Kehinde Wiley, 2009 (detail, Deitch Projects, New York USA)

Kehinde Wiley’s monumental commissioned portrait of Michael Jackson was unveiled this week in Miami Beach. The 32-year-old US painter was contacted by Jackson in 2008 after the performer saw the artist’s work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. “I was receiving messages saying Michael Jackson wants to reach you…and I ignored them because quite honestly I thought it was a prank,” said Wiley in an interview with The Art Newspaper.

Marc Brandenburg (Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin Germany)

Michael Jackson is obviously one of the few personalities that have influenced artists around the world, or is he just a vehicle to generate attention? Is the brand Michael Jackson a way to generate more sales? The jury is still out.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

This ubiquitous barbershop signage is an African art form or African graphic art with its naïve renderings and pragmatic use of wood, metal and any material that is close at hand.

To celebrate the Confederation’s Cup being played for the first time on African soil, adidas commissioned a series of ‘barbershop’ artworks that honour their galaxy of stars like Gerrard, Messi, Kaka and Pienaar. A ‘cut’ was created for each player according to their skill. So, ‘The Kaka’ is all about dribbling skills while ‘The Gerrard’ is about powerful strikes.

Essentially, we africanised international players.

The word Kopanya is a South African word for ‘together’, which effectively makes this artwork an African interpretation of adidas’ global advertising position of “together I am strong.” Kopanya is also the name of the official adidas ball, that will be used at the Confederations Cup.

If you have any suggestions or comments please email Gavin Heron.

PART TWO – International coordination within the agency is no less fraught with sensitivities. It should not lead to a loss of local initiative, a lack of local competitiveness, or the de-motivation of local staff. It could lead to a single interface for all regions, cost efficiencies, the input of many creative talents and a coherent execution of an idea across several media. What it must achieve, however, is control of the client’s most valuable asset: its brand image around the world.

As you all know, a fairly effort-free manner of handling global communications is to focus purely on the visual. Thus copy disappears from print advertising to make way for stunning visuals and big logos. Dialogue vanishes from TV spots, resolving the problem of local adaptation. I’m not knocking this method, which we’ve deployed as often as our fellow agencies. As Doctor Rolf Kunisch, former CEO of Beiersdorf, has said: “Images travel, words don’t.”

But what if radio turns out to be the right solution, for instance? Or if you want to develop relationships with each market’s leading bloggers? Or simply create local websites, for that matter? Suddenly, words become crucially important. And so does size: a large network has access to talent in all these fields. That’s what we mean at TBWA when we say we’re specialists in Media Arts. It’s about juggling ideas and distributing them across media in a way that entertains and engages.

The beauty of big is also the beauty of flexibility, and to be honest with you, we have as many different approaches as we have clients. We’ve got straightforward global campaigns. We’ve got regional hub and spoke campaigns. We’ve got local executions of global strategies. And a few other configurations that I don’t have room for here.

But one thing remains unchanged – and that is the primacy of the idea. After all the pondering and perspiration, communicating on a global basis comes down to that. You need a solid idea. You need a single positioning that everyone can relate to. But more than that, it has to be so inspiring that it can be interpreted in thousands of ways, across many different media, without ever losing its meaning.

We’ve had a few ideas like that at TBWA. They’re strangely logical yet reassuringly provocative. We call them ‘disruptive’. You know what they are, so I don’t have to mention them again. Oh, all right then – you’ve twisted my arm. The likes of “Think different”, “Impossible is nothing” and “In an Absolut world”. These propositions are so crystal clear that you can adapt them to any environment.

In fact, that has to be the case. There’s no room for error. Because today, we’re not just communicating in different markets – we’re talking to individuals.

Once the idea is watertight, you can sit back and let the talented people in your network come up with brilliant interpretations. And they’ll be able to do so again and again. Images may travel, but great ideas have a life of their own.

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.

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.

Barack Obama, as we know, is a man who understands the concept of change. Indeed, he surfed to victory on a wave of optimism created by that single powerful word (as well as an insanely effective online campaign that changed the rules of electoral marketing). But the problem with promising change is that you have to deliver.

Yesterday, during his speech in Cairo, Obama made good on one of his promises. He changed the rhetoric of the United States in its attitude to the Muslim world. Drawing on his own roots, the President reached out to Muslims in an historic overture that perhaps offers a new hope of peace in the Middle East.

We’ll leave you to browse the details of the speech in the countless newspaper articles and clips that have captured it. But we liked German newspaper Die Tageszeitung’s front cover, which came up with a new formula for universal love. So good, it makes us want to text it to all our friends. Come to think of it, maybe it would make a good t-shirt?

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Ulrich Proeschel

AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR

BRAND BEHAVIOR Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Digital Officer for TBWA\Worldwide, challenges marketers to “advertise at the speed of culture”— making the case for designing constant communications at the intersections of product, culture, news and events. It’s a fleet of micro-initiatives as ongoing communication programs with your audience in response to culture 365 days a year. It’s about being opportunistic and leveraging key moments with brand relevance. It’s about owning the current conversation to generate faster and more frequent communication points. It’s a new form of CRM using a mix of planned, anticipative and reactive micro initiatives. 

PLANNED initiatives are created around identified cultural moments relevant to your brand. By asking “Who do you think is refreshing music?” Pepsi leveraged the cultural conversation around this year’s Coachella Music Fest with their RefreshMusic Twitter feed featuring Thievery Corporation’s Rob Myers as a guest tweeter. By putting a unique spin on the concert for music lovers, Pepsi is not only letting tweeters experience the festival in new ways, but is also bringing the brand idea “refresh everything” to life.

ANTICIPATED is scenario based planning that requires marketers to be smart enough to see the cultural conversation and be ready to act upon it. Visa’s seemingly “real-time” ad, celebrating Michael Phelps’s Olympic record eight gold medals, proved the brand recognized the Game’s most talked about story. The TV spot had footage of Phelps’s previous wins literally moments after his record-breaking performance, helping Visa go beyond being a sponsor and become a part of the conversation surrounding the Games.

REACTIVE is being nimble enough to surprise and delight your audience by your brand tapping into the zeitgeist. In President Obama’s acceptance speech he declared the family’s intention of getting a dog. The next day, Pedigree began crafting a response. A day later an ad in USA Today urged the President to adopt: “We’d love to help you fulfill your first campaign promise.” Pedigree’s quick actions helped place them in the cultural conversation regarding the President’s pet decision.

Download your Media Arts Monday.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email either Frank Striefler (frank@mediaartslab.com) or Erik Hanson (erik@mediaartslab.com).

Jenny Naish continues her exploration of love affairs and what they can teach marketers. In this concluding part, meet Nicole.

 “All stories are love stories” – Robert McLiam Wilson

In a good love story, to keep the journey alive there should always be a sense that something has not yet been accomplished. Something yet to be done, found or explained – a villain to vanquish or an obstacle to overcome.

Renault launched the Clio in 1991, a year of economic downturn, when new car sales in the UK declined by 21%. In such a market, how did the Clio beat sales targets by 32% in the first year alone, and go on to become the best-selling imported car?

The first Clio ad introduced the public to a charming French girl called Nicole, sneaking away from her “Papa” and using the Renault Clio for a secret meeting with her boyfriend. The following ads, which are all detailed here, continue to follow these characters, offering brief insights into their affectionate, chic and sexy lifestyles. In each ad, something is left unexplained, or unseen – a small twist.

These ads, which ran from 1991 to 1997, captured UK viewers’ hearts. In 1994, Marketing magazine reported that it was the most readily recollected campaign, with a 68% prompted recall. In 1996, Complete Car magazine revealed that Renault had been chosen as the automobile maker with the most influential advertising in a survey of 470,000 European drivers – and the most persuasive advertiser in five countries. And the Sofres Automotive study into car advertising found the campaign to be “the most successful ever” in the category, with a recall figure of 93%.

Significantly, The Journal of Advertising Research ascribes the success of these ads to the emotional engagement viewers felt with the characters, rather than the qualities of the car, which were barely communicated.

The finale of this “mini series” (which attracted an audience of 23m), in which Nicole abandons her wedding for another man, leaves a number of question marks. What happens to the groom? What does Papa think? Did she make the right decision? These questions may be the reason why these ads are still referred to in popular culture, are featured in surveys of “greatest ads”, and can still be used as examples here over a decade on. Through unanswered questions, the audience is left with an idea that there may be more to come.  To sustain romance, the happy ending must remain just around the corner. I’ll give you a few more examples… another time. 

If you have any comments or suggestions please email European Intelligence Team (intelligence@mad-blog.com) or the Jenny Naish directly.

Jenny Naish explores the tricky process of preventing a love story with a brand from reaching a premature conclusion.

“Love is man unfinished”- Samuel Beckett

Whatever the situation, it is society’s nature to make heroes, villains and victims out of the players involved. They are the stock characters in any love story, whether their names are Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella and Prince Charming, or David and Victoria Beckham.

Love stories however, are not the same as love, in that by their very nature they must have an ending, be it happy or sad. The characters always face a series of peaks and troughs before the situation is resolved. Often, it is the revelation of love itself that signals the end. A classic love story tells us that the troubles are over and it is all plain sailing from here.

But love can only truly have an ending through its loss. Romeo and Juliet could illustrate this perfectly.

Interestingly, in love stories, “happy every after” is never the most interesting part of the story. It’s the pursuit that keeps us involved. If there is nothing to chase, question, wonder or worry about, where’s the interest? Uncertainty, it seems, is crucial to romance.

With brands, we follow a similar journey, and so to sustain this relationship, a brand should know how to leave us hanging. As even good old Shakespeare attests, “journey’s end in lovers meeting”.

Take for example US President Obama, who in the build up to the election was positioned as a hero. At that period of time, uncertainty was at its peak. Would Obama win, or would he lose the fight against Hillary Clinton, George Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin and Fox News, not to mention racial prejudice?

Accordingly, the amount of times people searched for Obama on Google rocketed during this build up, reaching its peak at the point of election. Yes, this was driven by PR – but behind that was the “will-he-or-won’t-he?” factor. Naturally, once Obama had won interest slumped to a near straight line until his inauguration in January.

Please come back tomorrow for the second part of the story.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email European Intelligence Team (intelligence@mad-blog.com) or the Jenny Naish directly.

Back to the trip.

The flight from London is a little over 4 four hours. By the time you wake up, you can look out the window and swear you are flying over Michigan on your way to Detroit metro.

Gray skies, brown trees, white snow. Welcome to the land where they formerly sported CCCP jerseys. Welcome to Mockba!

On the ground at Domodedovo Airport, immigration is a little chaotic. 350 people. Five grumpy passport inspectors. No formal lines. Ah, the joys of international travel. By the way, if you’re looking for a taxi, this is the place to be. No less than 30 guys came up to me and simply said, “Taxi?” “Taxi?” “Taxi?”

Unlike LAX, this airport had my luggage at the carousel. (By the way, just a reminder…DON’T CHECK THE WORK. You can lose your underwear, you can lose your suit; but the creative flies in the overhead bin–no matter where you are.) Fortunately, we’re going to present everything on keynote and pdf, so we’re safe.

On to Moscow.

The drive into the city is like any drive from airport to city. You start rural, you see some scattered homes, and as you get closer, your start to see our familiar urban life come alive.

By the way, on the drive into Moscow, you’ll see some spectacular Russian Orthodox churches. Amazing, orb-like forms of cerulean blue–so distinctly Russian. There’s also your fair share of big-box stores and strip malls. If you looked out quickly, without thinking, you’d swear you were on Queens Boulevard.

Things get really exciting as you start to see the Moscow River and some amazing architecture. It’s what the Russians call the “Stalinist Skyscrapers.” Gothic, yet so uniquely Soviet.

My heart then began to skip a few beats when I started to see Red Square unfold. The brick wall around it is imposing and magnificent. I saw several soldiers parading in their distinctive olive-colored coats with red accents.

Then, out of nowhere, St. Basil’s Church just explodes with color and energy. Its truly incredible “onion” domes lifting your spirit and beckoning you to take a closer look. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance after our meetings.

Checked in and had an excellent Armenian dinner with some colleagues from our TBWA\RUSSIA team and our TBWA\CENTRAL ASIA team, which is based in Kazakhstan (not to be confused with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan.)

Armenian cuisine? Excellent. Great cheese, eggplant salad and kebabs – your choice of chicken, lamb and beef. Yummy rice too and Russian beer.

Kazakhstanian cuisine? Let’s just say TBWA\CA managing director, Shukhrat Shipulin, made a pretty interesting case for “kazy” (aka horsemeat.) Of course, if you think kazy sounds crazy, don’t try the “karta.” Apparently, it’s made with ingredients from a horse’s rectum.

Tomorrow, we learn all about the Russian market, which is critical for Visa. Lots of creative opportunity, and I’ll take copious notes, I promise.

By the way, if you want to learn more about the great city of Moscow, go here. To learn more about Kazakhstan, go here.

Thanks for reading.

Rob Schwartz is the ECD of TBWA\CHIAT\DAY in Los Angeles. 
This is the first of an occasional series of his comings and goings.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Rob Schwartz.

10 key learnings from the fastest growing brand in 2008 and the CEO of the USA by Frank Striefler (TBWA\MAL) and edited by Mark Tungate.

The astonishing rise of the Obama brand has become a blueprint for every marketer. His campaign is a case study in marketing excellence that earned him the title “Marketer of the Year” from the trade magazine Advertising Age. 

mad-blog.com presents exclusively the ten key lessons to take away from his campaign:

9. CREATE A SEAMLESS BRAND IDENTITY BUT LET IT BE FLEXIBLE AND ADOPTABLE:

The primary brief given to the design agency behind Obama’s brand identity was to create something different. The designers (who had never worked on a political campaign before) were informed and inspired by Obama’s two books, as no identity can work if it does not stand for something real. 

The logo that became a powerful stand-alone symbol for the candidate was designed to tell a simple story: the sun rising over a horizon, representing a new dawn in American politics. 

The O represents Obama and allowed the campaign to use the logo without his name next to it. The white space represents the sun. The blue O and the red stripes convey patriotism. The red stripes represent American farmland, adding a traditional aspect. The typeface Gotham (originally designed for GQ magazine) amplifies Obama’s personality. 

Inspiring yet unthreatening, substantial yet friendly, up-to-date yet familiar, it is a logo that instantly stands out from the crowd. Reinforced with a coherent, comprehensive program of fonts, logos, slogans, web design, stage design and literature, Obama achieved the seamless brand that companies strive for. 

Instead of taking a closed approach to his brand identity, the Obama campaign let people remix the brand for their own uses. With the mark being easy to modify, it was an invitation for social interaction. A good reminder for marketers that, as with any mark, meaning and impact comes from what people bring to it. 

10. FAVOR CONSTANT CHANGE OVER CONSERVATISM:

Obama ended his last speech before the election by saying: “Let’s go change the world.” Obama’s change-driven election is a reminder that the status quo is a dangerous place. 

The biggest risk is to take no risks – especially now. Business leaders can’t expect break-through results by following conventions. In an age of me-too products, where the consumer is in control, keeping up with the competition is no longer a winning strategy. Winning companies don’t just embrace change—they are the change. 

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Frank Striefler (frank@mediaartslab.com).