Phoenix’s 110° temperatures melted more than the occasional flip flop at Admerica, The American Advertising Federations’ national conference. It must have been the heat that was melting down the creative and strategic silos that have long been an aspect of traditional agency culture. And from conference-goers to featured speakers, most attendees agreed on two things, the convergence of digital strategy with traditional creative was hot and we liked it.

The line up of panelists read like an all-star cast of agency a-listers and brand-side superpowers, and while they didn’t agree on everything, a common theme emerged from their discussions.

The line between what represents a digital and traditional strategy has become blurry at best, but most panelists suggested that the truly great marketing of the coming years will throw out that distinction entirely to create disruptive ideas that operate in conjunction with a brand’s core story – regardless of campaign.

When asked what their favorite creative campaign of the past year was, many didn’t turn to a 30-second commercial, a print series or a website – or any singular campaign at all. Tweets from the power outage at the Superbowl, whether by Oreo or All-state, were at the top of many lists (in fact, no one mentioned any other Superbowl advertising.) But the work that built the band platform for tweets, across campaigns, across channels and even across agencies, represented the unified brand stories of which those tweets were just the pinnacle. A short burst of brand story-telling at the right place, the right time and to the right audience.

Both presenters and attendees ranked in the upper echelon ideas that combined online video with a simple marketing premise and spread virally, such as the newcomer Dollar Shave Club, right next to more established brands.

Pete Cashmore, Founder of Mashable and Keynote speaker of Admerica, represented a true convergence of social media, blogs, traditional advertising and native advertising. His insight on the future of native advertising — essentially telling people stories they want to read sponsored by brands — harkens back to an early age of advertising but modernizes the concept with innovations in storytelling, format and user engagement.

Convergent thinking is something we’ve always done at Stone Ward. It should come as no surprise that a more nimble agency can innovate with each coming creative opportunity and reorganize internally to allocate resources to best fit the brands they serve, while larger more traditional agencies struggle with traditional agency roles. I was surprised, however, just how much larger brands, such as Coke or Dove are requiring their partners to work together across agencies, development companies, and publishers to coordinate brand stories throughout divergent channels. I was proud to represent both my club, Little Rock AAF, and my agency at the event, and bring just a little bit of that Phoenix creative heat back home. Even if it did cost me a melted flip flop.