We are living in a very empowering time in history during which the ability to adapt and take advantage of change supersedes experience. For an established creative director, the zeitgeist is at once challenging and electrifying. It forces the reevaluation of everything you’ve learned and offers the opportunity for a new beginning. The urge to start over, after all, has always been central to the creative persona.
In 2003, I set out to reinvent myself.
I quit a comfortable job as creative director of the New York office of the world’s largest advertising agency to become an entrepreneur. My first client was NEC, a $41 billion technology conglomerate with a reputation for taking a 360° approach to massive technical challenges. Inspired by their approach, I unleashed my own predilection for developing creative concepts designed to work all the way from customers’ TV screens to their computer monitors. Through that experimentation
with digital, traditional, and nontraditional marketing, a philosophy was born.
Enter Integrationism.
Integrationism is a term I use for the art and science of mixing a potent cocktail of media and content into a marketing program far greater than the sum of its parts. From early on, my business has been dedicated to finding ways to turn this philosophy into reality—even if for just a single project. Slightly ahead of its time then, integration is practically a necessity today. Customers demand it, and agencies and marketers are doing their best to adjust to the speed of the integrated world. Many are doing an admirable job, but most lack the right orientation and personnel to take full advantage.
