Hey advertising creatives! Allow me to let you all in on a little secret about the future of the ad business. Are you ready? Here it goes…

The future is digital.

Okay, okay, maybe that isn’t such a revelation. But it wasn’t that long ago when things like super-interactive websites, mobile content and social networking were mere buzzwords, shiny new baubles on the peripheral of your 30 TV spot centred campaign. You weren’t tweeting two years ago, you weren’t Facebooking three years ago, you weren’t YouTubing five years ago.

But five years ago, Michael Lebowitz was already getting set to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Big Spaceship, the digital creative shop he founded out in Brooklyn, NYC. And even before Big Spaceship, Michael was tooling about in a digital realm while the rest of us were still on dial-up.

Nowadays the ad world is embracing digital (in practice or in theory) and Michael is at the forefront, guiding us newcomers to the digital creative revolution and learning a thing or three about Madison Avenue in the process. We had a chance to chit-chat with the man about his early beginnings, the birth of Big Spaceship, and his thoughts on living peacefully with the “traditional” ad world.

READ INTERVIEW HERE

In an attempt to spread the light on the future generation of the employment force, I’ve decided to keep a loose diary on my experiences/thoughts of the professional world (namely marketing, advertising, and PR related). This is the first entry.

Internships are a no brainer. Especially if you are still a college student. They provide not just job experience, but also insight into the real world — at all angles.  You see in college, and I say this with first hand knowledge, things are unintentionally shielded from your young virgin eyes. Coursework teaches you the terms and practices, but rarely does it teach you how those terms and practices are actually put to use or how they tend to change on a daily basis.  And that is the biggest problem I wish to point out here.

With technology advancing so rapidly, it is so important to be able to stay in touch with the change.  The world is digital now. However, in my five years of school, I did not take a single course on digital technology. And I’m not just talking about how to use twitter or facebook (a small child can figure that out). I’m talking about how these technologies are changing the world. I’m talking theories and trends and how you can use them to create a community. I’m sure as I say this, many colleges are quickly changing their strategy, but I’m sure many aren’t.  Which is why it is so important for the student to make up for this. Please bookmark all the technology sites, blogs, whatever. Start with Mashable.com. It’s pretty much amazing. Code your own website. It doesn’t have to be amazing. Simpler is better. Check out all new media outlets, and figure out how to utilze them. How do stories become top stories on digg.com? How does a single youtube video, along with the billion other videos, get noticed? I’m not saying there is one single answer for these, but it is something to think about. Traditional advertising is done. The only people who take it seriously are people in advertising. It is important now, to be able to have a two way conversation with your audience. Listen, learn, talk.

Check out these schools, as they are among the best in the digital world:

Boulder Digital Works at CU

VCU Brandcenter

Hyper Island