So, saw Cindy Gallop speak on the Future of Advertising courtesy of Girls Club and Made by Many on Wednesday night. The precis is that the agency model is dead and needs a kick up the bum. Some random quotes and thoughts from the night (a lot of paraphrasing):
On her project If We Ran The World:
- The greatest untapped pool of resource is human good intentions that never translate into actions, and also the intention of brands and corporates
- Rather than look at micro actions such as tweets (which are so easy, you might as well) look at actions which actually make a difference.
- All current social networks are based on dating. If current attractiveness is about how much you post/upload/etc can IWRTW change the model to make how much you do the measure of attractiveness.
On working with brands to do good:
- Looking at a return on action that is defined by quality of action, i.e. donating an item to Braddock versus donating a Like.
- Brands are currently at Level 1, which is co-creation. What they need to be moving to is co-action, i.e. helping customers to do meaningful things which in turn makes their brand interactions more meaningful.
Agency models
- "The future belongs to people who make stuff". I.e. the death of the big idea and the future of production. After all it's the execution that makes an idea fly.
- Trying to get the magic back into advertising. In the Mad Men era clients didn't believe that they could do the job that agencies did but now its the reverse. Apparently in India the Unilever client has suggested that agencies should be on the roster without fee as the prestige of being on that roster will get them more work. Just had a chat to Anika at BBH Labs, and we discussed the fact that the creative brief is now always approved by the client. Would a small step by the agency be to stop this process. They buy the strategy and define the commercial problem, why get involved (limit?) the initial creative process?
- Being overly attached to business/an idea/etc generates fear, which leads to taking the safe path
- Remember the power of mystery and intrigue
- "Institutions perpetuate the problems for which the provide solutions" Clay Shirky
- "People hate advertising in general, but love advertising in particular" Mark Bernstein
Thanks Sara et al for putting on the show, and Cindy for erm, performing.
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