It’s that time of year for graduations and weddings, and I had the rare opportunity to experience both in the same week. It caused me to take a moment and reflect how important human relationships are in an increasingly complex, digital world.
As part of my job as CEO of Fuseideas, I’m reading articles every week about Artificial Intelligence, Bitcoin, Facebooks’ latest bouts with Privacy, and all manner of technology and marketing advancements. I’m also reading countless emails and am completely self-absorbed into the day to day of running a fast-paced agency.
During this past week, I also happened into a restaurant for a quick gathering with a colleague after work. I looked around and there were a number of tables where the families or patrons were all sitting at their table, devices in hand and not one of them talking to another. Now granted, I’ve been those people, and I don’t want to anymore. I’ve been thinking about this for a while.
It took a weekend with my family through wedding and graduation parties where I put the phone and computer down and actually spent the weekend engaging on a human level with my wife and two teenage children. My daughter danced with me and told me it was one of the best times of her life because she got to spend time with just me and she said we should talk more often! Not Instagram, not FaceTime, not Snapchat. Talk!
Brands today are losing their way because they think if they shift media away from “traditional”, become more digital and more “social”, they will be relevant. That’s not true. That just pushes brands into the red waters of the “Sea of Sameness.” Brands still need to remind their customers what it’s like to be human.
For the past year, I’ve been working really hard at Fuseideas on our own brand; to define our purpose. We were born digital, so we will always have technology in our blood, but I have been pushing to find the words on what we really are. I needed to answer the question of why people come to work here every day and to remind clients why they work with us. It was what happened this weekend that was the defining moment for me. My “aha” moment.
This is what Fuseideas is all about. It took me 13 years to say what’s been in my head. Fuseideas is not an advertising agency. We never have been. We’ve been more. We have always been a company that helps underserved brands find that human connection point at the intersection of technology, media, and creativity and we do it in a world that is changing faster than most can keep up.
When I was dancing with my daughter, I tested my theory and she said she completely understood the value of a human connection and appreciated I had finally slowed down enough to listen to what was going on in her life. She said her generation needs to do it more and they just need a reason to. This dance was our moment. A chance to slow down, connect and actually remember what it feels like to be human. That’s what we do for brands. Help them slow down just enough to allow them to connect with their customers, but do it in a way that’s authentic to them. That’s why the human connection point is different for every brand.
So, at the end of the day, Fuseideas, the agency I started, is not an advertising agency or even a digital agency. We are a human connection agency. We’ve been doing it for years but I just didn’t know how to describe it until now. It’s who we are and I couldn’t be prouder.
It only took me thirteen years to describe it. Welcome to the human race Dennis, you’ve missed a lot.
