If you inspire creativity, make beautiful,functional things that help solve real challenges, you’re on the right track.
MDK Social Strategist Michael Koenka shares his thoughts on how to prosper in the creative industry.
Q: How did you get started in advertising and specifically digital strategy?
Michael Koenka:
My career in advertising started by chance; my career in digital strategy, by choice.
Chance
I graduated with a Masters in International Affairs, after which I worked as an analyst at a commodities trade firm.
My role was to parse through insane amounts of data in an attempt to find nuggets of insights to help brokers make multi-million-dollar trades.
Thing is, I don't remember a single trade. What I do recall is how good it felt coding, designing and delivering a dashboard that pulled various datasets into a simple and unified dashboard that anyone could use.
It soon became painfully clear how challenging it is to work in the trading industry, an environment that’s incredibly risk averse and oft budgetless, when it came to creativity, innovation and design.
I wanted to do something awesome. It started to feel like the very tie I put on for work every day, was slowly, but surely, strangling me to death.
So I moved to Amsterdam to be with the beauty who is now my wife, and began freelancing as a social media strategist.
At the time that’s how I positioned myself. I thought social media was where things were going. JWT Amsterdam thought so too, hiring me to strengthen their digital and strategy teams not long after I arrived.
As it turned out, I was right, social was to be the next big thing for the coming years – I was just a bit too early.
Choice
My interests in digital strategy certainly predate my interest in advertising. I remember watching Hackers and wanting to do just that:
subvert the status quo and remake the world to suit my needs with the Internet and connected technologies.
I was also only 13. I've always been curious about people and technology. I code. I know my way around a circuit board. Grew up on mIRC, and am still proud of my 5-digit ICQ number.
For me, there was always a certain code one kept to online. On mIRC channels, deep web forums, and anywhere where likeminded, curious and disruptive people met, there was this crazy idea — that the web and connected devices were tools and means to do whatever we wanted with the world around us.
It was there for us to create and remake as we sought fit. Barriers to access of information were considered challenges for us to break and re-make as we pleased. Why? Because it was possible.
We fundamentally believed in a democratized and unencumbered access to information. We, the tech and comms junkies, understood the web’s potential as a meaningful force for shared gain.
We believed that we could use the Internet to connect the world. Any barriers or intermediaries were seen as anathema to the true spirit of the web, its power distribution and information flows. As such, they would eventually be subverted.
Music labels? Napster.
Movie stores? BitTorrent.
News channels? Reddit, Twitter.
The list goes on.
Who wouldn't want to work in a field this fungible, this awesome?
Q: What are the risks and opportunities facing the advertising industry in 2014 ?
Michael Koenka: Stagnancy. The biggest risk the advertising industry faces is not taking any risk.
I’m scared we won't see more agencies challenging the status quo to connect brands, communications, and motivations in any meaningful way.
Whether it’s spending time with the family, or booking a business trip; advertisers should constantly look for new ways to blur the lines between the Internet, technology, connectivity and everyday life.
Otherwise, we risk doing the same thing we've always done, and that’s not how industries mature. Change begets growth, and vice-versa.
We should push to try something that’s never been done. We should aspire to innovate for innovation’s sake. Because if we don't, then what value or meaning are we really creating?
More steak, less sizzle
I wonder how agencies will shift from talking about big data, to using smart data. Big data leads to pretty Infographics. Smart data informs business decisions.
One of the biggest opportunities the Internet affords, is the ability to measure everything. Measuring means you can demonstrate how well or poorly your work performs.
I hope agencies skip big data, and instead leverage clear business goals to focus creative and demonstrate real results.
Connected Everything
I believe sensors, wearables, and connected devices will dramatically shape how we interact with the world around us, and vice-versa.
Apple’s recent push into mobile payment, NFC and wearable technology is telling. The same goes for Fossil’s move with Intel.
Both have massive potential to seamlessly connect our digital and everyday lives in new and exciting ways.
Our behaviours in digital and physical contexts will also become blurred. First in retail, but eventually across all aspects of human life.
For advertisers, this means we can cut through the noise and connect with people in a timely, hyper-personalized way.
For consumers, it means not suffering the pain of irrelevant, disruptive marketing and the dawn of marketing that helps you get the stuff you want, when you actually need it.
Q: New technology has amplified old and created new forms of consumer behaviour. How do you and your team extrapolate which behaviours to invest time in to build skillsets around?
Michael Koenka: I believe technology has amplified all forms of behavior almost equally. It has simply made behaviours, on the whole, much more observable.
Today, we can track everything customers and audiences do online, often as they’re doing it, which means we stand to learn a lot more about their needs in less time, and for significantly less money.
Above everything, we need an almost obsessive curiosity about the world. It doesn't hurt to also understand brands, business, behavior, coding, production, culture, hardware, semiotics, semantics and design. Basically, everything.
My father, an architect, always said one should know every detail of every element in a building; how the products interact physically, chemically and aesthetically. To me, the same holds true when planning marketing and communications strategies for clients.
With the right attention to detail, and the careful blending of clear, relatable insights, great creative works have the power to be timeless in their ability to make a statement and move people.
That’s why seeking to understand the fundamentals of what makes us human is always a good place to start. Some of the most future-proof subjects are also some of the oldest; sociology, psychology, philosophy, politics and mathematics.
When you understand how people, cultures and communities react to changes in their environment, it’s infinitely easier to design experiences and interactions that make sense and do what they're supposed to do.
Q: Mike Arauz of Undercurrent wrote, with regards to what a strategist should be/know: “The typical ‘T-shaped’ team member is no longer adaptable enough to keep and maintain their value in a market that evolves as quickly as today’s market does. The ideal evolving skill set for today’s (digital) strategy world is shaped more like an expanding square than a ‘T’.”
What is your take on this?
Michael Koenka: Skill sets and behaviours are evolving. To meet this change, it makes sense to argue that strategists should seek to be fluent in different topics, industries.
Although it feels counterintuitive to use a model to replace a model, at least Mike’s incumbent concept is closer to a flow than a fixed form.
I’m not sure there’s a shape to the ideal skill set. If I were to give my skill set a shape, it would probably look (and behave) more like a neural net than anything specifically geometric.
I agree that audiences are becoming smarter and more fickle. The pickier they are, the more important it becomes to connect with them in a meaningful way.
Truth is, people don't care about your products the same way as they used to. They care about what’s interesting to them right now. That moment, that instant where indifference wanes and interest piques — that’s our sweet spot
In theory, to be part of what interests people, we need to be interested in people. To be interested in people demands a lot of empathy, a lot of walking in other people’s shoes. And a whole lot of research.
At the same time, strategists need to be able to step back and be objective enough to identify the different insights and motivations that connect brands with consumers in seamless, unobtrusive and effective ways.
In practice, this just means that there’s no real shape for an ideal strategist, just as there’s no ideal strategist.
If you can inspire creativity, and make things that are beautiful, functional and help people solve real challenges, you’re on the right track.
Q: In the article Mike mentions some areas to focus on. What areas are you currently exploring to stay interested and interesting?
“Democratization of information
Internet-connected things
Mobile devices
Business and Innovation
Design
Psychology
Digital anthropology
History
Nature
Semantics and semiotics
Anything sensory related as it affects perception and decision making
Molecular gastronomy
Space exploration
Start Ups & Innovation
Data management”
Q: What should students and graduates, looking to up their chances of breaking into the creative/comms industry, focus on, in terms of skills and knowledge topics?
Michael Koenka: Knowledge and skills aren’t differentiating or interesting. They are the predictable outcomes of attending a university program.
Graduating from a particular school or faculty endows students with roughly the same set of tools, models, knowledge and skills.
These basic capacities are homogenous across the industry, and are of little use when trying to discern a credibly innovative applicant from just another design school graduate.
What matters is what extra value that graduates can bring to the table.
They should be able to comfortably mashup different disciplines, industries, and concepts to relevantly craft meaningful and inspiring creativity.
Understanding the nature of insights, the importance of research, and the power of business development is crucial to being an effective creative at any level.
Focus on people.
Learn to read behavior.
Study life and living.
Dance like nobody is watching.
Set a vision and stick to it no matter what (especially in the shitty times).
Q: With the way that tech, design, comms and product development are merging, what would you advise 20 year old Mike, who, asked you where to work: ad agency, startup, something different?
Michael Koenka: Keep studying human behavior, because behind the screen will always be a real person.
Understand how people think, what leads them to feel one way or another, and what motivates them to act or change behavior.
That way, whether working in an ad agency, startup, government agency, corporate organization or anywhere else, you’ll always have the tools you’ll need to succeed.
Listening to people’s needs, wants and desires isn't just good business, it’s the key to building strong, meaningful and durable relationships. It’s how people live, or at the very least should seek to live their lives.
How to turn meaning into success depends on the industry you're in, and the type of person you might be.
Corporates might need more politicking, ad agencies might need clear consumer profiles, and startups might need clear articulation of pain points.
Whichever way you cut it, it always comes down to the meaningful juxtaposition of people and place.
Most importantly, I’d tell 20 year old Michael that if he'd like to be a part of something that has a positive impact on people’s lives, and provides tangible results you can see/feel/touch, then the government is certainly not the right place to reach that goal. At least not before you’re 50.
Also, I'd tell him to buy some serious stock in that ‘Google’ thing. Just because.
Thank you Michael
“Where the puck is going” is an interview series by GapJumpers. We ask people we like and find interesting to share some thoughts. Whenever we find someone willing to answer our questions, we'll feature them. If you'd like to stay updated on more stories, please follow the collection.
