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.

Otherwise said, in this digital era, traditional agencies will only succeed if they adopt the rhythm of the pure players. And as for these, they will need to learn, or rather to understand, how brands are built. These two symmetrical challenges are vital for the agencies concerned. The challenge for so-called conventional agencies is immense. The challenge for the pure players appears to me even more formidable.

Agencies need to repatriate part of the media thinking process. We can no longer think of media as numbers on a spreadsheet or a list of options for places to buy our audiences’ attention. We can no longer think of media as just a means for brands to talk at consumers, but rather as all the places, spaces and experiences where people live their lives. “Media” does not have to be paid for, and it does not have to be measurable to matter to our audiences. In essence, media is any space between an idea and the audience.

It is time for advertising agencies not to be media neutral anymore, but to be media passionate. It is time to grow ideas that turn brands into media themselves.

The industry adopted “Communications Planning” as a way of describing this. A new discipline, at the crossroads of audience planning and connection planning. We do not talk to “consumers” anymore, we talk to audiences who are marketing savvy, who know the brands, who respect them and who program their own media lives. Today, each of us plans his own daily itinerary through all these “media” solicitations. We need to understand the members of our audiences, how they connect with the world, how they digest media and all the technology that surrounds them…

If we treat people like “consumers,” we are interrupting what they are interested in to talk to them about our brand. If we treat people like an “audience,” we become what they are interested in, and become an integral part of them.

As for Connections Planning, it is much more than just a tool for allocation of resources. It is about understanding the interaction between all the different points of contact, rather than just the impact of these individual contact points.

This is why, as an illustration of this, we often discuss the magic triangle formed by advertising/event/digital.

Each of these three elements rebounds off the two others. Like a kind of ricochet. Back and forth between the real and virtual worlds. An event created in the street is picked up and circulated on the net and nourishes the brand idea developed in the advertising. Or the other way around, a community receives a text message on its mobile that provokes a reaction in real life. Or another case, where an event can become content for both offline and online advertising. The virtual decouples the effects of the real, and the real gives substance, life to the virtual. Brand conversations are organized around these exchanges. And the role of agencies is to organize and feed these conversations. To enrich the brand story, on a daily basis.

In other words, the way media is used has become a creative issue. And from now on, every advertising agency presentation should start with media.

At TBWA, we regroup all these thoughts and practices under one expression. We call it Media Arts. Because we believe each point of contact must tell the brand story gracefully, artfully.

Whatever they choose to call it, however they approach this new discipline, traditional agencies, the big networks, cannot ignore this new reality. There is only one way to define brand behavior, and that is to integrate everything, and do this in a creative way.

Our mission is to design brand behaviors to serve brand beliefs. Agile brand behaviors, to support brave brand beliefs.

And it is here, digital revolution or not, that nothing has changed. Our business has always been to build brands, to give them more sense and substance. It is up to our agencies to imagine and to formulate what these brand beliefs are.

At TBWA, this is the role of Disruption. Disruption is about brand belief, whereas Media Arts is about brand behavior.

Most often, this brand belief is encapsulated in a few precise words. A few examples I know well are: “Think Different, Shift, Impossible is Nothing, Dogs Rule, In an Absolut World, Go Visa…” Agencies’ true reason for being is to bring to life the meaning that resides in these words. This ability to express in a few words what a brand stands for, what impact it can have, what the brand believes in. In fact, in this ever-changing world of content and clutter, brands with a clear point of view are more valuable than ever.

These few words that “say the brand” will be the starting point for storytelling. They are at the same time the source of creative inspiration and the strategic backbone for all the communications plans. Today, more than ever, in a fragmented world where everyone is seeking signposts, we need big central ideas that serve as lighthouses. As Lee Clow said recently: “Big ideas win, good ads don’t.”

Agencies are experts at distilling a thought into just a few words. To understand the essence of a brand, to give it a larger share of the future, to share the idea with all the brand’s audiences, this is, and will always be, our role.

To achieve this, we have at our disposal today a multitude of means of expression. So many new delivery systems, formats, screens and experiences available to us to deliver the brand story. The consequence is that creative output is increasing exponentially in quantity. Where we used to produce 30-second formats, we now have to think in terms of websites, blogs, e-webs, digital radio, SMS conversations, social media on the web, street events, PR, and a whole array of new communications opportunities.

On the financial side, the implications of all this are critical for the future of our industry. More content produced in more different ways should result in more fees to conceive it all. However, with the crisis as an excuse, the trend is rather the opposite.

The stakes are clear: thanks to the interactions between all the disciplines, to the digital boom, we know that we can achieve levels of effectiveness with partially lower “media” investment. At the same time, we need to increase our creative resources. Depending on the agency, the cost of these represents only about 2% (between 1% and 3%), of the clients’ overall investment: a very few percentage points that can obviously have a huge leverage effect on the value of the total 100% investment. It is vital that our clients understand that a part, albeit minor, of the savings made in media investment should be reinvested in creative resources. This, for them, is where the true creation of value lies.

1 or 2% more…this is the necessary condition for a total transformation of our industry. Because the creative revolution we are embarked upon needs to be funded. There is no other option for our clients than to contribute to making this happen. They will be the first to benefit.

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

(Part One)

(Part Two)

Hunt was born in Zambia and educated in England and South Africa, he was the Creative Founding Partner of TBWA Hunt Lascaris.

 TBWA Hunt Lascaris has now grown to be South Africa’s premier advertising agency – named Agency of the Year six times in the last seven years. 
In 1993 John was intimately involved in Nelson Mandela’s first ANC election campaign. Three years later, he joined the South African Advertising Hall of Fame – the first working creative to be so honored, and in 1997 he received the Financial Mail’s Long Term Achievement Award.

TBWA has been named by Adweek magazine as the “Global Advertising Agency Network of the Year” in both 2007 and again for 2009. Led by CEO (and Berlin School Board of Governors member) Jean-Marie Dru, the full-service agency has more than 250 offices in 77 countries. Some of its major clients include Adidas, Absolut Vodka, Apple, Henkel, Mars, Nissan, and Sony PlayStation.

Check out reviews of the book on adage.com and mad-blog.com.

More background, click here.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

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.

Or enjoy all “Get a Mac” commercials on apple.com. Enjoy and remember, get one.

One of the most successful commercials, Heineken’s “Walk-In Fridge” was aired the first time in January 2009. It has been spoofed several times, shared by millions of fans around the world and now TBWA\Neboko in Amsterdam has added another chapter to the story.

After seeing the commercial, basically all male beer fans where looking for a way to get their own “Walk-In Fridge”. Some where succeeded, at least looked it that way. In December 2009 pedestrians across Amsterdam saw giant carton boxes, at recycling stations, on central places and being carried by a group of young beer-thrusty men. A fun an entertaining way to recalling a great idea.

Get a Heineken and enjoy some great brand behavior.

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

And once again, if you happen to come across some things we should share, please let us know.

This isn’t an ad. This is an idea. A big one. It was conceived to be the ultimate product demo. Here’s how it goes. What if you took two rival high school football teams and had them replay a significant game…15 years later. The teams would need to train and get back in shape. And oh yeah, they’d need plenty of Gatorade. Two teams on the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border did this. Here’s the trailer, but got to MissionG.com to see more of the story. Also FOX has turned it into a series. You’ll find more info on that if you click HERE.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Rob Schwartz. Or check out his blog.

The russian born artist joined in 1995 a degree program in art Photography and media arts at the Academy of Visual Arts (HGB) Leipzig and graduated with a Master in Fine Arts in 2002. Please check out her latest project: ‚suspicious minds’.

The exhibition ‚suspicious minds’ puts its focus on men that lead in reality – apart from their function – a life in the periphery. Viktoria Binschtok deals with the amassed depictions of state receptions, public announcements and speeches. when one takes a close look on the press pictures of the mighty of this world, one can actually discover a remarkable parallelism: there is at least one man behind every politician that guards him or her. espe- cially in times of constant terror threat and enforced security control, this is a more and more common picture. These poker-faced, well-dressed men act inconspicuously in the back. It is striking how much they resemble each other in their attempt to disclose the putative mistake in the system. They are encircled by an aura of absence and at the same time most possible tension and concentration. Their facial expression seems totally indifferent and hence en- forces the focus on their stereotypical gestures and postures.

To learn more about Viktoria Binschtok click HERE to download her english portfolio.

Artists contact: Sebastian Klemm, info@klemms-berlin.com, www.klemms-berlin.com

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

Allow me one comment about your actual venue: Putting yourself into a Convention Center is wrong. Make it a Disruption Center. You are not about displaying the sea of sameness. You are about the future. OK, with your messaging you already made the step forward*: FEEL GOOD. Thanks for that.

Stay tuned to mad-blog.com for some coverage from Miami Beach celebrating big media artists, disruptive ideas and outstanding examples for brand brand behavior from the art business and beyond.

*as a hugh neon installation illumination the ABMBs oceanfront shouts it out to the world.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.