By  @EytanDGSmith

A while ago, Creative Social hosted an event at our office and handed out free copies of Hacker Maker Teacher Thief to the three most gifted Tweeters at the event.

Yes, I got one of them. Follow me @EytanDGSmith to find out why.

But I digress.

The book is made up of essay entries from the advertising industry’s crème de la crème, predicting the future of our profession. Naturally Patrick Collister featured. “You Luck B***ards” is a rallying war cry for young Creatives to resist mediocrity and embrace the potential the digital age has provided us.

In it, he argues that advertising has grown into a far more powerful and influential industry, more interesting than ever before. Creatives have more opportunities to create content that inspires their audience. Agencies are more capable and interested in changing behaviour for the better. Brands are moving away from their isolating product truths and heading towards audience-relevant human truths.

On a selfish note, as advertisers we have never been more like artists than we are now. On an altruistic note, we can really make the world a better place.

I whole-heartedly believe Collister is right.

The future of advertising is exciting, especially for all the reasons above. I do have one concern though: Why can’t all agencies see the world that Collister sees? Is Collister simply analysing the world he sees? Or is he a Visionary? But more pressingly, why do agencies keep putting horribly two-dimensional campaigns out?

We should no longer try to rely on a pretty, product-truth TV ad. Even if we include other ‘above-the-line media’ channels, or host a boring and consumer-irrelevant discussion about a brand’s product on Twitter. We just can’t expect to change behaviour with that sort of approach.

So what I learnt from Collister’s essay is to find an agency with a track record of producing customer-centric integrated campaigns and a team of Creative Directors who share Collister’s belief in the potential of advertising.

To finish on the same invigorating note as Mr. Collister did in his chapter:

“You are the change-makers. The what-iffers, the experimentalists. The creative geeks. You are making a difference.

And that is why you are lucky b***ards”.