Fortune Magazine named him “Master of Disruption” in 2006. Now he has been named “CEO of the Decade” by the same publication. Steve Jobs has turned around basically everything he and Apple touched over the last years: personal computing, how people enjoy music and how the stay connected on the move. By using digital technology in way that it helps and entertain human beings, he was the key driver of one of the most amazing success stories in business.
Check out Steve Jobs’ hits and misses in an amazing online timeline. Click here.
Fred Vogelstein reported in 2006 in Fortune Magazine: “Apple’s trick has been not just its game-changing tech breakthroughs (music and computers made easy) but its relentless push to disrupt itself before others have a chance to do so. “The thing that most people don’t realize about Steve is that he is not only really good at taking technology and turning it into good-looking, easy-to-use products, he’s really good at doing it faster than anyone else,” says Paul Saffo of the Institute of the Future in Palo Alto.”
Consumers who have never picked up an annual report or even a business magazine gush about his design taste, his elegant retail stores, and his outside-the-box approach to advertising. (“Think different,” indeed.)
Fortune Magazine says: “It’s as if his signature “one more thing” line now applies to him as well.” So, let’s wait for the next chapters of “one more thing”. But first, check out some of the most iconic examples of Apples brand behavior, some advertising developed by TBWA\Chiat\Day and TBWA\Media Arts Lab.
Apple’s VP Industrial Design about the change of design and the new challenges they are faced with. First time to watch and hear details about the development of Apple’s product design. The design of a product is an essential part of the brand behavior, just like an ad, the layout of the shop or the CEO’s speech.
The “Crazy Ones”. Lee Clow, global director of media arts, participates in a discussion with Matthew Weiner, creator of the AMC retro TV show, Mad Men. Lee Clow talks about advertising and compares the reality of the advertising industry with the fictional TV portrayal.
During the discussion Lee shared his honest opinion about advertising. He also explained that our industry is not about producing a single great ad, it is about winning with a big idea, about a brand belief and a brand behavior that match. Lee said: “I grew up an artist and a designer. I wanted to be able to use my artistic ability in a way to make a living. I consider myself a storyteller.” He called having Apple as a client “my special, lucky circumstance. … We are immersed in everything that brand does. The Apple Store is probably the best ad we ever did for Apple.”
Check Barbara Lippert’s (AdWeek columnist), full story, click HERE.
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)
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. Todays post by Rob Brown, Managing Director Staniforth\ and author of “Public Relations and the Social Web”.
Social media isn’t new. The internet was created to allow people to talk to each other. In 1969 five US universities were linked together for the first time with one primary objective; improved communication. Word of mouth. So, social media isn’t new, but it is a lot more interesting of late.
It is also game changing. Years ago, Steve Jobs at Apple reputedly recruited Pepsico president John Sculley with the question, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” Steve Jobs and Apple have changed the world, as have Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook, along with Ev Williams and Biz Stone at Twitter and so will music streaming Spotify supremos Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. We, all of us, can too.
Social media isn’t just the democratisation of published opinion; it impacts on choice, opinion, news, entertainment, politics, art, health, well-being and the world. When the post election protests erupted in Iran, Twitter and Facebook users persuaded CNN to change the way it was covering the crisis.
This isn’t just about words or even news and opinion it incorporates and allows the proliferation of artistic endeavour in all its forms. That is why, in the new world of media arts led marketing communications, the quality of thinking and strength of creativity are paramount. In a world where everyone has a voice standing out from the crowd, being disruptive, becomes more vital than ever. We must seek out the idea, the point of view or the piece of insight that will capture imaginations. Whilst the way we deliver messages may be changing, the fundamental principles of communication remain the same.
Something that has altered is the breakneck speed at which things news and ideas can travel. We need to adapt. The world is evolving and it is happening quickly. The web itself has just turned eighteen, YouTube has been around for only four years, (it was sold for $1.65 billion after less than two) and it is less than three years since Facebook was launched to the public. Spotify still hasn’t had its first birthday.
London is and will continue to be at the heart of all of this. London’s arts and cultural sector is worth £30 billion and more than half a million people are employed in the sector. It is home to social web entrepreneurs like Michael Birch, founder of Bebo and Brent Hoberman of Lastminute.com, who are behind a fund that has invested over £120 million this month in the development of Tweetdeck the leading Twitter platform. On 5 August London became the global twitter capital with more activity on the microblogging site than any other city. Social media is bringing London to the world and the world to our doorstep.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Rob Brown, Managing Director, Staniforth\.
Whatever our nationality, most of us think of ourselves as people with normal tastes and habits. However, when viewed through the prism of another culture, we are often subject to stereotyping. As the annual vacation season approaches, these stereotypes are likely to emerge once again.
To take some well-known examples: Americans are loud and uncultured; Italians don’t queue; the British queue all the time; the Germans take all the sun loungers and the Japanese take photos of everything. These stereotypes are a way of defining one group of people against another.
Do nations feel more united by establishing that others act differently? Is this human nature? Do we define who we are by what we are not? We can see this at international sporting events, where clear divisions of “us and them” are set in place and reinforced by team colours, symbols and flags. These not only help us to identify our own nation, but also our ‘rivals’.
To me, this suggests that a state of being can only clearly be understood when it is contrasted with something else. Advertising has occasionally used this premise.
Take for example Apple’s “I’m a PC” campaign. The ads have run since 2006 and follow the two characters – PC and Mac in human form – as each discusses the merits or failings of the other. PC is unfashionable, traditional and self-effacing, while Mac is clued up, casual and cool. Some examples are linked here.
The flipside of stereotyping, of course, is that the victims feel judged or misrepresented by the other party, and so they draw together in defence. Often they strike back with a response that aims to correct the wrong impression. Values or characteristics that kick against conventions are also interesting to advertisers.
Take for example Windows’ response to the Mac ads. The “I’m a PC” campaign sought to establish a new image for the product by selecting traits that define a PC – stating with “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype”. The strategy met a lukewarm response and was soon dropped.
Was the campaign less successful due to a lack of direct comparison? While the ads confront an external rival, they do not have the same dynamic. There is praise for the PC, but no ‘live’ conversation with the Mac – and so the tension is lost. The Apple ads generate debate, conflict, and division, while inviting the viewer to join in.
iPhone Apps. A global phenomenon. A global success story. Never before, I´m sure, has one technology brought that much creativity to break out of so many different people. In such a short time. And merely 2 years after introducing the iPhone apple used the explosion of iPhone apps to create art.
Read all about the pulsating wall of apps at the WWDC conference in San Francisco earlier this month on techcrunch.com.
If you have any comments or suggestions please email Stefan Schmidt.
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.
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.
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.
