We invite colleagues, competitors, clients and other skilled people from (or relevant for) the industry, for a coffee. Todays guest is Snorre Martinsen, who has worked for as a Creative Strategist at Naked Nordic & C/E Europe, CD & Art director MK – currently working as a Senior Creative at Saatchi&Saatchi in Oslo. Snorre grew up in Rælingen, a small place just outside Oslo.A place where you either played football or did graffiti and skateboarded growing up. The latter seemed the best fit for Snorre, and was what eventually got him into art school, but not nearly serious enough to consider becoming an artist. So, as most not so serious artists, in Norway, he ended up studying Art direction at Westerdals.

What inspires you?

Anything can be inspiring. I’m a curious person, so I can find inspiration in the most mundane of things. That includes – but is not restricted to – single lost shoes on the sidewalk, dusty books, great meals, bubble wrap or Sunday morning walks of shame. Areas I more specifically seek out for inspiration however, are generally focused around a variety of arts, technology and advertising subjects. And the source list would be of biblical proportion. For the sake of our readers, let’s just wrap it and say ‘the internet’.

How do you keep exploring and learning?

I’m a huge internet dork, a complete Instagram addict and twitterholic. Effectively, exploration has reached an almost involuntary stage. People are curating awesomeness better than ever before, something recently elevated through organized visual bookmarking services like Gimmebar and Kontribit.

A lot of my time outside of work, I spend talking about other peoples work . So I’d say my teachers are my peers. You basically don’t get smarter going at it on your own. It’s one of the most obvious weaknesses related to the old agency team structures. To be a bit clichéd, knowledge is power. Which in turn makes it painfully obvious that locking art & copy in a dark room with paper and sharpie – won’t get you the best intergraded work. Not even if they’re on an Inkling.

When where you amazed last?

In the supermarket. I was contemplating what would be the better choice for my new toothbrush, and realized I’d been doing so for the better part of 10 minutes.

What is your favourite resource library?

That would depend on what kind of resource I was seeking. If it were news on technology, I’d say my G+ tech circle. If it was advertising, Twitter. Say I was to find a great place to stay for a weekend in Amsterdam, I’d go with Airbnb. And for advice on life, hands down, it’ll always be my mother.

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

On a industry level, I’m quite sure it’s ever one thing alone. But one reoccurring issue is simply keeping up. We spend huge amounts of time keeping tabs on new media, services and technological development. And getting to a point where you can master the constant armada of emerging platforms can be tolling. Change is good however, and a lot of the smaller or more nimble agencies are more or less there. Figuring out where to attract (the right) talent though, is what seems to be next on the agenda.

From a creative’s point of view. I’d say it’s the same old storytelling versus execution challenge. Medias change, but the essence remains the same. It’s about conveying your message in an inspiring way that people care about. On that note there’s a huge focus on technology in advertising. And weather or not the innovations race is driving creativity.
I actually just wrote a post on the subject the other day, up on ihaveanidea. Ultimately it concludes we’re moving into more sensory based communication. Where simply throwing new combinations up in the air, let’s see things from a fresh perspective. So if I am to predict anything, It’ll be that we’ll continue to see a lot of experimentation with cross platform, sensory based communication solutions.