In a series of seven posts authors from London –  this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion.

I’d like to use this blog as an opportunity to give a point of clarity on Media Arts and what we must focus on at TBWA\London to make it a success. Media Arts  has become a core discipline for the TBWA network, but not if it is misunderstood.

Media Arts is not about stunts, or one off media ideas in channels that break from a brand’s more commonplace media schedule.  Media Arts is a way of orchestrating everything a brand does in the world, at every relevant touch point with consumers.

Too often we are guilty of celebrating a channel specific idea or event and forgetting the big picture.  Well the big picture is this: we can only orchestrate how a brand behaves if we are crystal clear on what the vision is for that brand, and what our disruptive idea is that will help that brand to get there.  This is why Media Arts has to work hand in hand with Disruption.  Media Arts is behaviour, with every component part of it helping to tell the right story about a brand to take it somewhere new.  Disruption is the way we find an idea for a brand to help it get there.  A good summation of this on a chart is as follows:

In some instances we have great examples of this.  Apple’s belief for instance is ‘Technology that changes people’s lives’, and the resulting behaviour is ‘Simple and human’.  It provides a great guide for how the brand should behave and also how it shouldn’t.  Pedigree is another good example.  Its belief is ‘We’re for dogs’, and its behaviour is that ‘Everything we do is for the love of dogs’.  And in both examples the behaviour results from the belief.  For every office in our network, and particularly London in its new guise, our ambition must be to work with our clients to establish their brand’s belief, and then demonstrate our ability to execute the right ideas in the right places through our unique talent, now finally all housed under one roof.

One more thing.  We have proved throughout the network that we are experts at coming up with disruptive ideas for our clients.  There are cupboards full of case studies and awards that prove it, not to mention a fast-growing network.

In London, as our companies come together to create a hot-bed of talent across disciplines we must avoid the temptation to execute numerous isolated ideas, digital or otherwise, to demonstrate our new skill set. Lots of random stuff does not a brand make.  Instead we must look at where we have agreed the brand belief with our clients, and where we have executed the right activity for these brands to create consistent and appropriate behaviour that has added value.  Let’s prioritise the first part – brand belief, and then deliver the second part, brand behaviour.  We must walk before we can run to have a few shining examples of success in the months ahead.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Matt Shepherd-Smith, CEO TBWA\London

Direct: 00 44 207 573 6592

The filmmaker has embarked on an extraordinary partnership with the Galeries Lafayette store in Paris, MAD correspondent Mark Tungate reports.

With David Lynch’s films becoming increasingly non-narrative – and, quite frankly, baffling – it’s no surprise that he has extended his reach to contemporary art. And in true Lynch style, he’s doing it in disruptive ways. This week Lynch was in Paris to unveil his “street museum”: a series of art installations in the windows of the Galeries Lafayette department store. The exhibition, on show until October 3, is called “Machines, Abstraction and Women”.

Although artists have created window displays for stores before, it’s hard to recall a partnership as pure as this one. There’s not an item of clothing in sight. Instead, the viewer is plunged into Lynch’s psyche via a series of giant abstract sculptures. He apparently spent months creating them in an atelier in Montparnasse. A more traditional gallery inside the store is showing the filmmaker’s paintings, sketches and other works.

With retailers under fire in an era of anti-consumption, Galeries Lafayette is sensibly repositioning itself not just as a store, but also as a hub of communication and culture.

Until October 3, Galeries Lafayette, 40 boulevard Haussmann, 75009, Paris

Open Monday to Saturday from 9.30am to 8pm (9pm on Thursday)

Metro: Havre Caumartin

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Mark Tungate.

Gun crime illustration

Creative Review recently shared some great illustrations. All come from a book by Noma Bar. Enjoy. “Noma Bar has compiled his newest collection of work, Negative Space. Including works commissioned by such prestigious publications as The Economist, Esquire, Wallpaper, The Guardian and Time Out London, as well as never before seen illustrations, in this book Bar focuses on subject matter ranging from sex, global warming and nuclear warfare to religion, crime and corporate greed,” explains the publisher on his website.

Negative Space by Noma Bar is published by Mark Batty Publisher (£16).

The Guardian reports in its online edition about a great example for Media Arts and Pedigree’s brand behavior. After changing the brand belief from being a dog-food-producer to a dog-loving-company, Pedigree launched the adoption drive initiative in multiple countries. TBWA/London has taken the unusual step of developing a children’s book as a marketing tactic for client Mars UK to promote its Pedigree dog food brand and encourage kids to be dog lovers.

The book, called Oliver’s Travels, tells the story of a dog called Oliver who “lives in a nice, cosy home, then one day everything changes” as The Guardian puts it. The book will sell for £2.99 and all profits will support Pedigree’s adoption drive.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Julie McKeen from TBWA\London.

To commemorate the induction of Michael Jordan into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Gatorade and TBWA\Chiat\Day in LA launched a series of limited edition “MJ” bottles. These featured beautiful black and white photos of Michael “then, now and forever.” To take these beyond just a packaging idea, they created a large-scale illuminated mural of MJ in a Chicago street basketball court using over 14,000 limited edition Gatorade bottles and 200 large light boxes. Hundreds of fans watched from the city’s streets as the massive MJ lit up, and later millions watched at home as the footage was made into national television spots. So, all you need to make an idea shine is a clever product demonstration and a national hero.

Check out the making of:

And the official TV spot: