This is long overdue, but here is the extended "What's Next for 2009" presentation I delivered at UBA's 60th Anniversary Congress a few weeks back.
As you'll see, a lot of bits are the same, some bits are new. Thank you to everyone who contributed thinking to this updated version. I'll definitely be doing more reaching out in the future.
As for the event, it was one of the best run days I've been a part of in a long time. I learned a lot from the other speakers and from conversations held during the coffee breaks, lunch, happy hour and dinner. (You can download copies of all of the presentations from the UBA's page recapping the day. Look just below the recap video. I think you'll find interesting points in each of them, so I highly recommend it.)
Thank you to all of the wonderful people I met in Brussels for your conversations, kindness and feedback. And a big thank you to Chris, Jan, Frédéric, and Alice for your generosity and graciousness.
A few weeks back, Marta Kagan asked me if I'd be interested in coming up to Boston to present at Marketing 2.0:unfiltered, an event put on by Espresso. I said yes and so, over the last few days I put together the above presentation to share with the group. (Giving it tonight. I hope they like it...)
For background on it, we came to the conclusion that an updated version of the What's Next presentation I did a year and a half ago would be an appropriate way to open the night up. As with last year's version, if you've been following things like many of us have, you won't be surprised by anything here. It's truly not anything revolutionary. It's more of a concise view on what's been happening lately and what that points to for how we should be approaching things to create a better future for marketing.
Mostly, I had a lot of fun putting it together and simply wanted to share.
As always, would love any constructive feedback you have...
Adrian delivered a great talk on the evolution of branding and posed some questions around what type of people we need to build strong brands today. Dion shared some thought-provoking views expanding upon his earlierposts regarding the idea of Manners for the Modern Brand™.
For a little background on my presentation, I made the unfortunate error of committing to a headline/topic before I ever considered what I'd want to say about Modern Brand Building. (We needed something to put on the Deepspace page for what the September topic would be.) Campaigning turned out not to be quite the right term for what I wanted to say, but I think it ended up working out alright for now.
It's certainly not a new thought (staying true to what your brand is really about), but one I thought needed to be brought back to light as more and more ways to communicate with people come forward and marketers can be tempted to dive into them before thinking through if it is the right thing for their brand/client's brand or not.
It's also something that has become an issue as Jon Steel noted with CMO turnover on the client side having increased and with every change of the guard, a change of the brand often ensues.
Anyway, would love to hear any thoughts, comments or criticisms. This is very much a work in progress
Just a quick post to share that the presentations from our Deepspace mobile event are up along with some of the support/handout materials from a few of the sponsors. Above is the keynote address from Chuck Levine, which can be found with all the rest either in the presentations section of the Deepspace site or at the profile for space150 on SlideShare.
If you were able to make the event and have any constructive thoughts you'd like to share that we can use for future events like this or on other topics, please let the mobile team know via email.
Ed shared some sound thinking last week on the whole "Old School vs. New School" planning debate*, based on Jon Steel's speech from JWT's "Planning Begins At 40" event held back in mid-July. I happen to agree with Ed and believe that the balance for the future of planning lies somewhere in the middle of the extremes of this debate, but I don't really want to focus on that here.
Instead, I want to call out the core of Jon's message as it's very smart advice. Basically, he says planners need to:
1) Help the clients set the right objectives, not just for communications but for brands and for business
2) Find the right problems to solve instead of just doing what the clients asked for
3) Find new opportunities for our clients to exploit and grow their business
The base for all three of these things comes lies in digging in and doing your homework - knowing the facts, doing the right research, understanding people, etc. along with constantly consuming a lot of information and letting it roll around in your head. If you're doing this well, then coming up with insights, ideas and answers to these three things will come a lot easier.
He also has some very piquant things to say about the current obsession in the business world, and thus among agencies, on the short term and the need for all of us to take a stand against this, with planners taking the lead on fighting the status quo.
Rather than setting our sights on the short term to see something, anything, move a little, we need to be focused on building things for the long term. Instead of being accountable to whatever can be measured, no matter how insignificant, we need to be accountable to doing what is right and setting big, hairy, audacious goals. And even more importantly, we both (agencies and clients) need to strive for greater partnership in moving business forward instead of just going through the motions as they are at most places now.
Set smart objectives. Find the right problems to solve. Uncover new opportunities. Stand for doing what is right, not what's easiest in the short term. All in all, very sound advice for the future of planning and for business for that matter. Too bad he had to close with another sucker punch at blogging.
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*This isn't the first time Mr. Steel has taken a jab at planners and blogging. It is very clear to me that he sees the problem with planners who write blogs as being that due to writing a blog, there is a loss of rigor and focusing on facts. His basic contention is that if we're writing a blog, we must not be taking in abundant amounts of research and information that will help us do the three things above. He believes that we've taken the hallway conversations from planning conferences that tended toward intellectual and philosophical debate to a forum that puts our focus on these things every day rather than solving our clients problems.
In some instances, he may be right. There are posts that tend toward these things. But overall, I know from my personal experience that when I'm busy writing here, I'm consuming far more information (both fact and opinion) than when I'm not. All of this comes to bear on work for my clients when digging through the facts of their situation and helps get to the three things he calls out.
I don't write about things we're doing at space too often, but this is something definitely worth sharing. We're putting on a mobile marketing workshop that anyone can attend. Here are a few details...
Beginning at 1 PM on Monday, August 11, 2008 at the Fine Line Music Cafe a lineup of leading mobile executives from around the country will be discussing current and future important mobile topics that brand marketers and agency-folk alike need to be thinking about as they try to tackle the complex world of mobile marketing.
The presentations will last until about 5:30 PM and will be followed by a happy hour that will go until 7 PM. Admission is free with advance registration.
All of the information, including links to the full agenda and RSVP page, can be found on the main page for the event.
If you're here in Minneapolis, planning on being here during the event, or want to make a trip just for it, please join us.
Helge was kind enough to contact me a couple weeks back to get some thoughts on this presentation. I meant to share it then but was traveling and let it fall down the Gmail inbox rabbit hole a bit. Thankfully, Damiano reminded me today.
Some things I especially liked were:
Slide 3: The thought of not focusing on one idea, but creating a range of ideas that engage people and bring them closer to the brand - something that the research of Duncan Watts is leading people to and something that Faris and Noah have been on to for quite a while, as have a few others.
Slide 33: If you're producing applications for brands/clients, always remember that the application is a means to an end, not the end itself.
Slides 47-59 on Emotional Research - it's time to start looking at things differently, don't you think?
Anyway, give it a read and be sure to let Helge know what you think over on his post of it or on Slideshare.
Where most people see a dirty wall (or more likely, don't even notice the wall at all), Paul "Moose" Curtis sees an opportunity to make something better. He sees an opportunity to create art that takes something dingy and turns it into something delightful.
As a planner, it is part of our job to find opportunity where others see none. For our creatives. For our clients. For our account handlers. For ourselves. For the people we're hoping to connect to our clients' brands.
If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that I'm a fan of mash-ups and remixes. Never in a million years though, did I expect something I created to become part of a remix/mash-up of sorts. I'm honored, flattered and impressed all at once.
As you can guess from the title, their main point is that advertising needs to go from where it is and has been (interruption and now, annoyance) to adding value. They say we need to "create marketing solutions, not ads" and "stop pitching people with messages," and "start providing useful content." I wholeheartedly agree.
Please give it a look and let them know what you think over on Uwe's post.
To download the slide show or view it full screen, jump over here.
Some interesting things I came across yesterday and would like to post more on, but probably won't be able to for a day or two if at all, so for now, here are the links...
First, Dave Trott Live Chat via Scamp - Dave shares some great advice and thinking on how to get a job in this business and what he thinks makes for great advertising today. I also really liked Scamp's approach to this for two reason. First, Scamp wrote a post arguing that much of what Dave wrote 30 years ago on getting a job in advertising was irrelevant today and followed it up by allowing Dave to have a conversation with Scamp's readers to defend/explain himself on the Scamp blog. Second, I think using the comments section of a blog post to host an audience driven interview was a fantastic idea. Thanks to Alan (a.k.a. Tangerine Toad) for pointing it out via Twitter.
Second, Scholz & Friends has posted an interesting presentation titled Brands and Communication in the Era of Media Democracy that is well worth a look. For those browsing here, following is the slide show. For those reading this where it won't come through, here's a link.
Chris Bangle, head of BMW Group Design, describes the philosophy behind
this wildly innovative GINA Light Visionary Model as “Being flexible.
Thinking flexible, acting flexible – context over dogma.”
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