Marketing is in the midst of a true paradigm shift, in the way described by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. That is, there’s a struggle going on in the marketplace of marketing ideas between “traditional marketing”, or what’s always seemed to work, and new types of marketing that maybe haven’t existed before, or have a new importance.

The problem is, people and society are changing. Many are tuning out traditional marketing; they’re too busy or too empowered compared to last year. Technology at all levels have created new ways for people engage with media…and create and distribute their own media. This blog discusses those things.

Join us in the conversation. Let’s talk about how the world is changing.

Contributors:

Andy Hunter
A Planning Director at GSD&M, Andy leads GSD&M’s development of Connections Planning practices within the Marketplace Planning Group. Mining insights about real world and virtual consumer experience, Andy assists agency account planners and media experts to develop touchpoint marketing strategy, messaging architecture and branded media concepts. He is co-creator of GSD&M’s Involve Study Methodology, arguably the agency world’s first independent brand communication research that tracks media, influence, lifestyle and purchasing behavior. He was a recent speaker at MIT’s Futures of Entertainment Conference.

His work has spanned across agency accounts including BMW, Kohler, Wal-Mart, and American Legacy Foundation. Previous to GSD&M Andy worked at Ogilvy Mather, Y&R/Wunderman and Hill Holliday on American Express, Sears, and Kraft General Foods.

Outside the world of marketing Andy spends his other waking hours feeding a Flickr addiction, and exploring the world of emerging music, technology, design. You can contact Andy via email at andy_hunter (at) gsdm(dot) com.

Rad Tollett
Rad stabbed himself in the foot with a pitchfork at the age of 8. By age 12, he had accidentally punctured his skin with sharp pencils a total of five times (once in the eyelid). At 27, after a tree limb lodged into his right tibialis anterior, Rad became the first person in the history of Disc Golf to experience an on-field medical emergency. Just recently, he attempted to remove a hornet’s nest from under the eve of his house and somehow broke his left elbow.  Needless to say, the hornets won that round

Given his track record, he now wears a helmet, steel-toed shoes and shin guards at all times

When not challenging the innocuousness of everyday objects, Rad provides strategic insight as a Connections Planner for some of Idea City’s largest clients: AT&T, Southwest Airlines, Kohler, and Norwegian Cruise Line. Outside of client-specific duties, he is the primary contributor of Idea City’s blog (http://blog.ideacity.com) and is prone to pontificate on the effects of post-industrialism in human- and corporate-behavior. Unfortunately, these interests will not help Rad get over his fears of sharp, inanimate objects.Rene Huey-Lipton
The Director of Planning at GSD&M Rene counts herself lucky to be part of such a smart group of people. That and there’s enough wierdo’s that she herself pales by comparison.

Grew up on a cattle ranch “off the grid” in Oregon. Muddled through school. Fell into advertising. Found her calling in ‘planning’. Found her home at GSD&M.

Loves action movies, cuddly pajamas, reallllllly good ideas, books, “advertising” that makes her think, the Clash, poking the bear and making other people think, Steve Earle, the promise of effective mass collaboration, thinking in future perfect and yes, Neil Diamond.

Chris Seaberg
Chris came to GSD&M Idea City right out of grad school in 2006 and hasn’t looked back. He’s officially a “specialist” of information, but enjoys being curious, reading random blogs, movies at Alamo drafhouse and any and everything tech. On the weekends you may find Chris sitting on a couch in front of his computer or, if the A/C breaks, outside walking aimlessly to nowhere.

His story starts in 1981 when he was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma (eeesh). He decided he didn’t want to be depressed anymore so his family moved to  Fort Worth, Texas where he would do most of his growing up. He enjoyed a Sandlot childhood until he moved to Austin in 2000 to attend UT. There he gained an affinity for computer games and not hanging out with girls. In 2004 he started the advertising graduate program where he learned that sleep really isn’t mandatory, coffee is his best friend and hanging out with girls is better than computer games.

Chris loves his work and, most fortunately, the people he works with. Currently he spends his extra time with his girlfriend (booyah) and trying to learn CSS and web design. If you’re lucky enough you might see him sitting at Seattle’s Best clicking randomly throughout Adobe GoLive trying to get his website to not suck.

The Agency:

More about the agency we’re all a part of here: