Press

Husani Oakley 3/2/20 Husani Oakley 3/2/20

Marketing Upheaval - Episode 30

Creative Outhouse - Rudy Fernandez

Husani Oakley, Chief Technology Officer of Deutsch joins us to discuss how to create 21st century creative teams, the role of a technologist and how a diverse team is required for an agency’s survival.

Husani Oakley 2/24/20 Husani Oakley 2/24/20

Deutsch New York Promotes Husani Oakley to Chief Technology Officer

Adweek - Minda Smiley

Husani Oakley has been promoted to chief technology officer at Deutsch New York.

Deutsch New York eliminated the role three years ago when Trevor O’Brien, who previously served as CTO, left the agency. Oakley is now taking it on after serving as evp-director of technology and innovation. He first joined Deutsch New York in 2018 as svp-director of technology.

In this role, he will report to Deutsch New York CEO Val DiFebo and work alongside the agency’s strategy, media and creative departments to spearhead technology efforts for clients such as AB InBev, Reebok and Johnson & Johnson. He will also continue to lead Great Machine, Deutsch’s artificial intelligence innovation studio.

Oakley spoke to Adweek about his new role and what exactly a chief technology does at an agency. According to Oakley, the chief technology officer is a “decider” of sorts, helping agencies determine how technology, data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more can be used internally and for client work.

“Creative minds, like Husani, are naturally curious and rarely satisfied with the status quo, which is what makes him the perfect candidate to lead Deutsch’s technology offering,” DiFebo said in a statement. “In addition to advancing our vision, Husani will continue to redefine Deutsch’s digital expertise and align our offerings with the world’s ever-changing business needs.”

Before joining Deutsch, Husani served as chief technology officer at GoldBean, an online investing startup. Throughout his career, he’s also held technology roles at Wieden + Kennedy and Evolution Bureau. Additionally, he’s one of the co-founders of Flavorpill, an event newsletter acquired by Bustle Digital Group two years ago.

Husani Oakley 10/7/19 Husani Oakley 10/7/19

Adland execs say the industry lacks action with diversity

Campaign US - Michael Heusner

Diversity and inclusion has been a hot topic for some time, but progress seems to be stagnating due to a lack of concrete action.

"I think the business case for women has been made," Kristen Cavallo, CEO of The Martin Agency said speaking at a panel for The Female Quotient during ANA Masters of Marketing last week.

"Despite that, the number of women in leadership positions has decreased and so I don’t think it’s rational," she said.

"I think that we benchmark a lot of those companies, and there are a ton of surveys, but it doesn’t seem to be manifesting in change."

But when Cavallo took over as CEO of The Martin Agency in 2017, she immediately shook things up, proving that the issue for others may just be a lack of willpower.

"We did a lot of things. We hired a diversity and inclusion specialist, sponsored pride parades, brought in drag queens, and more. I told my team, ‘Don’t look to what others are doing, because we have to be delusional in our goals and make it happen.’"

"At one point, we realized we didn’t have to ask for permission to implement any of this stuff. We extended paternity leave, paid off student loans… it was like girl’s gone wild for D&I," she said.

But while Cavallo has certainly made an impact, much more needs to be done, as that lack of diversity extends beyond women.

"I’ve spent a lot of time being the 'one' in the room, and years of being the 'one' makes you think, 'Someone should do something about this,’" said Husani Oakley, EVP, director of technology & innovation at Deutsch.

He recalled how being a black man in the industry became increasingly isolating as he moved into a more corporate world.

"When I started out writing code early in my career, nobody knew what type of people should be making things for the internet. They said, ‘Oh you know how to code, come right on in, we’re a big happy family.’"

"But as that changed to more traditionally structured companies getting into those technology builds those old fissions began to pop up, and that's when I felt like I was being taken from room to room as the token minority," he said.

At the end of the day, Cavallo said talk doesn't make change; the industry needs to take action if it wants to make real moves with diversity and inclusion.

Husani Oakley 9/10/19 Husani Oakley 9/10/19

Vivencias

Husani Oakley is an EVP and Director of Technology at Deutsch Inc. Based in New York City, Husani’s global contributions to innovation and rich media products spans various disciplines, garnering recognition around the country such as invitations to speak at the White House by the Obama Administration. As a main feature in Visual Collaborative’s “Vivencias” interview series, Husani discusses the evolution of his work and thoughts on the continuous relationship between humans and technology.

Visual Collaborative - Ade Olufeko

(VC) Tell us about your upbringing and how it relates to your creative perspective of New York City. Have you always been a resident?

(Husani) I grew up twelve miles west of the city limits, in a cute little liberal town in the suburbs of New Jersey. And as a child, most of what I knew about NYC (New York City) I got from television, like everyone else in the world, no matter my physical proximity. Hell, you can stand on certain streets in town and see the skyline, but I thought of The Cosby Show and Night Court and Living Single as taking place somewhere on the other side of the world. NYC was the mysterious city where the parents of friends worked, the sort of place we’d take school trips to, and that’s about it.

Many (many!) years later, I spent a few years living and working in San Francisco, where one of the strangest things I experienced was the famous San Francisco microclimate. There’s something about the ocean and the city’s terrain that lets you leave your house in shorts, but need a sweater by the time you cross the street.

The worldview of towns surrounding New York City seem to have microcultures instead of microclimates. A person who grows up in Town A has an entirely different experience than someone who grows up in Town B, even though both towns are next door to each other, and both towns are 30 minutes away from the center of the universe. And the microcultures that mirror the city — in terms of their energy, their art, their acceptance of difference — tend to have stops on the regional commuter rail.

Some towns have it, some don’t. A direct line into the beating heart of the city. I had friends whose parents took that direct line every day, and they brought a little bit of the city’s energy back with them. But if you drive a few minutes away from your home, into a town without a train station, it’s an entirely different story.

I thrived on diversity. Not the boring, woke, corporate meaning of that word, but the real meaning, the on-the-street meaning, on the exciting mix of microcultures you can only experience here — riding a subway with people from all walks of life, living in a building where people spoke languages I’d never even heard of, working with people who grew up rich, poor, and in-between

So I grew up in a town that accepted art, and creativity, and difference. Perhaps more than the typical American suburb, although I didn’t realize it at the time. I got my first industry job shortly after graduating high school, and as my friends were going off to college, I became like their parents, one of those people taking that direct line into the city every day. The main difference, of course, was that I was incredibly young to be doing so.

After spending more and more time in NYC, it didn’t take me very long to realize a few things that changed the direction of my life:

First, I needed New York City like a plant needs water. This city was where I belonged, and I was surprised that it’d taken my entire life (such that it was at that point) to realize that fact. It wasn’t going to be enough for me to live near the city, I had to be in it, of it.

Second, I thrived on diversity. Not the boring, woke, corporate meaning of that word, but the real meaning, the on-the-street meaning, on the exciting mix of microcultures you can only experience here — riding a subway with people from all walks of life, living in a building where people spoke languages I’d never even heard of, working with people who grew up rich, poor, and in-between. There’s something magical about experiencing the breadth of humanity — every day, multiple times a day — that drove (and continues to drive) my curiosity about the world we live in.

And third, perhaps most importantly, I wanted to — I needed to — make things for/on the Internet. I hadn’t realized that before. Technology was a core part of who I was, but I hadn’t thought it was what I’d end up doing. At the time, the consumer web was just taking off, the dot- com boom just getting started. It was still a strange thing to tell people what I did for a living. No one understood it, least of all, my mother. Everyone thought I’d be successful, but everyone freaked out when I said I’d be successful on the Internet, mainly because no one really knew what that meant. But NYC knew what it meant. It embraced me, and it embraced my dreams, and I haven’t looked back since.

(VC) There is no argument that you are a technology influencer with an impressive background working across many industries. You presently serve as a director of technology for Deutsch Inc, was this a natural career progression for you or it all happened according to a specific plan?

(Husani) I don’t think people should try to plan their exact career path. I certainly didn’t. I was supposed to have ended up a professional musician, and if you talked to teenaged-Husani and told him what I do for a living, he’d probably be surprised and amused.

For most of my late childhood, the plan had always been art — specifically, music — as a primary path, with technology as a strong second. My sax was an extension of my fingers, but my computer was an extension of my brain.

Immediately after high school, I’d been playing in the pit band in a regional theatre production of Cabaret, having the time of my life, and assuming that the rest of my life would pretty much be the same. I got in late one night from a performance, fired up my computer, and started randomly looking at job openings. After a few minutes, I found a post about internships at a “digital agency” (whatever that was — remember, this is 1998) at a company called AGENCY.COM. On a whim, I sent an email with the extremely thin resume of a barely 18 year old kid, and then went to bed.

Late the next morning, I had a response in my inbox, asking me to come in for an interview. A couple of days later, I was an intern. A few weeks into the internship, I was hired as a full-time developer. And the rest is history.

That experience taught me a very important lesson — serendipity is real. You have to leave yourself open to the ebbs and flows of the universe. Sometimes, random opportunities present themselves. We can’t control when or how or why they happen. What we can control, however, and what I’ve done my best to control, is how ready I am to take advantage of those opportunities when they present themselves.

Louis Pasteur said that chance favors the prepared mind, and I believe that to be a truth of our reality. I’ve done my best to be ready — armed with knowledge, armed with the willingness to take risks — so when those doors open, I’m ready to walk through them.

But relying on serendipity alone isn’t enough. Eventually, I decided to think of my career growth in big, high-level themes. Not plans — themes. I’ll spend some time learning a category, then use that knowledge to make something, then learn another category. Rinse and repeat.

(VC) In our present times AI and Big Data are no longer buzzwords but a reality. What are your thoughts on “Transhumanism“. Do you foresee dangers or there are societal benefits to reap from this technology trajectory?

(Husani) We live in the future, and we are on the precipice of this future being utopian or dystopian. What a time to be alive.

First, it’s important to understand the difference between AI, or artificial intelligence, and AGI, artificial general intelligence. Artificial intelligence is what we have now — using machines to detect patterns and signals in data. That’s what powers your GPS, your spellcheck, the ads you see. Artificial general intelligence is another thing entirely, it is creating a conscious machine. Something that can think and learn without human intervention. We are decades away from that.

But let’s say we finally create AGI. What happens then? Science fiction is full of stories based on this moment. We assume we’ve created something in our own image, quite literally, since the technical architecture is based on how the human brain works — if that’s true, what happens to us?

But if we are going by the strict definition of Transhumanism, we’re talking about combining humanity with the tools humanity has made. How do those tools improve our lives? How can a tool be so important that it becomes a part of us? Is that even a good thing? Do we know enough about the universe to do this? Maybe transhumanism is the logical endpoint of the entire history of our toolmaking. Is this any different than replacing a limb? Or an artificial heart? Why do we think the brain is somehow special? So many questions.

I’m not sure I have the answers, but isn’t it exciting to be alive when we’re figuring everything out?

If you don’t know what success means to you, you’ll never know if you’ve achieved it. And you’ll forever have a voice whispering in your head, asking you why you haven’t made it yet. Whatever “it” is.

(VC) As someone who has participated at the White House’s technology events and a proponent of the LGBTQ community in the United States, considerably privileged as well based on your professional experience, what can you candidly tell aspiring young people about success and risk in business?

(Husani) Success does not happen on its own. Success is made by a combination of decisions and luck, with decisions based upon the information you know at the time, and luck based on factors entirely outside your control.

But it all starts with a deceptively simple question: what is your definition of success? Everyone sees success differently, entirely dependent on their particular perspective. For some, success is buying a yacht and naming it after your childhood pet. For others, success is being able to support your family with your art.

But once you know what success means to you — and it really has to be your own personal definition, not based on what you see on Instagram — there’s another important question to answer: how much are you willing to risk in order to achieve it? Because success does not happen without risk.

Are you willing to risk your time? You may spend months on a thing that doesn’t work. Are you willing to risk your relationships, your friends, even your family? You may work so hard on a thing, you see your colleagues more than your partner.

That probably sounds incredibly scary, especially to people who are just starting out. It is scary. But life is scary, creation is scary. Are you willing to risk looking silly by standing up in a meeting and sharing an idea you had the night before? People might not like your idea. People may snicker and say your idea will never work. But what if they don’t? Balancing risk just beyond your comfort zone with your desire to win — that’s success.

(Also, while it may be obvious, I should probably state for the record that both of my invitations to the White House came from the Obama Administration. People who look like me don’t get invited by the current occupants of that building. Of course, people who look like me — and people who don’t — are hard at work to ensure that the current occupants are evicted next year.)

(VC) Observing the rising despondency of political movements in parts of the east coast of the United States, as a creative trailblazer are you more critical about your own career as a man or more optimistic given the trajectory of the present times?

(Husani) Before the rise of social media, the Web was the Wild West, with a freedom of expression only limited by one’s imagination and knowledge of the toolset. The way you presented yourself — or your art — to the world was entirely up to you. There were no templates, no profile pages. And while you needed to teach yourself the technical skills to create a website, and once you did, cyberspace was your oyster. Do whatever you want, whenever you want, and someone on the other side of the planet may just find you and be moved by what you’ve created. Your creation was the digital version of you.

The situation we currently find ourselves in as a society, and specifically American society, has plenty of root causes, but there’s one core reason that technologists and digitally-focused creatives of a certain age have to come to grips with, myself included — we built a medium that allowed evil to flourish.

We were so blinded by the freedom of the new tools, tools that got more and more advanced as we learned more and more what they were actually capable of, we forgot to build the guardrails as we built the Information Superhighway. While we focused on what the tools could do, we forgot about what humans would do.

And so here we are. Now we live in a world where most people think that the “Internet” is a combination of Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram. Those platforms are amazing, but they’re all examples of software primarily built to extract data from humans and convert that data into money.

Ain’t nothin’ wrong with making money. I am happily and proudly in a business that uses these platforms to help our clients get their stories in front of people. But the algorithms that power these platforms now get to define not only how people express themselves, but also what they think and feel. This technology gets to define how humanity sees the world, and how humanity sees itself. And no good can come from that unless we get our shit together, and fast. All that being said, I’m optimistic. I have faith in humanity. It may take us awhile, and we may have to sacrifice more than we know, but we always seem to find a way out at the last possible second.

Our technology can certainly destroy us. But technology used correctly can do more than save us from our own weaknesses. It can elevate us. It can save lives, it can help us understand each other, it can help us be more than our DNA. As long as we keep it in its proper place — a tool made by humans to help humans make sense of the strangeness that is our reality.

(VC) At this stage of your career considering your present commitments, If you could work alongside any notable personality or enterprise. Who would it be and why?

(Husani) Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the architect of the Web. While it absolutely seems obvious and commonplace now, at the time, the underlying technology Sir Berners-Lee invented was groundbreaking.

I wouldn’t want to work with the Sir Berners-Lee of 1989, I’d want to work with him now. The World Wide Web turned 30 this year, and I’d be honored to have the opportunity to not only understand what the inventor thinks of his creation now, but to work together on building what comes next.

(VC) Some mention the Renaissance as an art period they admire. If you can time-warp back to any era, what time would it be and why?

(Husani) Mid 1940s, New York City, the jazz community — specifically to experience the rise of bebop. A musical form totally different than the big-band and swing that came before. That must have been such a magical, on-the-edge, exciting time. Reminds me of the early days of the Internet; artists creating without a care in the world for what the rest of society thought.

(VC) What kind of work, commercial or personal if any can the world expect from Husani Oakley within the next 5 years?

(Husani) At Deutsch, we have a group focused on artificial intelligence called Great Machine. Our mission is to figure out how to create AI for our clients that stays connected to humanity. I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to continue this work.

When I’m not in the office, I’m working on something that has absolutely nothing to do with technology — amusingly enough, television! I’ve been writing a few TV pilots for awhile, and I’m hoping to finish them soon; maybe you’ll turn on Netflix or Hulu or a streaming service yet to be invented and watch a season of one of my shows.

(VC) Anything else you would like our audience to know?

(Husani) Make things. Doesn’t matter what, or how, or why. Just make things. Leave a mark on the world while you can.

Husani Oakley 6/10/19 Husani Oakley 6/10/19

Talent Pool

This Deutsch EVP uses tech to solve problems — not just for the sake of it.

Adweek - David Cohen

A well-rounded resume is never a bad thing. With experience in fields ranging from wood furniture to startup incubators to online investment, Deutsch executive vice president and director of technology and innovation Husani Oakley certainly has that — and he’s let his instincts guide him along the way.

Oakley was in his fourth year as chief technology officer for startup online investment platform GoldBean when a former colleague and personal friend at Deutsch convinced him to rejoin the agency world. He had previously worked with Euro RSCG Worldwide (now Havas Worldwide), Omnicom’s EVB and Wieden + Kennedy. While reluctant at first, Oakley felt deep down that GoldBean was nearing its end, so he sold the startup and began the interview process. “I felt really silly when I did finally have those conversations and realized that there were some really interesting brains [at Deutsch],” he said.

Oakley has never made the mistake of using tech for the sake of tech; instead, he uses it for problem-solving and storytelling. While serving as director of creative technology at W+K, Oakley worked on “Human Twitter” for ESPN’s X Games in July 2011, a project he said was “complicated to execute” but that he “still get[s] extited about years later.” (X Games fans shared tweets with the hashtag #HumanTwitter, some of which were then spelled out by 160 people in the stands for athletes to see as they played.) Meanwhile, a current favorite project for Oakley is Hoppy, an internal corporate training application for Anheuser-Busch InBev, which helps employees across all areas of the company learn more about beer via game elements including quizzes and daily challenges.

As for the future? Oakley said the “wide-ranging flavor” of his work and past experiences give him a unique way of seeing the world, and he intends to blend this flavor with one of the biggest mediums impacting the tech sphere: artificial intelligence. Oakley is deeply involved in his agency’s Great Machine AI innovation studio, developing ways to use AI to humanize technology and brand storytelling.

“AI is a structural change in technology, and with that comes huge levels of responsibility,” he said. “I hope I am still in the mix of thinking through those sorts of problems and attaching solutions to them.”

Big Mistake

Oakley said he left one startup gig too soon. As the youngest person on the team, he was still trying to figure out who he was as a person. “I left because things got hard, and I didn’t see an end to the difficult times, not realizing that every position has difficult times,” he explained.

Lesson Learned

“Hold on longer than you think you can through the adversity, because you do get through the adversity, and you’re better off on the other side,” he advised.

How He Got the Gig

A former colleague and personal friend at Deutsch had multiple conversations with Oakley about joining the company. While Oakley was reluctant, his friend kept pushing the issue, so Oakley finally agreed to meet with some people at the company as a favor — and it turned out to be a fit for both sides.

Pro Tip

Oakley pointed out that most people outside the tech industry don’t realize that everyday features like GPS and spell check were driven by AI. “Tech should be invisible to those using it,” he said.

Husani Oakley 3/12/19 Husani Oakley 3/12/19

Zuck’s Privacy Manifesto Is ‘Business As Usual’ For Advertisers

AdExchanger - Allison Schiff

Mark Zuckerberg penned a lengthy post last week laying out Facebook’s vision for a “privacy-focused” future — but it’s not going to change Facebook’s business model.

Although Zuckerberg expends a lot of ink on the importance of data security and protecting messaging with end-to-end encryption, he doesn’t mention the interest and use-related data that powers Facebook’s advertising machine.

“It’s very loud, what is not said in that letter,” said Husani Oakley, EVP and director of technology and innovation at IPG agency Deutsch. “Personal data and the use of interest data isn’t discussed at all, and why? It’s not all that surprising. There still hasn’t been enough of an outcry – or a decrease in revenue or any massive migration away from the platform – for Facebook to even think about modifying their entire business model.”

Added Oakley: “Appears like it’s going to be business as usual.”

The end-to-end encryption Zuckerberg proposes doesn’t prevent Facebook from targeting people based on their public sharing, Oakley said. It just prevents Facebook, or anyone, from seeing what people share in their private communications.

Encryption aside, there’s still a lot of messaging metadata that Facebook could make available to advertisers, said Fatemeh Khatibloo, a principal analyst at Forrester.

Facebook might, for example, not know exactly what someone says to a brand in a private communication, but Facebook could easily see what ad that person saw right before DMing that brand, Khatibloo said, as well as how many times the person interacted with the brand and over what period of time.

“That kind of information is still plenty valuable,” she said.

And still plenty available. Although Zuckerberg pays “a lot of lip service” to the sanctity of privacy in his post, “it said nothing about a business model that is dependent on data collection for ad serving [and] it said nothing about whether Facebook would let people opt out of data collection for ad serving,” Khatibloo said.

At the same time Facebook is touting the significance of end-to-end encryption for messaging, which Zuckerberg calls “an important tool in developing a privacy-focused social network,” many of the moves Facebook is planning in the name of privacy have side benefits for, well, Facebook.

Facebook’s plan to connect the backend infrastructure of its messaging services, for example, which is partially a user experience play, could also be viewed as a way to help Facebook share data more fluidly across its platforms.

“They’d be able to see identity and platform usage without having to connect disparate data sources on their end,” Oakley said.

And if users can seamlessly transition between WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram messaging, that creates a “lock-in” to the entire Facebook ecosystem, Khatibloo said, which could also lead to “some pretty serious disintermediation of the brand-consumer relationship.”

If Facebook, Inc. becomes the default platform for communication, nearly all consumer interaction with brands would happen there, from commerce to service, which “should be a bright red flag to every brand,” she said.

Baking secure communications into the platform could also be an attempt to head off regulatory woes by making data sharing across Facebook products into a legitimate business interest, Khatibloo said.

“I predict they will argue that now the platforms are all effectively one ‘product’ – secure messaging – and that breaking Facebook up will actually be bad for user privacy,” she said.

But what if, in that process, Facebook starts limiting the interest data it makes available to advertisers in a meaningful way? Well, that might just encourage advertisers to bring more of their first-party data to Facebook’s platform, said mParticle CEO Michael Katz.

“And brands would simply need to get better at using their own data to target people,” Katz said.

Husani Oakley 1/10/19 Husani Oakley 1/10/19

9 Ways That Technology Will Change Advertising in 2019

The tech industry had quite the ride in 2018. The Cambridge Analytica scandal rocked Facebook, Elon Musk started calling heroic divers ‘pedo guy’ and Google workers staged a worldwide walkout. Nevertheless, advertising had a whopper of a chest of toys to play with, with AI, AR, VR, voice and more further cementing their places in the everyday of life of consumers.

So, what’s up for 2019? LBB’s Addison Capper picked the brains of tech-heads from The Mill, FCB, Droga5, RPA, Laughlin Constable, Huge, Deutsch and McKinney to find out.

Little Black Book - Addison Capper

1. JUSTIN DURAZZO, CO-DIRECTOR OF INTERACTIVE PRODUCTION, DROGA5

There was a time I’d have liked to say VR / AR, but the innovators of this technology are still finding their footing as we (hopefully) move out of the so-called ‘trough of disillusionment’ and into a new ‘slope of enlightenment’ with devices like Oculus Quest and Magic Leap emerging onto the scene. Creators are improving the craft technology and pushing new boundaries for entertainment purposes, but mobile AR has the most potential due to its already billion-strong user base.

Machine learning and AI continue to improve how we interact with product, interface and experience. The technologies are also helping brands better gauge our interests and behaviour to more deeply understand us, all in pursuit of serving more dynamic, personally relevant content.

The smarter brands recognise the need for contextual, enriching material that offers true value and utility without always pushing product before first earning our trust. This leads us to Instagram. Ubiquitous Instagram. The once photo-only app continues to robustly expand its feature set and transform what it means for individuals and marketers to develop their own voice (even with tiny budgets) and reach their target with potential for greater accuracy, authenticity and ability to provoke more interesting dialogue.

Nonetheless, this sort of ‘Facebookisation’ of Instagram ironically seems to correlate with the apparent decline in actual Facebook users. It’ll be interesting to see how Instagram navigates its burgeoning growth without compromising the very values and functionality it was built on.

2. HUSANI OAKLEY, SVP, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY, DEUTSCH NEW YORK

Imagine hyper-targeted and hyper-personalised brand messages, in any medium you can imagine, created in real-time by algorithms driven by a heretofore unseen scale and scope of data. Imagine watching an interactive film like Bandersnatch while riding in a self-driving car, with what’s on screen - including ads - informed by your current location.

The history of the Internet is full of moments where what's-next is an exponential improvement over what-is. 2019 brings one of those inflection points, with 5G poised to finally enter the mainstream. 5G is the next generation of cellular communications, and it's going to change everything. While 5G is exponentially faster than 4G, and is both cheaper and uses less energy, the core advantage is low latency. Initial tests by the telecoms show that connections can happen in one millisecond. Which means that we'll be able to send and receive huge amounts of data - 4k video, high fidelity audio, usage information, anything we can think of - to and from all our devices, practically instantaneously. Our phones, of course, but also our 5G-enabled microwaves, washing machines, toasters, you name it.

When combined, real-time connectivity via 5G and ever-smarter algorithms introduce a whole new world of exciting possibilities for practically everything.

3. IAN BURNS, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR, HUGE

What I'm most interested to see in 2019 is how image / facial recognition and image / video manipulation technology could come together simultaneously into a stew of mostly exciting and sometimes terrifying applications. Apps like Hawkeye are using eye tracking to let us navigate the web hands-free. Google lens is applying its imaging technology to make sure we can identify, and buy, literally everything we see. Amazon Go and other players in the cashierless store industry are using imaging to analyse our in-store behaviours and will no doubt be able to distinguish the posture of a buyer versus a browser versus a shoplifter. If they can’t already. And while the prospect of ‘Deep Fakes’ is mostly the stuff of nightmares, this example out of UC Berkeley using AI and video manipulation to turn anyone into a world-class dancer, has clear applications for content and advertising.

Imagine Netflix’s late-2018 foray into interactive content with Black Mirror, updated for 2019. Rather than navigating with the remote, eye-tracking and posture determine where the story goes. Oddly, the protagonist just happens to be wearing that shirt you’ve been obsessing over for the past two weeks. And rather than being served up one of five canned final scenes, the episode serves up a single ending, made on the fly, just for you.

4. BOO WONG, GLOBAL HEAD OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, THE MILL

We’re in a state of iteration, where critical components like AI, big data, augmented reality, robots and genetic engineering are in play and we look for interconnectivity and utilisation for the next ‘big thing’. Smart cities, smart homes, smart cars, smart wearables, smart fabric, smart mirrors… add ‘connected’ to this with a good dose of decentralised machine learning and it becomes clear that we are heading into a post-mobile world. Digital assistants with invisible UI or voice interfaces will be prevalent. Creating compelling interactive and immersive experiences will bring people out of their homes and the march of augmented reality will gain momentum as new headsets hit the market. Deep Learning continues to move us from human-derived to machine-generated data, and the push pull of technology will speed innovation ahead while verification and validation of results trail in its wake.

5. COLIN DWAN, CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST, MCKINNEY

The biggest tech hurdle we’ll face in 2019 is a monster of our own making - the flattening of the online shopping experience. Rooted in efficient UX and functional advertising, we’ve made purchasable goods so accessible that there’s almost no chance to make an impression on the buyer anymore. Gone are the days of window shopping or even visiting a retailer’s website to search for a product. Our social networks, voice assistants and shoppable ads are already predicting what we need, when we need it and allowing us to purchase it right away. In that ultra-brief transaction, where is the opportunity for the brand to build a relationship with the consumer? Are customers loyal to the product or just being pulled around by whatever is most accessible at the right moment?

6. PARVA HASHEMI, ASSOCIATE CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST, RPA

Artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, voice assistants, augmented reality, virtual reality - 2018 gave advertising so much to play with, so many ways to connect with consumers. Each of these technologies will continue to evolve in 2019: data breaches will become a thing of the past with stronger data regulation, we’ll move toward optimising voice-search results, more companies will start implementing AR and VR as a part of their buying process, and the one thing every marketer, every brand will want to incorporate in their campaigns: AI. Yes, artificial intelligence and machine learning made their breakthrough in 2018 but they seemed too intimidating for engineers and agencies that lacked experience with them. With more tools developing, more information within reach, and more knowledge and insight on how it can be used to deliver the best experiences, technologists are more motivated and inspired to tackle the world of AI, giving every brand and agency the opportunity to optimise their efforts toward AI. In 2019, AI will have one of the largest impacts on advertising.

7. PAUL BRIENZA, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, LAUGHLIN CONSTABLE

A lot of the hot-topic technology we’ve been watching in the past few years will be coming into its own this year. AI’s applications have been blending into everyday work, so this year, I think we’ll see the conversation shift from how helpful AI could be to the ways it’s actually helping people. The building of chatbots is becoming more streamlined, which is going to make them commonplace on websites. And for a trend that’s bigger than just 2019, the number of consumers who have never had linear TV is on the rise. As television as we’ve known it heads towards obsolescence, get ready. The ‘non-corders’ are coming.

8. KRIS HOET, GLOBAL HEAD OF INNOVATION, FCB

There is plenty of new technology that is rapidly reaching mass audiences. Voice is probably the fastest-growing one and the one that I’m the most excited about. It offers a whole series of new challenges for businesses, ranging from commerce to branding. Smart speakers are the Trojan horse of voice technology because the product is fairly cheap and, compared to your regular USB speaker, offers a much more interesting way to interact with the Internet. Even though most people still use it to play music, most of the time this is actually the ideal way to get used to talking to a piece of hardware without feeling uncomfortable – and in the process, it opens the door to everyone using the voice interface with technology as the most common thing ever. This poses interesting challenges for brands because we don’t really know yet how this will influence people buying things, especially since you don’t often mention brands in a conversation. How will we recognise brands in the audio spectrum, where most of the distinctive brand assets are visual? This will open up a whole new creative playing field, beyond the tech, that I’m really excited about. In 2019, I believe we will start focusing more on the creative value of technology rather than the other way around.

9. SEAN BARRY, SVP OF DIGITAL, LAUGHLIN CONSTABLE

Live video is going to keep growing, especially across social media platforms. The ability for anyone to broadcast live is a technology that isn't lauded as much as buzzwords like AI or machine learning but has just as significant of an impact on our culture and our marketing. The ability for brands to produce live content for an engaged customer base is an untapped market ripe for exploration. Everyone should be keeping an eye on live video as we find ways to create more compelling and engaging stories.

Husani Oakley 8/1/18 Husani Oakley 8/1/18

Bustle Digital Group Acquires Flavorpill to Expand its Events Business

Consolidation in the media space continues

AlleyWatch - Reza Chowdhury

Flavorpill, the social events and experiential platform has been acquired by Bustle Digital Group. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Bustle Media Group operates several sites catered towards the interests of the modern women. “This acquisition was made with an eye towards our 2019 growth — in both user engagement and revenue. We expect to see a substantial increase in paid attendees for our experiential programs to come through Flavorpill,” remarked Bryan Goldberg, founder and CEO of the Bustle Digital group.

This marks the third acquisition for Bustle and Goldberg, who founded Bleacher Report and later sold it to Turner Broadcasting Systems for $175M in 2012. The startup founded in 2013 previously acquired Elite Daily and the Zoe Report. Its combined audience reaches over 80M per month according to the company. Bustle Digital Group earned $46.3M in revenue in 2017 according to the recent Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies and has raised $50.5M in funding from investors that include 500 Startups, General Catalyst, GV, GGV Capital, Social Capital, Rothenberg Ventures, Time Warner Investments, and Saban Capital Group. Flavorpill was founded by Husani Oakley, Mark Mangan, and Sascha Lewis in 2000. Lewis will remain at the company and continue to oversee Flavorpill Media.

This acquisition was made with an eye towards our 2019 growth — in both user engagement and revenue. We expect to see a substantial increase in paid attendees for our experiential programs to come through Flavorpill – Bryan Goldberg

Husani Oakley 3/28/18 Husani Oakley 3/28/18

Technology hasn't changed creativity's need for the big idea

The Drum - Husani Oakley

Yesterday morning, I sat in a Las Vegas ballroom listening to Adobe announce their latest and greatest — namely, an integration between Experience Cloud, Advertising Cloud, and Marketing Cloud that enables digital creative to be modified in real-time without pause or re-trafficking.

A disturbance spread through some of my fellow agency employees in the audience, as if millions of SOWs suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

But I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. And here’s why.

At its core, mass communication has always been about one simple thing — transferring an idea from one brain into another (and another, and another). In the early days of what used to be called “new media,” technologists like myself shouted from the rooftops that digital was the Holy Grail. We made these things called banners, and we said they’d be hyper-personalized, timely, and context-aware.

We promised that we were all entering a brand new dynamic world, the polar opposite of print. Want to change copy on a billboard after it’s been put up? Swap out a call to action? Good luck with that. You’d be able to change digital display at the speed of light, because it’s digital! So who cares about print? Let us make amazing banners for you; it’ll be the most effective and efficient part of your marketing strategy.

Oops. Our bad.

Here in the 21st Century, the reality of the medium is quite different from what we promised. Ask everyone who still sees a banner ad touting the product they bought last week. Ask any brand manager who, after reading a key insight from their analytics team, wants to tweak a line of copy — but has to wait 48 hours before any consumer sees that change, because of trafficking. For that matter, ask any legal team who discovers an issue and has to insist a unit be taken down, because it’ll take too long to modify.

If the underlying objective of mass communication has always been about getting an idea from one brain into another, the rapid pace of technological change — specifically, Internet-related technology — has been about increasing speed. How quickly can we create ideas? How quickly can we get that idea from one brain into another?

Coming up with those ideas is a big job. And it’s a job that agencies are uniquely built for. As advertisers, our job is — or, at least, should be — entirely centered around The Big Idea. We are the big-picture thinkers and storytellers. In the rapid-fire, omnichannel, data-driven, massively fragmented media world we help our clients navigate, a world where consumers are literally installing software to avoid our ideas, our job is to stand out. To be memorable. To ensure that ROI isn’t just a funny-looking acronym.

But we can’t — or, at least, shouldn’t, here in the 21st Century — come up with The Big Idea without considering the underlying technological context of both the idea and the medium in which it’s expressed. How will we create the idea? How will we track the idea? And, because the original promise of the medium is still top of mind, how can we tweak the idea, in real-time, if and when we have insights into effectiveness?

At this point in the medium’s history, the data necessary to deliver on the promise of hyper-personalized, contextually-aware, dynamic digital ads is finally available. A futuristic-sounding tool like artificial intelligence is no longer an emerging technology — it’s here. Now. Hell, it’s practically table stakes. And, with the right team and the right partners, these no-longer-emerging technologies can be used to support and enhance that Big Idea.

It’s an exciting time to be an agency. The reports of our industry’s death have been greatly exaggerated — at least, for those of us who remain focused on The Big Idea.

Adobe’s new offering is indeed a game changer, but in the best possible way. It enables our clients to instantly respond to changing conditions and contexts without our hands being directly involved in the process — as long as we remain focused on big picture storytelling, this is a good thing. It frees agencies to focus on what we do best — The Big Idea.

Creatives can keep The Big Idea at the forefront of their process. Production can continue to construct tactics based on a clear vision, but now with the understanding that the specifics may change. Technology teams can spend time building experiences that get us closer to the original promise of the medium.

In the spirit of Las Vegas, let’s double-down on this new frontier. We live in the future, and it’s awesome.

Now, where’s my jetpack?

Husani Oakley is the senior vice president of technology at Deutsch NY

Husani Oakley 2/20/18 Husani Oakley 2/20/18

Startup founder, agency exec Husani Oakley joins Deutsch NY as SVP-director of technology

The Drum - Bennett Bennett

Husani Oakley, an agency and startup veteran, brings his 15+ years to Deutsch as its new director of technology / Deutsch New York

Deutsch’s New York office has added Husani Oakley as its new senior vice president of technology, working across its roster of clients including AB InBev, PNC Bank, Siemens, and DraftKings.

He joined the agency after spending four years as co-founder of investment platform GoldBean, where he also served as chief technology officer, helping to build and direct the product, as well as assembling its engineering team.

Before his time at GoldBean, Oakley was Wieden+Kennedy's director of creative technology, working on brands including Nike, Heineken, Target, and Delta. In 2011, he launched his own digital agency Oakley + Partners, working with clients and agencies including Disney, Google, Cutwater and Droga5. Oakley has also served in leadership positions at Omnicom’s Evolution Bureau (EVB) and EuroRSCG (now Havas). His work spans across websites and microsites to out-of-home and experiential; he has earned Webby's, One Show, D&AD, FWA: Site of the Day and London International Awards recognition.

Oakley will report directly to Winston Binch, Deutsch's chief digital officer of North America.

Binch said in a statement: “We’re big believers in the power of technology to build brands. Having world-class tech leaders in our organization is mission critical, particularly rare talents like Husani who understand tech start-up, creative, and marketing culture, He’s a huge value add as we look to help our clients navigate the ever-changing technology and media landscape.”

Oakley, who had also launched publication Flavorpill in 2000, was initially unsure about rejoining agency life.

“I was skeptical about going back to advertising, but I started talking to Deutsch, and my skepticism was gone after the first conversation," he said. "The team and culture here are the ideal mix of storytellers and change makers.”

On his new surroundings and team, Oakley said: “I was welcomed from the first minute I walked in on my first day, and it hasn’t changed. Everyone’s been tremendous, and I feel super, super welcomed.”

“Embracing a culture of change" is something he learned in the startup world and hopes to continue at Deutsch. That logic is “almost built into the DNA of some agencies,” he said, “but what I love about Deutsch is this complete willingness to say, ‘Oh, let’s just try that. Let’s talk about it and try it and act more than talk’ and get it done. It fits with my experience on startup side really nicely.”

More traditional advertising agencies are fully committing to the expanded need for a head of technology. When Oakley was in the early days of his career, “technology was absolutely production, and more or less unproductive production, where the concept and visuals are crafted before, going over the fence and sent to the tech team, in what I’d like to call the ‘nerd basement.'"

Agencies, he said, “should see by now from the successes of Facebook and Google, as well as the non-technology-focused startups like Jet.com, that the execution of tech is just as important as storytelling. You can’t have one without the other.” He lauded the developers he now works with, who allow him to put the facets of his career together. “I’m able to give my two cents on strategy, on creative, on client management. We are here, one team, and we bring our practice to the table, and we play very well together.”

Oakley works in the New York office specifically but has quickly built a relationship with the teams in Los Angeles. “We’re talking all the time and have already started sharing learnings. We’d known each other by reputation, and now we share the same email domain, which is pretty cool.”

Looking back at his time running startups, he saw good reason to stay, citing the chance to have his hands in all parts of the business. However, the constant grind exhausted him.

"It was tough being awake at two in the morning and, in the midst of hashtag-startup-life, and you couldn't even look at why you've been working at two in the morning every day for the past three or four years," laughed Oakley. "Your work is, certainly in a small startup, across all practices — not just tech, not just brands, not just profits or sales. It's not just HR. It’s all of those things and I learned to split my attention in that way."

The opportunity to take those experiences with him, implement it across a team, and use it to help clients of variety, at scale, was exciting enough for Oakley to consider working at an agency. “I get excited when I have a 10 o'clock meeting with a finance client, and an 11:30 meeting with a CPG client. I really get a thrill from the constant change, day by day. It makes me think about the core patterns underlying what we do that make piece of work, good? What are the patterns underlying what we do that make technology execution good? Also, when we find those patterns, how do we make sure that everything we're doing is hitting on those key points?”

Oakley rounds out the agency’s digital leadership team, joining Rachel Mercer and Daniel Murphy, who run digital strategy and invention, and digital operations and production, respectively.

“We can combine our efforts, Voltron-style, and make some great work for our clients," he said, adding that "change is constant, but change for the better requires a nimble culture and a willingness to take risks. I'm excited to join an agency that's just as agile — and fearless — as the startups I've run and advised."

Husani Oakley 2/20/18 Husani Oakley 2/20/18

Husani Oakley’s Design Journey

For his design journey, Husani Oakley is interviewed by friend and fellow design and tech innovator Robyn Kanner. "I met Robyn Kanner during a meeting with the Obama administration at the White House a couple of years ago, and within about thirty seconds, realized that she was someone I needed to know. She’s brilliant, brave, and most importantly, one of the most honest and open people I’ve ever met. Given the chance to choose a person to talk with about my journey, I wanted someone who was honest about theirs." —Husani Oakley

AIGA - Robyn Kanner

Robyn Kanner (RK): When you were ten years old, how would you have answered the question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

Husani Oakley (HO): I wanted to be an astronaut. And everybody said “No, no, no,” but it was serious for me. I went to the same middle school as Buzz Aldrin—in fact, in 2016, they renamed the school after him.

RK: Do you think that because you were surrounded by unapologetically black culture so young, it helped influence the way you owned your identity?

HO: From fifth grade on, we moved to the suburb in north New Jersey where I live now. Suddenly, I went from being entirely surrounded by people who look like me to being surrounded by people who look like everybody – and from private school to public school.

It's like my first week in fifth grade in public school in a crazy diverse class–there are white people, Asian people. I've only seen these people on TV. That's awesome. But it was a weird time for me because suddenly I'm surrounded by all these different types of people and the freedom of a public school vs. a private school. I think I had a reputation already. “Oh, you're the smart one.” So I ended up in groups where even though it's a super diverse town and my class was diverse, I was with a bunch of white kids.

“I'm beginning to have all these weird thoughts about different ways to view commonly used things. I realized, it's okay to be this wacky, geeky person. It's fine. Why not?”

RK: Of course, being in that environment. I grew up in Fairfield, Maine, in a very small town. And I think I internalized a lot of homophobia and transphobia just because it was so deeply ingrained in my culture. Did you internalize your identity?

HO: It wasn't and it became a thing at the end of eighth grade. I was oblivious. I was just like, "you're my friend." I'd hang out at my friend's houses, in their mansions. I'm from Montclair. Their parents would treat me like they would treat everybody else. I still remember a Halloween where I went to go trick or treating in my best friend’s neighborhood. I was Freddy Krueger or something so no one did know who I was.

Some mother comes out and says: “Oh no, it's little Peter and oh, I don't know you. Is that so and so, is that so and so.” They’re obviously white names. But you don't know me because I live on the other end of town. It wasn't until later I realized “Oh, you have a problem with the fact that I'm not like y'all.”

RK: Right, but you still have the unapologetic thing with you, right? Like you kept that and that’s huge.

HO: Yes, it was like, if you don't like me, I don't know how not to be me. I mean beyond the whole awkward kid thing, everyone just watches you as the gay black kid, the gay, black/Puerto Rican kid. My mother's black, my father's Puerto Rican. Puerto Rican and Dominican. I don't know where I am when you have to fill out a form, and you got to pick an ethnicity.

RK: This is not a binary choice. It's blurry. Why is this a radio checkbox? Was your first mentor in design or was it in tech?

HO: The first person I would consider a mentor was my music teacher. When I got out of high school I stopped caring. I thought, boy you know what? I'm going to be me. I don't care. I had discovered music at that point so the career decision was, okay, astronaut, well, while I’d still love to, I hope that by the time I'm an adult, I can just hop on a ship to Mars. So I don't need to be an explorer. I can be an artist and you need artists too, right?

My high school music teacher/private instructor was like my father figure, my mentor. Personally, exactly whom I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember I had a Music Theory class and the second day he went off on this tangent about how he visualized time, not as linear but as circular. When you picture a calendar, you think of this sort of linear flow. He thought of a calendar as a circle. And he drew this diagram on the chalkboard.

So I'm beginning to have all these weird thoughts about different ways to view commonly used things. I realized, it's okay to be this wacky, geeky person. It's fine. Why not?

Oakley as a member of Montclair High School's marching band, 1995-1996. Image courtesy Husani Oakley.

RK: Did that thought process influence what you decided to do at the end of high school, when making decisions about college?

HO: It's funny because when I think about it, there's a pattern, but you don't see the pattern when you're in it. So I actually sued my high school. The school had just started a Junior ROTC Program [Reserve Officer Training Corps] and a friend of mine had an issue with it politically. He made a satirical recruitment poster for the program. And on the front page, it said “Are you a black student? Do you have a C- average? So, join JROTC and be the first to be shipped off in the next war.” I supported him, I wasn't necessarily political but I knew right from wrong. I knew it, of course it's going to be the C- average black kid that go to ROTC.

Another acquaintance saw the poster and told his father, who was a teacher, and then the father told his colleagues, and it suddenly became a whole big thing. My acquaintance was forced to apologize to the school over the morning announcements for the racist pamphlet he had made. The intent was being ignored.

I put together a group of acquaintances. We put together a series of flyers that we designed on my home computer. I printed them at work. I was, by the way, running a computer consulting company. My favorite one: “Why do male sports receive more funding than female sports? Why do white sports receive more funding than black sports?” So we snuck into school after school is closed one day and we put the flyers on the wall. The next day, everyone had seen them. Then my accomplices totally ratted me out. I got called into the principal's office. And, she said, "So we know these flyers were you. So we're suspending you for seven days."

RK: Well, they were trying to keep you in your place. Like shut up and just go to class.

HO: Yes, set the tone; "don’t cause noise as you grow up." So I'm suddenly back to the good art kid. I'm back to fifth grade goody-two-shoes. I go to a pay phone and call my mom. "What!? Husani suspended? No, this will not stand." We filed the lawsuit in Montclair's crazy progressive town.

RK: Was that your introduction to what design could do for social change?

HO: I realized that it was possible to take a thought, make it tangible and put it in front of somebody and have them react to it. I realized this stuff doesn't necessarily need to stay in my head. I can make things and I understood it as communication through art, as visual art.

RK: So when you were able to change the conversation, with internet bubbling up, how did it influence your approach?

HO: High school's done. I convince my parents that I'm not going to go to college right away. I'm going to take a year off and my mother is like "Are you out of your mind!?"

I got involved with the New Jersey community theatre scene. I did this internship randomly. I'm up at two in the morning one night, and I see a job posting on the internet. This job is in New York City. And being from the New Jersey suburbs New York City is just far away and you're from rural Maine. We can see the skyline from the town that I grew up in, but you just don't go there.

I got this internship at agency.com. I was a dev [abbreviation for developer], because that's what I said I could do, right. I was about to turn 18, I don't know anything about anything, but I knew that I wanted to communicate. My first job day on the job, they say: “So you are on the British Airways Team. Go, learn it. Communicate. We're going to give you stuff and you're going to make it, you're going to build it.” This is 1997.

RK: What obstacles did you deal with during that time?

HO: I was the youngest person on this team with no college experience, six months out of high school, now with a job in downtown Manhattan.

RK: Were you out?

HO: Yeah, not that I knew what that meant. But I had gay pride rings hanging from the wall of my cubicle. One day, a colleague asks what they were, and I couldn’t quite talk about it.

RK: We didn't have the language at that point, right?

HO: Right, I had no clue, so I’d just change the topic. I was just completely naïve, I am a kid and I'm doing adult-ass work. I have no idea what I'm doing and I have not experienced enough of the world to understand how any of this works. I'm working in London. It's my first time out of the country. And I'm leading this team: “I convinced you to give this to me, and I should have not have convinced you to give it to me. I should've been honest with you and told you that I don't know what I'm doing.”

RK: But honesty doesn't get you in the room. Something that I think about a lot is legacy. When you think about the legacy you're going to leave in the world, where do you think your impact lies?

HO: I think about the Voyager probes and I think about how much I would have loved to be in the room when it was sent out. There's a sketch of humans, with these songs and pictures. Thinking about how we, as a species, are presenting ourselves to a complete unknown, a massive question mark comes to mind. It makes me think how frustrating it is that we, as a species, take these stupid, superficial differences and make them into a real thing. That’s impact on real lives. It makes me violently angry. We're one species, head in clouds and all, but we are so behind in having a framework upon which we can have meaningful conversations about differences.

I have huge hopes that what makes us really interesting as a species is that we use tools and communication. So design is no different than the use of the hammer, no different than the invention of fire.

RK: It's interesting because you're still the person you were in high school, trying to solve the same root problem. When you think about the progress that shifted from your high school to now, do you feel good or do you wish it was more significant?

HO: Both. Having the internet, I could and did interact with people who were not in my immediate social groups. What frustrates me are the job divisions: tech; UX; design. We come with different experiences, expertise, and practices. And how amazing is it, we can all put our specific expertise together and make something and put it in front of another human being and have them interact with it.

RK: I know we all face obstacles when we decide to become a designer. Can you tell me about a few that you overcame?

HO: Frankly, my biggest issue has been convincing some folks to even consider me a designer in the first place. It goes to a larger issue, one that’s still constantly debated—what is design? A lot of my agency career was spent convincing creatives that technology is a creative medium. I created with code, like a copywriter creates with words. Or like a digital designer creates with pixels.

My teams would be in what I call the “nerd basement”—we’d be given a design to execute, our opinions ignored, our desire to be a part of the storytelling process laughed at. It took me quite a while to figure out a way around that.

I tended to be the person who sat between the creative and technical teams, partially because I was more extroverted than other technologists, but mainly because I only use technology in service of a story. What's the point, otherwise? I'm not a scientist. I'm an artist who uses science. But doesn't every artist? Doesn't a painter care about their brushes, their canvas, the chemical composition of their paint? Why is technology seen as different?

“I only use technology in service of a story. What's the point, otherwise? I'm not a scientist. I'm an artist who uses science.”

RK: How’d you use that in your work?

HO: Eventually I realized that my appeals to emotion or fairness would always be ignored, because life isn't fair. So I began to prove my point. As I left hands-on code for management roles, I'd be sure to identify other technologists who thought like me and get them in the same room as designers and creatives. We had to show that we spoke the language of design, not just 1s and 0s. Had to get over some nerd basement stereotypes. Part of what helped me overcome that issue was the democratization of technology. The time to create something meaningful is certainly smaller than it was, say, 10 years ago–I think it's easier for me to show that my work is about a story, not "just" engineering.

RK: Do you have a favorite designer?

HO: I want to be Nicholas Felton when I grow up.

RK: Did you have a mentor?

HO: I've never had an official "mentor," per se, but I've had bosses that have acted as mentors. One boss who immediately comes to mind was my supervisor at a point in my career where I thought I knew everything. I'd been managing ad agency teams for years, and had just started a new director role in a new city. This boss taught me that when dealing with clients, soft skills tended to be more important than hard skills.

He told me to stop thinking of presenting work as presenting work, but instead try to get into the mind of the client. What do they want? Not from a work perspective, but from a human perspective. Are they trying to impress their boss? Get a bonus? Or are they focused on their daughter's recital next week? Show some empathy for your client, some human-level understanding, and figure out the best way the work you're presenting can help them get what they want. That was the best piece of advice anyone's ever told me.

“As designers, our job is communication. If we can't do that, because we don't understand our audience–because we are culturally removed from them–how can we possibly be successful at our jobs?”

RK: Do you think design has changed since you became a designer? I think in some ways it has but it some ways it's the same—just solving problems.

HO: This is something that has always fascinated me, since I got my start in the early days of the dotcom boom. As media come and go, we adapt our techniques and toolsets for those more appropriate for the medium-of-the-day, but what we do hasn't changed much. We solve problems, we communicate, we convince people to think a certain thought or feel a certain feeling. We're a visual species, designers communicate with visuals. But take Alexa or Siri. There's design there. Just because the interface isn't visual doesn't mean creation of a communication paradigm isn't design. The tools change, but what we do hasn't.

A typical ad agency creative team is an art director and copywriter. Even though lots of copywriters design, and lots of art directors write. Does the agency team of the future include a technologist? Maybe. Does it mean that art directors write code, and copywriters crack open Photoshop? Sure. It's all "design," it's all problem solving, it's all communication.

RK: Do you think design is lacking diversity?

HO: Of course. As does tech, as does sales, as does science, as does politics, as does Wall Street, as does every core industry in our society. Americans lack a sense of history–which, I think, is part of our strength and a major part of our weakness. In my parents' lifetime, I wouldn't have been able to use the same water fountain as everyone else in certain parts of this country. In my parents' lifetime! Everyone acts as though the day the Civil War ended, racism was done. Like turning off a light switch. And then it was quiet until the ‘60s, when a nice minister did some marches, and then poof–racism gone again. And, of course, we've had a black president, so everyone's equal, and if you haven't "made it" in America, it's your own damn fault. It's frustratingly ahistorical.

RK: How can people solve that? Whose job is it to solve that?

HO: Most hires come from a person's network. Companies lack diversity because most people don't have diverse networks. People aren't being penalized—yet—for their lack of diversity. They'll eventually be penalized by the market, though. As designers, our job is communication. We create things that make an audience think what we want them to think, do what we want them to do, buy what we want them to buy. If we can't do that, because we don't understand our audience–because we are culturally removed from them–how can we possibly be successful at our jobs? How does a monolith communicate in age of rapid societal change? Sponsoring diversity initiatives isn't enough. Hiring a few interns from HBCUs isn't enough. There's a focus at the very bottom, as if pipeline is an actual issue, and a few names at the top. That ain't enough.

“Show some empathy for your client, some human-level understanding, and figure out the best way the work you're presenting can help them get what they want. That was the best piece of advice anyone's ever told me.”

Husani Oakley 2/12/18 Husani Oakley 2/12/18

Startup Guru, Industry Vet Joins Deutsch New York as SVP, Director of Technology

Husani Oakley comes from investing platform GoldBean

Adweek - Lindsay Rittenhouse

Husani Oakley will lead Deutsch NY's tech team.

Deutsch New York has appointed Husani Oakley, a digital innovator with 15 years of experience leading startups and agencies, as senior vice president and director of technology, a newly-created role in the office. (The agency eliminated its chief technology officer position last year.)

Oakley officially joined Deutsch’s New York office on Feb. 1, but the agency only announced his appointment today.

Oakley previously served as chief technology officer at startup online investing platform GoldBean, where he helped guide the evolution of the product while also growing and managing the company’s engineering team. Before that, he was Wieden + Kennedy’s director of creative technology, founded and served as the CEO of digital shop Oakley + Partners and held the vice president of technology and digital production role at Omnicom’s Evolution Bureau. Outside the agency world, he also co-founded cultural events newsletter Flavorpill, furniture company Atlantico USA and tech project developer Squaretangle.

“I’ve been back and forth from startup to agency to startup to agency,” Oakley told Adweek. “What I loved and hated, but mostly loved, about startups is that change is constant. The agency world is at a crossroads. I thought, if I were to leave startups, I’d want to go back to my roots. I thought, if I were to return to agency life, I’d do so in a role like this, where I could lean into being comfortable with change.”

At Deutsch New York, Oakley described his new responsibilities as “two-fold”—ensuring the office’s internal tech team is “best in class,” from both a technical and creative perspective, while making sure clients see the team’s contributions positively impact their businesses. The agency said Oakley’s position just opened in the New York office.

Deutsch currently employs a team of 40 engineers, with 30 stationed in its Los Angeles office and 10 in New York. The team handles all enterprise platform, e-commerce, mobile and artificial intelligence work. Oakley will lead the New York group of engineers on all related projects, serving clients including AB InBev, PNC Bank, Siemens and DraftKings and reporting directly to Winston Binch, chief digital officer of Deutsch North America.

“We’re big believers in the power of technology to build brands,” Binch noted in a written statement. “Having world-class tech leaders in our organization is mission critical, particularly rare talents like Husani who understand tech startups, creative and marketing culture.”

Through his career to date, Oakley has worked with brands such as Google, Disney, Target, Nike, Adidas and PayPal, and oversaw teams of developers, hackers and other digital experts. His work runs the gamut from websites and microsites to out-of-home and experiential.

Oakley, who describes himself as a “Star Trek nerd” who keeps an Amazon Alexa in every room of his house, predicted that AI and machine learning will be the next big disruptors in advertising.

“And I mean beyond the chat bot,” Oakley explained. “I’m not exactly sure where that will lead but we, at Deutsch, are going to find out.”

Husani Oakley 10/5/17 Husani Oakley 10/5/17

“Rascals” (TNG) with Husani Oakley

Husani Oakley, CTO, speaker, and thinker, joins Scott to discuss TNG’s “Rascals” (S6E07). Topics include child actors, Riker being the best dad, and how non-threatening Ferengi are even when they are threatening to murder children.

Random Trek - Scott McNulty

Husani Oakley 3/1/17 Husani Oakley 3/1/17

Five Interactive Designers Share Their Treasured Finds

Kelsie Van Deman, Irene Au, Husani Oakley, Tobias Van Schneider and Rebecca Ussai share their favorite interactive design resources.

Communication Arts - Kelsie Van Deman

KELSIE VAN DEMAN

Idea corkboard: I am a big fan of Pinterest. I have Pinterest boards for pretty much everything in my life. It is a fantastic way to organize inspiration for projects, emerging tech, dream vacation destinations and Halloween costumes for your dog.

Art, upended: Google’s Tilt Brush app for virtual reality is a game changer for creative people across many industries. I love seeing the look of awe on kids, clients and artists alike the first time they step inside a 3-D space and paint using Tilt Brush. When you’re literally standing in the middle of your own artwork, the creativity just pours out.

Vulnerable to success: This year, I watched Dr. Brené Brown’s TED talk, “The Power of Vulnerability,” and was immediately inspired to read her books. I always assumed that showing any type of vulnerability at work would be seen as a weakness, but Brown argues that it’s our biggest strength.

IRENE AU

Psychology meets design: The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman, changed my life. I first read it when I was in graduate school. The book gave me a framework for thinking about how I could shape my career by merging my interests in psychology and technology.

Great UX, in real life: My family enjoys staying at the Upper House in Hong Kong, our favorite hotel in the world. Its restaurant Café Gray Deluxe has the most amazing pancake, which we dubbed “The Life-Changing Pancake.” Recently when my husband stayed there, the staff had the pancake waiting for him as he arrived! I’m blown away by the hotel’s level of attention to personal details and the extent to which it meets customer needs before the customer is even conscious of the need.

End-of-day ritual: Before going to bed, I always spend a few moments in supported fish pose (salamba matsyasana) to open my chest, back and shoulders and in reclined bound angle pose (supta baddha konasana) with sandbags on my legs to open my hips. It’s a great way to end the day—the whole body is open.

HUSANI OAKLEY

Fresh media: The Wall Street Journal’s piece exploring the music of Hamilton (graphics.wsj.com/hamilton) is a fantastic example of what can happen when technology and design are blended. Its methodology is enlightening (graphics.wsj.com/hamilton-methodology).

Well of inspiration: CodePen (codepen.io) is a great resource for not only viewing inspiring design elements, but also the code to execute them. Sometimes, these ideas just exist on their own, waiting to inspire a small part of a much larger idea or project. Isn’t that what’s amazing about the Internet? All these talented minds expressing themselves, being able to dip into the well of everything and pull out something interesting, something inspiring, something actionable. It’s fantastic.

Under-the-radar site: A Periodic Table of Motion (foxcodex.html.xdomain.jp).

Emerging talent: Tiffany Rayside’s work (@tmrDevelops on Twitter, codepen.io/tmrDevelops) is phenomenal.

Literary magic: Stop what you’re doing and go read Virginia Heffernan’s Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art. It will change how you think about the medium we work in.

TOBIAS VAN SCHNEIDER

Online library: I collect all my reading recommendations on my website at vanschneider.com/reading. Two books I recently enjoyed a lot are Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Businessand Ryan Holiday’s Ego Is the Enemy. I always recommend that every designer read as many books as possible outside the traditional design field.

Daily dose of humor: Always “Poorly Drawn Lines”—every day!

Reliable news: Definitely Twitter. I mean, just following inspiring people and friends is enough to stay inspired and informed. I rarely read the news or follow any tech sites. All the news I get is straight from Twitter. I use Twitter’s list feature a lot, so I basically set up my own news dashboard, powered by the people.

REBECCA USSAI

Trend forecaster: R/GA curates a newsletter and trend report called FutureVision. Articles on noteworthy emerging technology and other trends are shared daily. Every other month or so, the leadership team publishes deeper trend briefs and perspectives on relevant topics, such as “Connected Commerce.”

Shots of energy: I love using the sites Pttrns (pttrns.com) and siteInspire (siteinspire.com), the browser extension Muzli, and the blog Little Big Details. The discovery phase of projects is always my favorite and the most energizing.

Required reading: The article “Design Machines,” by Travis Gertz. It’s about how there is a culture of sameness happening in design and how a lot of that is because we’re really comfortable just looking at what “this other successful site did” and because analytics sometimes takes priority. It was half wake-up call, half rally cry. Designers need to trust their intuition and be brave enough to craft an experience that can stand out.

Press

Thanks for reading.