Donald Gunn asked Jean-Marie Dru to contribute an essay to the latest edition of the Gunn Report, the only independent report on creativity for the advertising world. Enjoy Jean-Marie Dru’s thoughts on mad-blog.com:

The economic crisis on the one hand, the digital revolution on the other…

Our profession has never been so shaken. These two circumstances create multiple effects. And we are all wondering what tomorrow will look like.

Concerning digital, communications groups are developing varied, often opposing strategies. Some, through a series of acquisitions, attempt to create a technological barrier between them and their competitors. Others, like our Agency, are putting digital at the very center of their conventional activities. Neither strategy is, by definition, the winner. There are different ways to succeed. What makes a strategy effective is the quality of its implementation, and the commitment to it.

To ensure that everything starts with digital, the 180 agency in Amsterdam totally reinvented itself. The result of their actions was even more radical than they had imagined, and the price they paid was heavy, with no fewer than 55 out of their total 120 staff changing. This is a dramatic illustration of the size of the task. The path ahead is narrow, and it is difficult.

Too often, we are more comfortable talking about digital ideas than making the inherent changes that are necessary to provoke the right solutions in the digital world. As Colleen DeCourcy, our Chief Digital Officer, said to me recently: “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.”

In an industry faced with such challenges, the relevance of award shows, and even The Gunn Report itself, comes under scrutiny. It is a recurring subject. I remember back in the ‘70s, industry colleagues who announced the imminent demise of the Cannes Festival. We know what it has since become. Its turnover increased tenfold, because today more than ever, the celebration of creativity is essential despite of the difficult environment in which we are operating, or rather, because of it. And it’s why, although they avoided awards shows for over 50 years, the world’s leading advertisers now participate actively in them, and celebrate when their own campaigns are recognized.

In a speech I gave in Cannes last year, I underlined that “Big can be beautiful too.” In 2007, both Procter & Gamble and Unilever were awarded a Grand Prix at this festival. Today, a lot of great work comes from large companies. They have internalized the fact that audiences are not captive anymore. If you don’t entertain and engage people, they will simply ignore you. “Safe advertising“ is becoming invisible. At last.

There’s no getting away from that fact that, today, creativity is no longer optional. It is vital to every product category and to every communications discipline.

In fact, there are two factors that are contributing to put creativity in the center. On the one hand, the imminent demise of repetitive advertising, and on the other, the understanding that each and every touchpoint between a brand and its audiences must be creative.

Advertising is part of how brands behave, but brands are judged on everything they do, not just how they appear in advertising.

We need to embrace all the ways to tell a brand’s story: its packaging, its retail presence, the content of its website, its PR programs, the products themselves. And to ensure that everything is creative. This is why, even when an agency is not directly in charge of one of these elements, it must nevertheless feel a sense of responsibility. There can be no room for compromise or mediocrity if you have the ambition to be a brand leader. Advertising agencies will rediscover their original reason for being; they will again become true generalists.

But contrary to the past, they will only achieve this if they learn how to change rhythm. The problem is no longer just to ensure the coherence between the different elements of a brand’s communication, which some continue to refer to as 360°. But rather, to feed a constant conversation with our audiences, 365 days a year. From 360 to 365…it is the very rhythm of communications that digital has shaken up. Agencies need to move from a quarterly to a daily cadence.

We have to organize ourselves to deliver constant communications. A fleet of small initiatives coming together to create an ongoing communication program, generating more frequent conversation points. We need to own these conversations, not just the creative work.

Read more…

Great brands are mad. They are mad in both senses of the word. On the one hand they break conventions, ignoring the conventional wisdom of their industry. Some might call this insane.

On the other hand, great brands have to be angry sometimes. Angry about the status quo. Angry that their products may still not be good enough. Angry that they’re not providing their audience with enough entertainment.

That’s why they’re constantly striving to improve their brand behavior. Great brands care about what they do – in everything they do.

The concepts of Media Arts and Disruption seem to be the best way to create success for brands. I am sure that some of the most admired brands in the world understand this. Some do it naturally, others have incorporated that way of working after experiencing how their performance in the market has changed after doing so.

Great brands have a clear belief-system, and they have a vision about their future. But they also understand the value of three fundamental thoughts that lead everything they do:

(1) They don‘t hunt for target groups. They entertain an audience.

(2) They know that the HOW and the WHERE are as important as the WHAT for a brand.

(3) They say good-bye to 360 degrees communication and welcome the 365 day approach of constant communication.

This changes dramatically how they behave in the world: these brands are artists in the way they use media.

For one year we have been celebrating big disruptive ideas as well as outstanding examples of brand behavior. More than 7.500 people have signed up to our feed and the incredible number of 4.500 individuals have visited the blog more than 200 times. Thank you all very very much.

Let‘s continue to be mad.

Ulrich

TBWA Worldwide has been recognized by Fast Company as an Innovation All-star. As part of the Most Innovative Companies issue, the 59 Innovation All-stars were culled from past Top 50 honorees, as companies that have “fought a dour economy with renewed creativity and bold initiatives.” TBWA Worldwide was first cited in Fast Company’s Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2009.

The Innovation All-stars report specifically calls out TBWA for getting “huge props for its work over the past 10 years – Adweek called “Get a Mac” the Campaign of the Decade; and iPod “Silhouettes” the Out-of-Home Ad of the Decade. Ad Age named TBWA the decade’s third-best agency also citing its work for Pedigree and Mars.”

Fast Company’s annual Most Innovative Companies issue honors major brands including Cisco, Disney, and GE along with such rising newcomers as Spotify, Gilt Groupe, HTC, and the Indian Premier League. Facebook leads the annual ranking of the Top 50, after growing its user-base from 150 million to 350 million in just one year.

Overall, Fast Company recognized 250 plus companies, including more than 75 non-U.S. businesses.

To create this year’s Most Innovative Companies issue, Fast Company’s editorial team analyzed information on thousands of businesses across the globe. The result is a package unlike that of any other business media. It’s not just about revenue growth and profit margins; it’s about identifying creative models and progressive cultures – to define the many forms of innovation that exist across the business landscape.

“It was invigorating to engage with so many exciting new ideas and developments,” said Fast Company editor Robert Safian.  “Our goal was to offer a snapshot of the creativity at work in the global marketplace, and to inspire the Fast Company audience with illustrations of how powerful and effective business can be.”

Something smells different at Old Spice. P&G is not exactly saying that Old Spice body wash will make your man smell like a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but that’s clearly what we’re meant to infer. It will be interesting to see how this ironic tone will affect the brand behavior of Old Spice. Will it be available in hardware stores and sports outlets?

Actually, we’re afraid that it still will be sold in the good old drugstore around the corner.

Last week Jeremy Clark from Adobe and I unveiled the first glimpse of the Wired Reader at TED. Below, you’ll see a video, narrated by Jeremy and Wired Creative Director Scott Dadich, who led our tablet team, that shows more. It explains why the tablet is such a groundbreaking opportunity for magazines such as WIRED.

As Chris Anderson continues in his blog EPICENTER on wired.com continues: much is still to be answered about magazines and other media on this emerging class of devices, from the business and distribution models to the consumer response. But what is already clear is that they offer the opportunity to be beautiful, highly engaging and immersive, going beyond what’s available on the web.

Is this the future of magazines? No, I guess it’s a future scenario for media brands.

WIRED’s future is digital and a perfect example that reflects how people today and even more tomorrow will digest media. It will change how content is consumed and it will change how brands have to behave.

But one thing is not changing: The people that edit great content, people that manage to entertain and audience, people that curate content and have great creative ideas are back in power. That is a bright future for our trade.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

From Walk-In Fridge to Walking Fridge. Enjoy the complete story how a viral film turned into one of the most successful examples of brilliant brand behavior. Congratulations to Heineken and TBWA\NEBOKO.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Jeroen Konings.

The death of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen is disturbing partly because it seems so apt. There has always been a shiver of darkness running through McQueen’s brand: from the shocking Highland Rape collection – recalling the bloody history of the English and the Scots – to warrior women on the runway with live wolves, or a menswear collection that alluded to spooky Victoriana, with a touch of Jack the Ripper. It’s as if the designer famed for his sharp cuts was always aware that the ultimate cutter lurked just over his shoulder.

Yet McQueen was also provocative and spirited. When he worked as a tailor on Britain’s legendary Savile Row, he allegedly sewed the words “I am a c***” into the lining of a suit jacket destined for Prince Charles. He created the “bumster” jean, which deliberately showed a large crack of the wearer’s rear, and even flashed his derriere at the audience on one occasion. As he grew older, he learned to channel this insolent streak into fashion that was bold, brave and challenging. The dumpy bad boy of the early years had grown into a risk-taking designer admired by his contemporaries.

There has already been much speculation about the reasons for McQueen’s depression. But they are none of our business. What matters is that another talent has chosen to end his story far too soon – in an industry where this happens far too often. McQueen may have calmed down in recent years. But this time, his many fans wish he’d given the Grim Reaper the finger.

Mark Tungate reports for mad-blog.com from Paris

Today the opening ceremony for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will entertain the world and Visa is a proud sponsor as in years past. This time, however, they celebrate with their first global Olympic campaign. The campaign features TV, digital and out-of-home advertising, host market merchant activation programs worldwide. Enjoy the work developed by the Los Angeles office of TBWA and check out an AdAge interview with VISAs marketing chief, Antonio Lucio.

“Go World builds on the concept that ran so successfully in the United States during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,” said Antonio Lucio, Chief Marketing Officer of Visa Inc. “To connect with Olympic fans globally, we’ve taken this platform and created a campaign that transcends borders, resonates with fans’ sense of national pride, builds our own business and that of our clients, and advances the spirit of the Olympic Movement.”

The Go World campaign celebrates athleticism and human triumph through unique athlete stories. It features a wintry blue tone throughout all creative executions and will be customized to maximize local relevance in key markets. The campaign also includes merchant offers, enhanced social media applications and a deeper focus on Visa-sponsored athletes (Team Visa – Vancouver).

See the athlete’s stories below. I challenge you not to well-up at Dan Jansen’s story!

You can also follow Go World on Facebook, visit their YouTube channel for more behind the scenes and training videos with the featured athletes or check out the microsite.

Alexi Salamone:

Jamaican Bobsled:

Dan Jansen: