Home /Featured Articles / Tips From a Creative Director: How Technology Increases Our Employee Engagement
By Vincent Kao, NEXT.0 Senior Creative Director
When I first started working in advertising, I noticed just how busy everyone was. Someone would be rushing to get to a meeting, hurrying to a film shoot, or frantically finding props for a set. Because of this lack of resources, I had to wear many hats. I remember once I was tasked with directing a commercial. The people on set were nervous and apprehensive about my inexperience, and rightly so. At the end of the day, I had to give the Creative Director Polaroid photos of the shoot and he was not impressed. A lot of things were missing or wrong due to the lack of communication.
Being a Creative Director myself now, I see just how important communication is within an agency; things get complex quickly and it’s important not to miss any crucial details
Recently, our agency added a new device from Google to our conference room. Jamboard works like a 55-inch tablet that allows you to project displays and directly scribble notes on the screen. These two features alone, along with its stylish design, were enough to persuade me to replace the common whiteboard and TV in the meeting room.
We let a new Account Executive (AE) handle a TV commercial shoot where he needed to be on set and we needed to be in the office. As soon as the AE got to the shoot, he was overwhelmed and immediately created a Google Hangouts session and shared all the materials he got from onsite with the Jamboard app.
As a result, we collaborated via Jamboard. He shared with us the four different outfits the stylist had in mind and the photos immediately appeared on the digital whiteboard in our conference room. The Art Director was able to immediately discuss the options with the copywriter. After selecting the best photo, they were able to collaborate on-screen by enlarging the image, rotating it, and adding a frame. They were even able to draw and write directly on the screen.
The Art Director was able to quickly add the client’s logo and products through Jamboard’s built-in Internet and Gallery Search function. With the Google Hangouts Meet video conference function, he was also able to direct the model and production crew in great detail, almost as if he was there on the set. The final approval had to come from the ECD who was on vacation. He was able to join the jam session with Jamboard app to quickly communicate with his team and get the case closed.
Some methods may never go out of style, but it doesn’t mean we become stagnate in our creative approach. Jamboard has dramatically changed the way we work, increase team engagement, and it is now an essential part of our work and we wonder how we ever managed without it. It’s almost like if I had to go back to using a flip-phone phone after years of using a smartphone.
