CATFOA #3 - Anders Sjostedt, Hyper Island USA: "F*CK DIGITAL"

Join us for the third session of Conversations About The Future Of Advertising on Monday, April 4, 2011 when we welcome Hyper Island USA Managing Director Anders Sjostedt (@anderssjostedt).

Based on Hyper Island's very recent experience counseling marketing and ad agency executives, it's easy to understand why agencies express worries their digital efforts arent sufficient. In fact, whole floors of agency executives hope to retirewithout really having to care about all that new technology stuff. The sentimentally inclined lament the loss of art and beauty in their work, often laying the blame on data, measurements and Facebook chats.

Meanwhile, CMOs are equally worried theyre not able to ask the right questions when being presented with Google search optimization strategies, that they dont know how to trust the increasing flurry of agencies that advise them through more fragmented channels.

What most agency and marketing leaders have in common is that they really just want the whole digital thing to go away. But there is still room for beauty and enchantment, argues Sjostedt. Everything doesnt have to be squeezed into 140 characters. Digital is not the message.

What digital does is change the way societies, humans, and consumers interact. We have to build our organizations accordingly. Creativity doesnt have to suffer, but be sure, both you and your organization will have to get ready for a serious digital, uhm, f*ck.

Based in Sweden, Hyper Island is a global leader in training within the digital/interactive field. As the Managing Director of Hyper Island USA, Anders Sjostedt is in charge of building and expanding the organization throughout the US and heading the companys Global Business Development. Previously, Anders was Director at Swedish Creative Industries and CEO of Sweden's largest business incubator, Minc.