fast isn’t fast enough.(An e-book written in three hours by BU advertising students.)

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Introduction Born to Tweet Unicorns Are a Dime a Dozen Get Your Head in the Clouds Creative Cramping Is Not an Option Too Small to Fail This Is Your CEO, Come Over for Coffee Give Me a Roller Coaster, Not a Flyer Tweets or It Didn’t Happen Honey, You’re Wearing My Phone Overcome With Emojion A Wrinkle in Vine Acknowledgements

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Welcome to the second annual “We Wrote a Book in Three Hours” exercise. To test their creativity, content generating prowess, collaborative skills and ability to think fast, I asked students in Strategic Creative Development (a course at Boston University’s College of Communication) to conceive, write, sketch and produce this little ebook in three hours. Give or take a couple of minutes. They had no idea where it would take them or how they would get there. But here it is. Some thoughts about who they are as a generation, how they’ve embraced the age of digital disruption and what it means as they exit their college years and enter the so-called real world. It’s a privilege to be their teacher.

Edward Boches

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@Number1MOM I’m hungry #feedme #Babysfirsttweet. We think in 140 characters

or less. When we broadcast information and share it in real time, we are the news. We grew up in a generation when anyone with a twitter account and a blog can call himself a journalist. Or at least a content creator. With that comes an overload of information, something we have learned to combat by making our opinions and insights meaningful.

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We don’t waste time on fluff. Instead, we get to the point and make it strong. We grew up sharing information concisely and quickly. For us, it’s not just about using the social media available to us but using it to make an impact. Our fingers are always on the pulse of culture, we consume it constantly, process it quickly, and share it quicker. We aren’t reacting to the changes; we are the ones creating the evolution of technology and media.

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We’ve been force fed a lot about the “big idea.” Something so mind-blowing and

ubiquitous that it will capture the attention of everyone all at once. That “Beatles” moment when the world stops and watches in amazement. But does that make sense in a world of constant content? Sure, when everything is average, unexciting, and blase, it’s easy to swoop in and knock the world’s socks off. But that’s not the way things are now. Someone skydived from space. Dogs ride skateboards pretty well. Our

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phone tells us when to leave for the airport. Everything is already pretty fucking cool. Not to mention as the creative depth of the average person increases, there’s dope content coming from lots of people.

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We can have a really great idea--yet millions of people will never see it. The audience of a billion has been replaced by billions of audiences of one. That means our ideas aren’t going to make everyone look they’d had better make a few people smile and cry. In a world of unicorns, we need to create someone’s favorite horse.

Clouds are an inspiration. On warm, lazy summer days we lie on the ground and watch

them flow through the air like giant animals. Animals that fade into fire trucks. Fire trucks that grow back into animals. Clouds are whatever we make them out to be; they grow, they shrink, they fade. With some creativity and imagination we turn them into whatever we want.

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Today with a laptop and a smartphone we can create our own clouds in any shape we want. Access to Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have changed the world, making us better equipped than any before us to collaborate, create, imagine and and invent. We can learn anything, anywhere with the touch of a button. This isn’t going to change. The clouds may come and go, change shape and morph into new things, but they will never disappear. We won’t let them.

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Creativity used to be some far off, theoretical idea. Something we encouraged in children

and praised in adults who “just had it.” These days, however, creativity is much more. It’s the only reality that the Millennial generation—our generation—has known.

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Like food, water and air, creativity in millennials isn’t just an option, it’s a necessity. Every aspect of our lives is guided by it, and our measure of success depends on it.

So we aren’t going to cramp up. Or let the imagination atrophy. Instead we’re developing exercises all the time to keep our creative muscles limber. Like writing a book in three hours.

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Size matters. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t. But the great secret no one’s

saying? Bigger isn’t better.

Advertisers once dreamed of big agency life, big agency clients and big agency perks. Those dreams are dead. The game has changed, and the little guys call the shots. The small shops take risks, think big and change the game. With nothing to lose and everything to gain they’ve got a reason to think different, and no excuse for being bland.

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As young creatives and strategists, thinkers and doers, we need small shops. They’re the breeding ground for ingenuity and the best place to learn what’s actually outside-the-box. Put in your hours, learn all the rules, and throw them out the window. No one got very far in this business by following the rules.

Communication isn’t controlled by the biggest kids on the playground. It’s evolving in the sweat of tiny shops with big ideas. The digitally savvy interns, the overly inventive art directors, and the up-all-night planners are the future of the business. The bullshit façade of corporate hierarchy is a relic, and the ability to be fearless is the new standard of gold.

Anything big can do, small can do better. And faster. The tools that set big shops apart (the resources and the technology) are available in the App store. We don’t need to worry about specifics when the ideas drive everything.

Size definitely matters. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t.

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We don’t care about the trappings. We just care about the work. We don’t care about

hierarchy. We just care about collaboration. We don’t care about titles. We just care about responsibility.

The workplace constructs of the past -- tiered office sizes, cubicles, organization charts -- may have worked for our parents, but not for us. We can work anywhere. A kitchen table, a coffee shop. We can connect with peers and colleagues across social channels.

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We can hold meetings over Google Hangouts or if you prefer, Skype. It doesn’t matter as long as we’re connected and collaborating.

Cubicle walls? We tore them down. Office buildings? We’re not opposed. But if they create barriers to our thoughts, ideas and creativity, we’re probably better off leaving them.

We simply want a workplace that connects us. So we can work more closely together. Learn from each other. Contribute to the overall purpose. And harness our collective energy to make things that matter.

You know, the kind of office where the CEO isn’t sitting on different floor, high above us, isolated in a corner office. That’s too far to go for coffee.

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We are not a generation that can be persuaded by basic poster advertisements and generic

messaging. With so many brands vying for our attention across many platforms, we’re interested in campaigns that can either enhance our lives with utility or enrich them with experiences.

We may notice a brand that has a “big” advertising idea, but if we’re to remember it then it will need to do more. Educate us, entertain us, or better yet brings us something we can actually use.

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As aspiring strategists and creators, we may have learned the importance of ads that tell stories, remnants from the days of Don Draper. But our belief in ideas does not stop at print, television, or radio. We want them to extend to platforms and services.

Offer us rich experiences. And be available in real time context. The ads we really appreciate and strive to create ourselves are the ones that go a step further and actually solve a problem.

Having grown up in the digital age we know what it takes to create these new, but necessary ideas. We have seen the creative ways that brands have started to use technology and we’ve lamented the times they’ve failed to embrace it quickly enough. We’re ready to creative beyond the page and generate ideas that are more than memorable ads, but worthwhile journeys. The days of advertising made only of words and pictures are a thing of the past. You can read about them in a flyer. Or you can join us on the roller coaster.

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“Dude, did you see my tweet?... Then why didn’t you tweet me back?”

Forget phone calls and text messages. Our generation shares good news, ideas and events with the world. The Internet is where we brag, complain, flirt, fight (trolls anyone?), offend and comment. It’s where we get our news and learn about people we’ve never met and things we’ve never seen.

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Imagine that you go somewhere, do something or win something awesome. Well, as far as our generation is concerned, if you don’t Facebook It, Tweet It, Instagram It or Vine it, it didn’t happen. We won’t know about it or care about it unless it’s plastered all over our Facebook and Twitter news feeds. If it doesn’t live online, it doesn’t exist at all. Our generation believes in sharing and spreading content through the digital world.

Even though we sometimes embarrass ourselves or abuse our power online, it’s the place where we’ve grown up. We’re connected with every corner of the planet and to people from all every imaginable place and background. One big melting pot of connected, digitally-savvy people.

Years from now, when archeologists want to learn about our generation, they won’t have to dig through dirt for bones and fossils. They’ll be able to log on to Twitter and scroll through the millions of Twitter feeds to read about what we love and think and care about.

Social Media is a powerful, incredible tool that has changed the way we see and share the world around us. And you better believe if the Egyptians had Twitter back in the day, they’d be tweeting the shit out of their #Pyramids, selfies and all.

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“OMG! Are you engaged?”

“Oh, no, this ring can read out my emails”

Let’s be honest: to the millennial generation, digital is the new diamond. The more dependant we become on technology, the higher our separation anxiety. We break a sweat just by leaving our phone to charge in the next room. That’s because we’re in a society where receiving a notification a minute late puts us behind the pack.

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We lose out on limited deals. We anger our friends for responding a minute after they text us. Our boss assumes we’re slacking when we haven’t responded to an email he hasn’t even sent yet. One day humans will evolve into having a skin pocket for our smart phones. But in the meantime, more and more wearable technology will be produced that allows us to never lose contact with the digital world.

“You’ll have to excuse me--my necklace is buzzing.”

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Once upon a time we were all sitting in our caves and drawing our emotions on the walls. Simple, effective

and long lasting. Now we regard it as a primitive form of human communication. But in reality they were the first emojis in human history.

Those original graphics have become artifacts. Today we use letters to form messages. But our generation has taken this simplicity yet another big step forward – or backwards. Just a few years ago we noticed the rightmost keys of our keyboards and figured out that we could use colons and parentheses to express meanings. LOL. :)

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Now we’re moving forward by returning to an idea that dates to 8000 years ago: using symbols that resemble human emotions and objects. The Japanese called them Emojis. Essentially they are nothing else but computerized cave drawings. Boom.

Emoji seamlessly blurs into our day-to-day conversations.The language constantly expands into new combinations of symbols. Meanwhile there are more than 1200 Emojis expressing plethora different emotions. But perhaps they say even more about the generation that uses them. We like fast, simple and visual. Even if we have to go back in time to find it.

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Today we are inundated with newly developed applications, games, platforms,

and technology each and every day. It’s virtually impossible to keep up. I remember the days of MySpace, coding my page to look as aesthetically appealing as possible to keep up with my technologically adept peers. My last days using Myspace became a blur as my generation slowly transitioned to something newer and better...Facebook.

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Vine, Twitter, and Facebook are among the most prominent social media platforms used by our generation today. But are they here to stay? Will one of us come up with a more engaging, user-friendly platform in his garage tomorrow? We might.

But even if we’re not the one who does, we’ll will stay conditioned and adaptable to the inevitable that do come. We know all too well that one day it’s AIM and MySpace, the next it’s FourSquare and Tumblr. So our eyes remain wide open to the spaces and platforms we’ll have to master as both users and creators.

A lizard adapts to its environment by changing color to survive its predators. In a sense, we must act like lizards, continuously morphing ourselves with the changes being thrown at us at lightning speed. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is too late. Change is inevitable. We must learn to adapt or be left behind. You’ll find no wrinkles on us.

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Art DirectorsAndrea ChiuLaura FaloticoVictor HanasBenjamin Knobl Jessie LiRich PetersPenny Shiu Cheryl SinclairSerena TangDaisy Yi WangSammy Xi

Contributors

WritersAlly BrillaudBriana BrochuDrew DiSabatinoCasey DonahueLauren HaslettChris HurlbertLara KessidesMichelle LawrenceStephanie LinLaura RoseCatherine Salvaggio

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Michelle Lawrence, Design DirectorRich Peters, Associate Design DirectorLauren Haslett, EditorAndrea Chiu, Selfie Art Direction

Jordan Pories, Video Production

Ryan Whitten, Video Production

end.