Digital Disruption! An Appreciation of Hand-Written Letters and Traditional Holiday Cards – Brian Jacobs

And we39re back Welcome to 2015 may it bring you every success and happiness And I hope you stay with me as I attempt to deliver another year of insightful infuriating irritating Cog BlogsIn amongst all the Christmas and New Year festivities I received a letter It was not formatted nor was it from the taxman Rather it was handwritten from a good friend It made me feel really good not just its content but the fact that in this day and age of emails and Facebook posts someone had taken the time and trouble to sit down and write me a letterOne of the remarks that most resonated with me from 2014 came in Sir John Hegarty39s interview at Cannes when he coined the phrase quotThe Digital Talibanquot Hegarty39s point was the sense that if you don39t agree with the digital Messiahs you are at the very least due some form of public humiliation Not perhaps the most PC of remarks but he39s right in suggesting that there does exist this sense that anyone not uptospeed with the very latest gizmo platform or technique is somehow marked down as inadequateA couple of LinkedIn posts over the holidays illustrated this rather well First The CocaCola Company decided to do away with voicemails citing a need to increase productivity in the workplace as the reason There39s nothing wrong with that of courseAndrew Grill a thoughtful blogger and a prolific one it seems given his claim to have quot170 blog posts currently in draft that I am hoping to finish over the Christmas breakquot promptly leapt onto LinkedIn you can read his post here to explain that he hasn39t used VM since 1991 He says he got tired of having quotto spend literally minutes getting to a message then having to WRITE DOWN his capitals the number of the callerquotOnce I realized that this was not written ironically and having thought about it for a minute and came to the conclusion that as a matter of fact I find voicemail to be pretty useful I became quite Hegartyesque Why should the Andrew Grill way be posited as the best wayDigital evangelists are all very well after all someone needs to evangelize about the many new tools and techniques out there even if only so that the rest of us don39t have to spend hours bored rigid at trade shows But there39s a difference between being enthusiastic about something and spreading the word for the greater benefit of all and sneering at those who I suspect the worst offenders see as those whose opinions should be discounted as they clearly quotcan39t be bothered to keep upquotThe letter I received brought me much pleasure rather more than if the exact same content had been contained in an email or FB post I also admit to the charge of sending out Christmas cards in the mail and to gaining pleasure from hearing from friends via their cards Certainly oldfashioned cards are more gratifying than those endless ecards most of which I deleted without even looking at them We also had a real Christmas tree although I suppose we could have put a giant TV with a live streamed picture of a designerdecorated tree in its place and if that service doesn39t yet exist then I bet it will by next ChristmasI also gained a great deal of value from Facebook Twitter LinkedIn streamed news services websites emails blogs and the rest Even voicemail messages have their place After all if you travel often it39s nice to be able to hear your children39s voices whenever you want toThe point is of course that different communication channels are good at conveying different messages and stirring different emotions As channels devices and vehicles proliferate we increasingly need to understand the power that comes from linking a great idea to the most appropriate channel2015 will be a year when ideas come to the fore and techniques and gizmos are seen to be just that the method by which ideas are given form In other words 2014 may have been the year of the digital trader and the middleman 2015 will be the year of the plannerBrian Jacobs spent over 35 years in advertising media and research agencies including spells at Leo Burnett UK EMEA International Media Director Carat International Managing Director Universal McCann EMEA Director and Millward Brown EVP Global Media He has worked in the UK EMEA and globally out of the USA His experience covers shifts from fullservice ad agencies to media agencies from traditional singlecommercialchannel TV to multifaceted digital channels and from media planning to multidisciplinary communication planning Brian can be reached at brianbjandacom Read all Brian Jacobs39 MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Brian Jacobs Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerPhoto at top courtesy of freedigitalphotosnetThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and 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