When it comes to creating great ads, I believe that e-mail has set us back about 50 years... to the old days, when a copywriter would write a headline; then, he’d walk that headline down the hall to the art director and slip it under the door. The art director would come up with a visual for it and that’s how ads got done.  Not face-to-face... but door to door.

Now we’re separated by computers instead of doors.  So it's worthwhile to remember the advantages of creating face-to-face:

• Real time. You can build on an idea or kill it -- instantly.
• A Deeper understanding. When you’re working face-to-face, the meaning of the idea doesn’t get lost in translation.
• The Ping Pong Effect. When two people bang ideas together, they can build to a much more powerful concept.

For your next creative challenge, shut down your e-mail, walk down the hall, go face-to-face and make the sparks fly.