For sure, the best way to learn new media is by doing. But rather than a thought process of “We Gotta Make Banners,” our writing/art/concept mojo will always be the most important thing to improve on.

Sally Hogshead and others have truthfully pointed out that any kind of marketing technology or media is a tactic, not an idea. Any tactic, no matter how new and shiny it may be, still needs a great strategy and a great idea behind it. Tactics without ideas and strategy tend to fall flat. Example: Big-name brands leaping into social media without an idea behind it, resulting in a resounding thud.

Of course, we still need to push ourselves to learn the new tech, so we can apply our skills to it and help this business evolve.

Idealism is wonderful. I’m filled with it myself. But yes… if you have interactive work, it should be in your book. Before I had interactive I loved, I had interactive I didn’t. That’s just the way it goes. I’ve now started my own shop, and as you can imagine get 100 emails a week from young creatives looking for work. I wish I could hire everyone, but the reality is… what my passionate desire is, and my business need is are different. And, my business NEED is the capability to work across all mediums, particularly interactive. Concept will never be dead. Ever. But the package it comes in has changed. I’m in my mid 30s, a copywriter by trade, and I am trying to learn HTML.

But, if you’re seeing the tide change, why not take the time off you have and, say, take a Flash class? Or even just read some books and hit the web if the class is too much $$. If you don’t have banners you’re proud of, then just re-do your own portfolio site in a more elegant and functional manner. Show of your web skills THERE. (I think a lot of creatives fail to realize that today, you’re judged on the quality of your site, not just the work it showcases. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should reflect an affection for the digital space, be easy to navigate and give a good a sense of your work.)

But maybe the bigger question is: don’t you WANT to learn these skills? Do you view it as a hassle? If you aren’t excited to learn them, that’s fine, just aim your career in a direction that suits what you WANT to be doing. I’m a writer, and learned HTML back in 2000 just because I genuinely thought it was cool. A lot of people thought I was wasting my time on it, but I just really geeked out on it, regardless of what I would gain from it professionally. And yet, eventually, it really set me up for the latter half of my career.

You’re partially right. To succeed today, you need to be as passionate about creating a LinkedIn program as you are about getting a shot at TV. You never know where either idea will lead. Further, there’s no such thing as a “digital creative” or a “traditional creative.” Every piece of communication is digital now, from billboards to magazine ads. By that I mean: if your work isn’t leading to a digital on-ramp, it’s sitting there.

Not all traditional people can learn to think that way. But I’ve also observed that few digital thinkers can handle that equation from the other direction: just because they can come up with a cool flash animation, doesn’t mean they know how to bring people to its entrance. They don’t know how to get the attention of people who don’t want to be bothered.

Learn all the digital tools you can, by all means. Learn to integrate your thinking into the digital landscape. But never stop selling yourself as someone who comes up with the big ideas all the little ideas fall out of. That kind of thinking never goes out of style, and it transcends media.

Golublog, yes, as a copywriter, you should know how to at least write HTML code, so you can turn your copy over in a web ready format. As a copywriter I’ve been asked to do so from time to time since around 1996. It’s a simple skill that makes you more marketable.

It’s very likely the ad industry is not going to bounce back to the levels it was five / ten short years ago. There simply may not be the need for as many creative people in the field for many years coming. Are the newspaper or magazine industries ever really coming back? No. Many are folding. No one reads them anymore. Thus less places to put ads. Less need for creatives to make ads.

That being said, people who say they desire to continue working in advertising (like Cristin) must increase their skills and learn Flash or whatever it takes to make yourself more competitive in the job market. There will still be an ad or two to write for a mag, but the shift is to the internet. Shift with it.