John Hunt is an award-winning playwright, author, and Worldwide Creative Director of TBWA. He presented his new book “The Art of the Idea” in a presidents lecture at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership. Prior the festive event he had a personal conversation with Michael Conrad. Join the insightful conversation.

(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.

This week saw the launch of a new site, created by TBWA\Digital Arts for Nissan, called www.journey-to-zero.com. The Journey to Zero supports zero emission mobility. By collaborating with leading architects, designers and artists to kick start the conversation on zero emissions, we hope to gain unique perspectives on the conversation about a cleaner future. Watch out for more information on Journey to Zero coming to mad-blog.com in the near future, and in the meantime check out the website, Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitter feed.

As part of this new project, anthropologist and National Geographic’s explorer-at-large, Wade Davis, is in Copenhagen giving us his perspective on what is happening at COP 15. He is sharing his insights via video, text and tweets on his Journey to Zero blog, with the goal of helping people who have joined the Journey to Zero, understand what is happening at COP 15, in real time.

Check out Wade’s blog here: www.journey-to-zero.posterous.com, and spread the word!

Jean-Marie Dru, the inventor of Disruption and Chairman TBWA\ Worldwide delivered today a speech at the TBWA Creative Academy at this years Golden Drum Festival in Portoroz (Slovenia). Here are some sound-bites for all of you who couldn’t attend:

“Disruption has been invented in the mid 80’s. So you could ask: is it still relevant in the current decade? And is it still effective in the middle of the digital revolution?”

“The answer is without any doubt YES, but I will make two observations:

In the last 15 years, the focus of the methodology has moved progressively from convention to vision. Adidas believes that impossible is not a fact, but an opinion. Visa encourages to go and do things, in spite of the tough environment we are in. Nissan explains that “everything they touch, they try to shift”. Pepsi revitalizes the Pepsi generation theme by reminding us that “every generation refreshes the world”. And Absolut makes us discover what would be a perfect world, the world of Absolut.”

“As a summary of this first point concerning Vision, I would say that in this turbulent world, the role of Disruption has pivoted. Today it is more about creating a rallying point for a company or brand, a focal point, and this despite the increasing tribulations of the market – or rather, because of them. We need to create a reference point that we can constantly look back to, whatever unexpected directions the market may have taken us in.”

“The second observation I would like to make about the status of Disruption today is coming from the fact that we are living in a totally new world. In the digital world, we don’t talk to targets anymore, not even to consumers, we talk to audiences. Audiences who are not captive anymore. Audiences who judge brands on everything they do, on all the initiatives they take. Today more than ever, “actions speak louder than words”.

So the way a brand engages the audience in this new media world is key for its success. Therefore Disruption which is about brand belief must be augmented with another discipline, a discipline about brand behaviour. We call it Media Arts.

It starts by repatriating part of the media thinking into the agency. 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. It is time for advertising agencies not to be media neutral anymore, but to be media passionate.

It’s also time to understand that each and every touch point between audiences and a brand must be creative. And this whatever these touch points are: the packaging, the retail presence, the content of the website, the PR programs, the CRM initiatives etc. And we called this Media Arts because we believe each point of contact must tell the brand’s story, gracefully, artfully.

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…”

“Brands are judged in the way they act and in all the initiatives they take. That’s why Media Arts is so important.”

“In a nutshell, Disruption is about brand belief, whereas Media Arts is about brand behaviour.”

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

The jury has spoken. The winners of the giant madoholic-t-shirt-swap are: Lennart from Copenhagen, Vesna from Berlin and Trygve from Oslo. Three great shirts. Three great ideas.

Lennart is swapping his beloved Motörhead shirt and the jury has acknowledged that with this, he is giving up a true passion, something that has been with him for a long time. Vesna’s shirt is one of many media arts examples rooted in “Condensed Intensity”, the big disruptive idea that formed the basis of one of the most interesting automotive campaigns developed in the last years. Finally, Trygve from Oslo is handing over his Nissan Haikeren shirt. The idea of the Haikeren campaign is excellent: a Norwegian radio reporter is travelling the roads of Norway in a Nissan Qashqai and breaking the conventions of other hitchhikers, she is not looking for a lift but rather recruiting drivers to join her.

Congratulations to all winners of the giant madoholic-t-shirt-swap.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

How Nissan brought joy to a 73-year-old to celebrate its 25^th birthday.

On a sunny day in August, Tom, a copywriter from TEQUILA\Agency.com Brussels, showed up on the doorstep of Jacqueline, aged 73, with a big smile and a birthday cake with 25 candles on it. Jacqueline was the proud owner of the oldest Nissan Micra in Belgium. And Tom had news for her: to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Micra, the apple of Jacqueline’s eye was about to get a total makeover.

Jacqueline’s Micra birthday party was the first step of a campaign that would surprise and pamper Nissan Micra brand advocates.

In September, the agency sent 40.000 Nissan Micra car owners an old-fashioned photo album. It contained snapshots of old and new Micra models from the past 25 years.

Micra drivers were invited to post family snapshots of their Micra on a specially designed website. If they do so, they stood a chance of winning the new Micra ‘25^th Anniversary’ edition.

Of course, the microsite also told the story of the relationship between Jacqueline and her trusty Micra, with a video of the entire makeover.

Now the Nissan Micra hall of fame already boasts 1,200 snapshots uploaded by Micra fans. Which proves that – in an age of fierce brand hopping, swapping and churn – it’s a good idea to connect with your brand advocates and to involve them in a charming story.

Of course, the microsite also told the story of the relationship between Jacqueline and her trusty Micra, with a video of the entire makeover.

Now the Nissan Micra hall of fame already boasts 1,200 snapshots uploaded by Micra fans. Which proves that – in an age of fierce brand hopping, swapping and churn – it’s a good idea to connect with your brand advocates and to involve them in a charming story.

By the way, it wasn’t easy to persuade Jacqueline to bring her beloved Micra up to date. It took some coaxing before she agreed to change the plain old white body paint for shining pearly… white. She warily accepted a CD player. And new upholstery for the seats was OK – as long as they were protected again with their familiar furry covers.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Annette Verhamme (annette.verhamme@tbwa.be).