No one can predict the future, but these days it’s hard to predict what even tomorrow will look like, especially in business. Think about how much has changed in the past five years alone. Great brands and industries have either fallen or reinvented themselves, 800 million people are using a product that was created in a dorm room in 2004, and you’re probably walking around with a powerful touchscreen computer in your pocket.

I just finished reading Fast Company’s cover story “Generation Flux” (February 2012) and it really drove home the point that today’s businesses need to constantly adapt, pivot, experiment, take risks and really embrace the chaos we all live in. It’s not going away, and refusing to adapt could be disastrous.

Adam and I have talked about this a lot over the past year, how we could never have predicted the type of work we’re now doing at Elemental when we started up six years ago. Both coming from the world of broadcast television, we knew things were changing and the industry we were in wasn’t stable or adapting quickly enough (which is why I left). But we couldn’t have predicted how fast things would change.

In the past year, we’ve partnered with a researcher at Harvard Medical School to develop facial recognition software for digital signage. We’re developing proprietary client communications software that we plan on monetizing next year. We’re creating an iPad app for a national kids’ television show. Six years ago, I never thought I’d be reading books on Agile and iterative software development, and developing use cases and wireframes instead of storyboards, but that’s the reality we’re now in.

Many industries, businesses, and educational institutions are clinging to the past, many are even nostalgic for what used to be, when times were simpler. The Fast Company article makes the point that “nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before.” But the reality is that the world has changed, and we need new parameters.

The promise Elemental makes to you is that we won’t rely on our past to determine our future. We’ll take what we know, and use intuition and the constant development of new skills to keep moving forward. We’ll welcome new forks in the road and enjoy the journey along the way.

We’ll embrace new technology and new ways of communicating, but human connections and strong storytelling will always be at the core of what we do, whether that be through a strategy, a video, an app or an interface. We’ll never lose sight of that.

We’ll encourage our clients to take more risks and try new things. Some will join us and some will stay the course, and that’s okay.

We’ll never stop learning, exploring, and being curious. We’ll embrace chaos, and allow it to take us and our clients in new directions.

I’ll end this post the same way that the Fast Company article closes, by quoting Charles Darwin:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

This rapid rise of new tools and media has even lead some to declare that “advertising is dead.” While we don’t agree with this claim, we do feel that the rules have changed.

Traditional advertising pushes a message out to the masses in hopes that someone (please, anyone!) will see it. It interrupts the content you really want to see with hopes that you’ll put up with it and pay at least a little bit of attention to the sponsored interruption.

The thing is, today’s consumer has little patience and tolerance for these tactics, and far too many ways to avoid them.

To reach this audience, we’ve got to stop pushing, and start connecting and offering value. We’ve got to stop interrupting, and start listening and interacting. Really, we’ve got to become more human, more personal.

We have so many new tools, and new ways of engaging with customers, we’d be foolish to ignore them. At Elemental, we’re focusing on seeking out these opportunities for consumer engagement with every project we undertake, creating experiences rather than interruptions, and relationships rather than impressions.

We’re also committing to experimenting more, with our creative and our strategies. We’re going to keep poking and exploring, and trying new things.

We are in a new age of advertising. We hope you’ll join us.

This series of short videos we produced for Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation was one of those projects. Our goal with these videos was to give viewers an intimate look into the lives of just a few of the families helped by the Foundation, and urge viewers to share the videos via social media, to help build awareness and donations.

The Foundation provides services, support and equipment such as custom walkers, bikes, leg braces and prosthetics, all of which helps these kids live life to the fullest. What most people don’t realize is that much of this equipment is made available to these families through donations to the Foundation. And seeing the impact these specialized devices have on these children is amazing.

We hope you enjoy the videos, and please do share them and consider a donation to the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation.

Andrew’s Story

Ashley and Hope’s Story

Garrett’s Story

Elemental had a blast creating this animated show opening for Planet Echo, a kids’ TV series that will air in January 2011 on APTN and Knowledge Network. Planet Echo is fast-paced, green-themed show aimed at tweens, so our challenge was to create an impact in the short opening that reflects the show’s brand and energy.

Planet Echo is also home to a number of short segments, all living under the Planet Echo umbrella, and we were given the task of creating short segment openings for each. The segments all have different themes and tones, so we essentially created six different brands, with a few shared design elements.

We also took this approach to the Planet Echo website, which we’re also developing; each segment will have its own branded microsite with a shared back end and feature set. The TV series and the website will launch in the new year.

Big thanks to Dennis Tam and Systematic Design for developing the 3D landscapes.