The
Battle For Coca-Cola
Rages On.
Ain't
Nothing Like
The Real Thing, Maybe.
I
Don't Mean To Say
I Told You So, But...
Are
Consumers Smarter
Then We Are?.
The
Four Great Myths
Of Global Branding.
Mr
Bevis Butts Heads
At Mitsubishi
The
Best Laid Plans
Of Mice And Men.
Dare
to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix"
Mitsubishi's
New Marketing Boss
Out Of The Frying Pan.
Concept Is Stronger Than Fact.
Value
Perception In A World
Gone Mad With "Cool"
The
Future of Advertising
The Brand
The
Future of Advertising
The Targets
The
Future of Advertising
The Grid
The
Future of Advertising
The Swarm
Technology
Making The Message
Meaningful
The Only Business That Matters Is The One You're In.
What
Ever Happened To The
Big Idea?
The Post-Advertising Era Is Here
Confessions Of A" Liar For Hire"
Good, Bad and Ugly At the Moment of Truth
A Post-Advertising "Big Idea".
The Value Of A Paying Pustomer.
Emergence Of the "Empire of One".
All customers Are Created Equal
Playing God An Other Atrocities
the
City That Spawned
The Age Of Advertising..
Fear And Self Loathing In Advertising.
The Greatest Success Metric Is Sales.
Foot In (Word Of) Mouth Disease
In the Begining, There Was The End.
The Rise And Fall
Of The Creative Class
What's Love Got To Do With It?
Champagne Brand
Beer Marketing Budget
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Size Matters (Not). How big do you have to be to come up with a big idea? Do you need an office in every major city around the world including Dubai? What if you share an office with a CPA over a strip mall? Can you still be imbued with a gargantuan conceptual breakthrough? Why am I asking you? The ability to wax creative is becoming more and more elusive as the true "star" practitioners are leaving the business for more lucrative pursuits. Many are retiring from "burnout" after decades of fighting the good fight. Getting work through the phalanx of lawyers and bean counters that stand in the way between genius and the mundane is tiring to say the least. |
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Fortunately for those who are left, clientnation has had a seachange and an attitude adjustment when it comes to sourcing high impact creative fire power. In fact, my favorite whipping boy Donny Deutsch said it best. "Anybody can start an advertising agency tomorrow. You hardly need clients or credentials to get started." |
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When are you going to do a feature on podcasting ? –James R., Scranton, Pa As soon as I can find one that doesn't put me to sleep. – hw |
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But "The Donny" didn't stop there. "Magic can come from people at any level," he was quoted as saying. "No matter how junior they may be. There is beauty in ignorance. Inspiration can come from anywhere." Now you know why such truely horrific examples of advertising "creativity" have come from the dynamic duo of "The Donny" and "The Donald" on countless episodes of The Apprentice. There may be beauty in ignorance, but I can't see it for all the stupidity standing in the way. But I digress. The topic is "size." One person. One Big Idea. Now there's a unique perspective. At least that is the perspective of the founders of the website OpenAd.net. This website, which aspires to be the idea marketplace of the global enterprise, is based out of the UK and proports to match idea buyers and sellers. So far they have middled ideas for Mercedes Benz of Slovania and a number of other companies in the Baltic states. They claim to have at least 4500 creatives "working for them," around the world. Of course a glance at their agreement for creative participants ("sellers") states that OpenAd.net owns the copyright on any idea that is posted on their site and after paying a pre-determined "creative fee" (anywhere from $500 US to $3000 US). They have the right to tie up the rights for the life of the copyright, resell it at any price they choose and alter it in any way they see fit. However, said "sellers" have no way of viewing their work or any other work submitted for a "pitch" unless they pony up $2000 US per industry category as a "subscriber" or "buyer." Hmmmmm. Last time I saw a legal agreement like theirs it was flying from the mast of a pirate ship right under the Jolly Roger. But the idea of so-called open-source creative is catching on with practitioners, if not the brand organizations themselves. However, I seriously think that there are few CMO's out there ready to stroll into their CEO's office and say. "I just got this terrific idea from this guy who runs a deli in New Delhi. I'm ready to bet $500 mil on it. What do you think?" That said, I do think there is something new on the horizon. As clients express more and more willingness to accept the creative work product of smaller and smaller companies, these companies will find themselves being snapped up by larger and larger agencies looking to bolster their sagging account rosters. This will be much like the mad dash to sweep up every interactive shop that had more than five employees six years back. Right now the large Japanese agencies are at the forefront of such organizational aquisitions. Companies like Dentsu have long-standing relationships with their network of creative "cells" that are deployed to work on specific account assignments on a more or less autonomous basis. This means that the resources for great ideas are getting smaller and smaller as they are gobbled up by the demand created by the number of media outlets which is growing larger and larger. All of this is being driven by the global fragmentation of every imaginable consumer marketspace. As we have been saying for the past year now, an idea is meaningless unless it means something to the person who is exposed to it. This means that big, vague, global brand messages like "Always Coca-Cola" and "Chevy. An American Revolution" are becoming more and more irrelevant as each day passes. The next step has to be the big idea that makes sense to the key influencers of any given market. The key influencers are the ones that create the word-of-mouth that actually moves the product off the shelves. Creating these kinds of highly tageted, totally relevant marketing messages requires a well developed skillset. The practitioners who possess such skills will soon be able to write their own ticket. And the organizations that lets them ply their craft with a minimum degree of incumbrance will be the right sized organization for the emergence of big ideas. Which is why Strawberry Frog, Mother, Mcgerry Bowen, Taxi and Modernista! have all enjoyed amazing growth while the big ass agency networks can't seem to stop the bleeding. Speaking at the Future Marketing Summit in London, Scott Goodson, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Strawberryfrog, believes the tide is turning. He said: “The traditional agency model is broken. Young guys with good ideas are taking the big accounts. It is now possible for three guys and a Mac to take down a big agency. It is not definitely the way of the future but an option, and one that clients are looking into.” I couldn't agree more. In fact,our little shop, Gasp has been invited to pitch an $8 million account and we don't even have a web site yet. Stay tuned.
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