video and digital. Digital producers do product management and strategy. And video producers understand ad tech platforms and dynamic video products. And everyone can make just about everything. Individuals with Go-Pro’s and basic web development skills can’t outpace major brands on content production. And soon they won’t. Not every idea needs a film and a website and a dozen banner ads. But it needs something.

And it has to be done faster and cheaper than ever before.

Things have shifted. And they will again. But it’s important for agencies to remember it’s the post-digital era and not the post-technology era. Or the post-data era. Or the post-creativity era. Those things aren’t going away. At least not this year.

Welcome to 2015. I’m excited to see what we do with it.