The New Normal

My senior year in college I was part of an Honor’s Course. Simply put, the course was open to English Majors who maintained an A in all composition and literature, and an A- in all other course work. You met with the Head of the Department the first week in the first semester your senior year, were interviewed (and graded, but the grade would be announced after the written finals at the close of the semester), were handed your assignments and wished good luck.

Then you had five months to complete X number of papers on poetry, your choice of subject (like comparing periods of English Lit or major poets of a country and their influence), why comic books are an important genre, contemporary playwrights and more. And 70 books of required reading. There was an oral exam in front of the whole English teaching staff on top of the three hour written exam. But that was five months out!

You never went to class, no one checked up on your progress or lack thereof, you were totally on your own. More than once through the years that course took down some very bright students who did not know how to work on their own, and tried at the last minute to cram all that work into viable papers and “dance” through the orals.

If the internet had existed then, those students would have fared better. Some may have passed. Shame to be an A student and not graduate with honors because of procrastination. I lived in the library, my little VW bug had so many books in it, there was no room for a passenger. If Google had been my constant companion instead, what a breeze that course would have been. Looking back on it was it worth it? While it was prestigious to say you were in the Honor’s Course, the toll it took in terms of time and energy was staggering. I will admit it forced a discipline on me that serves me to this day.

At DDA, not a day goes by that each of us does not rely on the internet for information, verification of facts, inspiration for concepts, weather, news, “what’s up” with the competition just to name a few reasons to pull up Google. Like it our not, the proliferation of technological advances has changed the way we function in our everyday world and slowly it is changing the way B to B and B to C companies think, witness the questions about interactivity. While too many still consider this a phenomenon for entertainment (games, games, games), smart advertising agencies like DDA have been adding it to our services mix for years, and finally it is being ramped up in more than one area, meaning video, CDs, website development.

So for anyone needing to boost their presence in the marketing arena, ask DDA, and give our business development team at least an hour to share the interactivity phenomenon and its relevance to your business.

Entry by: elizabeth