Hasta La Creative!

Earlier this year, an ad agency in Japan brought on a robot to work as its new creative director. Then in June, said robot came up with its very first ad, which attempts to sell breath mints by telling the tale of a shaggy dog who learns how to fly as glittering, minty-fresh dog breath spews from his mouth. While the “hiring” has attracted mockery, the situation is also eerily prescient — the creative director role is growing more indebted to technology every day. I predict that in ten years, we’ll still have people who technically have the creative director title, but the job itself will look entirely different.

Today, most ad agencies are still stuck five to ten years in the past when it comes to the creative director role. Creative directors continue to do things the way they’ve always done them: mapping the brand’s identity, putting together Photoshop comps that demonstrate a couple of different variations on an ad, and then dusting off their hands.

But that’s simply not enough for today’s marketing reality, and it certainly won’t be enough in five to ten years. Both the skillset necessary for the job and the conceptual ground covered by the job are shifting, and fast.

Continue reading at AdAge.com