Jean-Marie Dru (Chairman TBWA Worldwide) will join the TBWA Creative Academy at this year’s Golden Drum Festival. In his speech “DISRUPTION in a disrupted world” he will reflect on one of the toughest periods in the history of the advertising business and offer his thoughts on creativity and how brands should behave in the future.

Bestselling author and the inventor of Disruption – a way of unlocking the hidden potential of brands – Dru is a passionate believer in the power of big ideas. In his speech he will explain why brands now have an even greater need for smart and innovative thinking. And he’ll offer insights into how that thinking has helped mega-brands such as Absolut, Apple, Pedigree and Adidas.

With Disruption, Jean-Marie Dru gave TBWA an idea that has consistently set the agency apart from its competition. Both Advertising Age and Adweek magazines named TBWA Global Agency of the Year in 2008. And Fast Company magazine placed TBWA 24th on its 2009 list of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Disruption is both a mind-set and a methodology that TBWA uses every day to create the ideas that enable its clients to present brands in entirely new ways. It drives success by collaboratively, collectively and systematically interrogating and challenging the conventional thinking.

October 7, 2008; 10:30 a.m., Kodak Hall (Grand Hotel Bernardin, Portoroz SLO)

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

This is the 200th post on mad-blog.com. Congratulations and a big hand to all those who have contributed so far. Over 20,000 absolute unique visitors from 134 countries joined us, spending an average of 2:59 minutes on the blog. Over 4,550 people have subscribed to our rss feed. Thanks for all the interest and support.

This is the perfect opportunity to share the most read stories celebrating Media Arts and Disruption. Enjoy and pass them on:

(1) The audience is always right. (by Michael Zorn)

(2) Some brands don‘t like change. Change doesn’t much care. (by Michael Zorn)

(3) Cannes Lions 2009: Who will be the big winners? (by Rob Schwartz)

(4) Disruption is liberation. (by Sven H. Becker)

(5) Let‘s do things we think we cannot do. (by John Hunt)

(6) Change: What business can learn from politics 2.0. (by Frank Striefler)

(7) The age of media arts. (by Lee Clow)

(8) The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar Campaign. (by Gavin Heron)

(9) Act like lovers do. (by Stefan Schmidt)

(10) adidas Originals: Connection with the original tribe. (by Moritz Kiechle)

(11) Images travel but disruptive ideas thrive. (by Perry Valkenburg)

(12)  The beauty of big. (by Jean-Marie Dru)

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

The fashion industry has come to Berlin this week. One of the year’s highlights is Bread & Butter, the largest “urban wear” trade fair in the world, featuring big names like Nike, adidas and Levis as well as a multitude of smaller brands showcasing the latest products and trends.

Bread & Butter’s new venue is a key reason behind its return to Berlin from Barcelona, where it relocated for a couple of years. The city’s mayor promised that the organizers would be able to use Tempelhof, the historic former airport built in the 1920s, as the site for their event for the next 10 years.

But the site is only part of the story – the city counts too. Inspired and inspiring creativity is all around us in Berlin, on the backs of local design students or in small boutiques where young designers benefit from Berlin’s famously affordable rents. Leading brands like adidas discovered these phenomena years ago.

On Münzstrasse in Berlin Mitte, the epicentre of urban fashion, adidas opened it very first adidas Originals shop in 2001. A truly international audience comes together in the three central neighborhoods – Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte and Friedrichshain. This is where industry trends are  set and where brands initiate a conversation with their audience. See what adidas has done recently for its original tribe:

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

If TBWA wants to be one of the top 10 most creative companies in the world, it has to look at everything in a different way. John Hunt, Worldwide Creative Director, explains how.

We can’t define advertising in a narrow way. We have to learn from companies outside of ourselves – learn how they redefined the categories they played in. We have to look at our jobs, our clients, our audiences and certainly the media from a completely different angle. I’ve put a few practical thoughts together that may help us do this.

1. Change the way we brief.

Imagine if the brief was the first expression of Media Arts? Our briefs need to be more visual. They don’t always have to include lots of ticks in boxes. And they certainly don’t have to be done in the agency. Briefs, certainly on big campaigns, should be inspirational. For example, we recently did a briefing for a pasta client in an Italian restaurant, it’s amazing what Italian opera and arabiata can achieve.

2. Invite the client to the briefing as well as the presentation.

It sounds a little radical, but it really works. If it’s the client’s briefing, strangely enough, it also becomes their campaign. This way, you don’t meet each other for the first time at the presentation. Adopt this policy and I bet your first-time sell rate will double.

3. Think more about how you package your ideas.

So many great ideas don’t see the light of day because we package them badly. Unfortunately, both in awards shows and presentations to clients, your work is only as good as the way it’s packaged. In South Africa, they did a radio spot for Jungle Oats, a breakfast cereal that’s meant to make kids strong. They wanted it to sound like an old Zulu work song.  That’s quite difficult to sell – but not if you ask 100 children from Soweto’s Room 13 to sing it for you.

4. To get more beautiful answers ask more beautiful questions.

A great idea often comes from a perfectly asked question. So don’t just ask a client about the size of their budget – also ask about the real problems with their business. A client will let you do great work if they you really understand their business. That way, we’re not just the provider of their ads, but rather the architect of their brand.

5. Divide and Conquer has become Share and Conquer.

To become that architect, the agency now has to work as a team.  If there are walls between Client Management, Creative, Planning, Digital, Media and so on, they should become invisible. Different disciplines are not an excuse for working in sealed silos. Our clients, more and more, want an all-encompassing answer to their mounting problems. They don’t care where the answer comes from, as long as it comes.

6. Have an idea, not just an ad.

Our job is to effect audience behaviour, not just to fill in a media schedule. Don’t get me wrong – often a great idea will still find itself translated into mainstream media. And practising Media Arts is absolutely no excuse for lousy TV commercials or print ads. It’s just that in effecting audience behaviour, ‘classical’ advertising is no longer the only game in town. TBWA\Berlin could’ve done posters and double page spreads. They just thought the adidas ‘Huddle’ and ‘Ferris Wheel’ spectaculars during the UEFA EURO 2008 might have more impact. Read more…

The members to this years Promo and Direct jury at the 2009 Cannes Lions have assigend sixteen shortlist positions to TBWA agencies from around the world. Eight countries contribute to the list: Australia (2), Belgium (2), Germany (2), Japan (1), New Zealand (4), Turkey (3), Saudi Arabia (1) and South Africa (1). The most awarded TBWA client is adidas with four shortlist positions, three in the Promo category and one for Direct.

Shortlist Promo

Shortlist Direct

Final results for both categories will be published Monday night in Cannes.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

Images can take a campaign international, but it’s the strength of ideas that will really unlock its potential. Just ask the US president Barack Obama.

PART ONE – You don’t need me to tell you how successful Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was. And you certainly don’t need me to analyze the communications strategy behind it. Even before the dust had settled, that job had been done many times.

But what struck me as I travelled around my territory during the US election race was the ease with which the Obama brand crossed borders. In cities from Amsterdam to Zurich, I saw T-shirts bearing Obama’s image, along with the now familiar messages: “Hope”, “Change” and “Yes we can”. Not that I wish to disparage the president’s international supporters, but I’m sure many of the people wearing those T-shirts had only a cursory knowledge of his policies. Obama was no longer a mere politician. He had become an idea.

I found this highly relevant, because in our business we’re constantly grappling with the global management of ideas. Ironically, despite the fact that it’s now almost 45 years since Marshall McLuhan first wrote of “the global village”, that task has become increasingly difficult.

In the early days of TBWA, our main concern was that our network was too diffuse. We were worried that we had gaps here and there; that the disparate agencies were not working closely enough together. Today, I think, most people agree that our network is highly cohesive. But wrangling those ideas has not become any easier. Digital media and empowered consumers have seen to that.

So how on earth can we ensure that our ideas cross borders with the agility of Barack Obama, without becoming distorted along the way? For a start, I’m utterly convinced by what my friend Jean-Marie Dru described in Cannes as “the beauty of big”. Other may disagree, but I personally feel that, in order to manage ideas on a global basis, you need a big, seamless network.

After that, the approach depends on each specific client. As most readers will be aware, there’s no cookie cutter solution. You need the answers to several questions. What is the strategic direction of the client’s company? Is it national, regional or global? What is its attitude regarding the standardization of products and marketing programs? If the client wants to change its positioning, does it envisage a gradual change or a revolution? Or does it want both, depending on the market?

And is the decision-making process centralized or decentralized? One interesting exercise is to put these questions to the HQ and the local markets. The answers are always revealing – and most often different.

In tomorrows part, I’ll be looking at examples how successful brands like adidas, Apple or Absolut have tackled the problem.

Continue with PART TWO.

Perry Valkenburg is President Europe and COO International at TBWA. In this series of two posts, he explains why big disruptive ideas are the right way to tackle the global challenges for brands. If you have any comments or suggestions please email Perry Valkenburg.

This is the 100th post on mad-blog.com. Congratulations and a big hand to all those who have contributed so far. 15,000 individuals from 94 countries joined us, visiting more than 30,000 pages and spending an average of 2:28 minutes on the blog. Over 1,100 people have subscribed to our rss feed. Thanks for all the interest.

This is the perfect opportunity to share the 11 most read stories celebrating Media Arts and Disruption. Share and enjoy:

(1) Some Brands don’t like change. Change doesn’t much care. 

(2) What business can learn from politics 2.0

(3) Visa: Follow Twitchiker moving at the speed of culture

(4) adidas Originals: Change in action as fans select Berlin’s most original person

(5) Act like lovers do – by Stefan Schmidt

(6) Heineken: Something Big in the Net

(7) adidas: Ladies love the swapping

(8) Who needs Big Ideas? – by Tom Morton

(9) Absolut: In an ABSOLUT world love would be the currency

(10) The Age of Media Arts – by Lee Clow

Great brands entertain their audience. The Super 14 rugby tournament needed to extend its fan base. With rugby reaching its saturation point among male kiwi fans in New Zealand, a new fan base was sought. Take a look at what adidas came up with…  www.jerseyswap.co.nz

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Andy Blood.