We invite colleagues, competitors, clients and other skilled people from (or relevant for) the industry, for a coffee. Today’s guest is David Prentell, new Planner at McCann Oslo. In his past he has helped bring Nike Training Club, NatWest’s iPad banking experience and Nike 6.0 global social presence to life. He is passionate about shaping strategies to get colleagues and clients excited about fresh ideas, insights, trends and technology. On his spare time he tweets about things he is inspired by @Prentell and tries to capitalize on the stellar global growth of the smartphone with a co-joint venture, Tatchies, a touchscreen friendly glove for people living in cold countries.

What inspires you?

Entrepreneurs, agencies and brands bold enough to think that they can make a difference in the world by empowering people with tools that make their lives easier and/or more entertaining.

How do you keep exploring and learning?

I put myself into scenarios out of my own comfort zone. It can be anything from having an Youtube ‘show-&-tell’ with a 13 year old cousin, to having a discussion with the marketing director of a Fortune 500 company or to move from a megacity like London, to a smaller one like Oslo and observe the cultural differences. In fact, a study made by psychologist William Glazer proved that we recall best when we are involved.

We recall;
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss with others
80% of what we experience personally
90% of what we teach to someone else

When where you amazed last?

Every now and then I tend to take a sneak peak into student portfolios, you’d be amazed to see the creativity in some of the works that I’ve seen lately. Here is a piece done by two students at Miami Ad School Hamburg, asking the question on how to promote a flower delivery service, in an age where people rather gift their friends with a Facebook message for their birthday, over say a flower;

Wouldn’t you like to buy a flower like that for your friend’s birthday?

What is your favourite resource library?

Well, if you think about the study, that would mean that the people that constantly expose themselves to interesting people, learns better than those that just reads interesting books in isolation? I’m definitely a people person.

What’s the biggest challenge the digital communications industry is facing right now, and do this lead you to some predictions?

Some markets (such as the automotive, home appliances, technology and energy industries e.g) are moving into the next ‘phase’ in the digital era, where everything is converging, systems are starting to speak with systems and intelligent platforms crunches data and contextually visualizes these to the consumer’s delight.

Just as people, the majority of digital agencies will be lagging behind with the ‘why fix something that isn’t broken’ mentality, there will of course be the early adopters that are seeking success stories to adopt and there will be the smaller group of innovators that dare to fail and put themselves out of their comfort zone in their quest for getting it right. My prediction in this dynamic world of new behaviors and technologies is that the digital agencies that don’t take a decision on which way to walk the talk, will sooner rather than later find themselves having to invest a lot of money to get it right again.

I’m not sure which one that is – but if I would to take a guess – it would be to help your clients to become more efficient, not only in communications, but also in establishing trust, look ahead and together find out how to evolve their business model into something sustainable and future proof. Wherever I’m going you can probably count out that this is where I’m trying to go.