Why Boston Beats New York as a Creative Capital

If the Red Sox could beat the Yankees a few times, despite the disparity in player salaries, Boston can beat NYC in creativity.

Let’s appreciate the unique conditions and advantages for Boston creative:

We live at the juncture of Past and Future. Our state is unusual in having so many future-oriented institutions – we’re a higher education capital, a high tech capital, an R&D capital, a venture capital capital – and yet we are constantly reminded of our history. We not only have old monuments and historic sites, we’ve got ethnic traditions, cultural heritage, and Old School folks who take pride in spurning the nouveau. That mix of old and new is combustible. When you think of advertising in Boston to the new, old, or newly old, you’ve got to think imaginatively.

“Mad Men” is more creative than Madison Avenue. Back in the day, if you wanted to be an ad man you aspired to be in NYC. But now many creative people prefer to work online, and most of the ideas that dazzle are not coming out of New York. Sure, the city is still teeming with writers and artists of all kinds, but you don’t have to be there to make it big in communications. Those who work in New Media especially are creative in whatever community makes them feel most productive. That’s different for everyone, but for many it’s a small big city like Boston.

We’re more in touch with un-reality. Boston was called “the Hub of the Universe” as a joke, but that ‘tude is part of who we are. We tend to be Boston-centric. Sure, it’s a little conceited, but having the feeling that your city is important makes you all the more driven in trying to do work that is worthy of it. I prefer to think of it in terms of ambition, not arrogance. “Boston ambition” is not always “beat New York!” as sports fans like to shout. In media, it means trying to come up with ideas that will impress, inspire, educate, entertain…not just sell. That may seem unrealistic when you’re just trying to sell a typical gizmo – but it’s motivational. And motivation is crucial because if your brain is constantly sifting through stimuli for a great new idea, the chances are better that you’ll find one.

Virtual now means real. In recent years. I’ve produced TV spots, corporate comm and live events, but, like many ad budgets, I’ve been pulled online-ward. Boston is a natural hub for the web world because per capita we’re more oriented toward those who work predominantly online -- whether in medical tech, robotics, education, gaming or finance. Boston has become very entrepreneurial, and that means having more than online “presence”; it means dominating online, living the dream online, going big digitally...

Boston won’t become the financial or entertainment capital of the country – not any time soon. But I really see Boston becoming a hub of New Media globally. That will really frost New York. That’s not our motivation, but... Oh, hell, of course it is.

Alex Poulos is the President at LaunchPad Media.

LaunchPad is an award-winning creative agency specializing in interactive media production – creating websites and driving traffic to them through advertising, search optimization, and PR. Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, LaunchPad serves clients throughout the U.S.