A few days of celebrating creativity

Unfortunately we don’t have a culture that celebrates creativity and being different very much. Therefore, the few days of creative celebration that the Kristal Elma advertising festival provides is very valuable for me. It brings the creative industry together and lets them know that their work is appreciated. Of course, there is lots more to be done perhaps, but in the climate that we are living in, this festival is like a breath of fresh air. 

Also, the festival gives us lots of valuable insights into how we live and how we use our time in social media as companies like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter are inseparable from the advertising industry. 
YouTube announced that 58 percent of Turkish people use their time on YouTube for entertainment and 47 percent use it to learn stuff.  

Some 77 percent of Twitter users in Turkey use the outlet daily. Since last September, the rise in watched videos was 220 percent. The number of GIFs increased threefold at the same time. Some 87 percent of users have engaged with one or more brands over Twitter at some point in time. 

Facebook announced that in three years, video content will be 75 percent of the content created.
 
These are amazing insights into our current culture. 

It would be very easy to guess the rise of video as a new medium of content delivery but the increase in the number of newly created videos and the sheer volume of them is staggering. 

Furthermore, I would have guessed there were many fewer people who are watching YouTube to learn something. I am very happy with the 47 percent. 

This is a very strong trend globally. People are learning languages, coding and building stuff from YouTube.

The recent rise in the maker communities in Turkey might be partly due to this trend as well. 

Meanwhile, Mehmet İçağasıoğlu from FOX declared that they see a future where AI speaks to AI. 

That is probably why the biggest media buying companies are trying to acquire programmatic buying companies and successful ad networks. 

All in all, it is safe to say that the art of advertising has changed so much that it is almost too dependent on technology. Maybe that’s why we see very good targeting but poor creative output from an industry where more and more young, bright, well-educated free thinkers work. Maybe we really need more than technology to be creative.