in transformative markets, incumbents rarely survive

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

If you want to survive in the advertising business today, you can’t stay stuck in the past. Constant evolution, learning, skill development is key, for both the individual and the company.

In transformative markets,

incumbents rarely survive

edwardboches.com

@edwardboches

mullen.com

Oh shit, you mean we have

to re-invent ourselves?

We are living through the disorientation that

comes from including 2 billion new participants

in a media landscape previously operated by a

small group of professionals.

Clay Shirky sums it up best. It’s less about social media, or technology, or the web. What matters more than anything as we think about the services we offer and the definition of creativity and engagement are consumers and how they’ve changed. It’s no longer us and them. It’s the age of we.

mediaWednesday, October 13, 2010

Once upon a time..

We made messages and shouted them out.

We bought attention

We distinguished ourselves and stood out with creativity, the old definition of creativity.

New media came along in the early 90s

mediaNEW

New media came along in the early 90s

(1.0) Home Page

/594/6/2010 10:30 AMGMCUV_4.0_20100326.vsdFile Name

DateInformation ArchitectureeurbanAuthor

DeliverableProject

Client GM CUV4.0 Redesign

NotesPage/ Site Title

FAQs | Site Map | Contact Us | GM Sites

Copyright/Trademark | Privacy StatementGM logo

New GM Vehicles | Recently Viewed Vehicles | 0 Vehicles in Comparison List

Chevy logo Buick logo GMC logo

Quick Search

Zip Code:

Search Advanced Search

Model:

Make: Search All Makes

All Models Select Models

Promo Tile

Hero Image

Find a Certified Hybrid(Promo Tile)

Benefits of GM Certified:

Warranty

3-Day/150-Mile Satisfaction Guarantee

117-Point Inspection

Free Vehicle History Report

OnStar

XM Radio

Ensure Quick Search is an HTML form

CTA will change based on the content in the hero image

Vehicles are automatically added to Recently Viewed list as user clicks on specific vehicles in the Vehicle Search section. Limit to 50 most recently viewed vehicles. (Note: allow for the ability to increase or decrease limit)

Link to Vehicle Search page with Hybrid body style pre-selected. May need to widen the zip code radius by default on Hybrid search.

|| Pause 1 2 3 4

Learn more about GM Certified

* Disclaimers at the bottom of the page

Body Copy

We mastered the art and science of building websites and creating destinations

We learned how to BE found instead of how TO find

UX became the new creativity

mediasocial

Next came social media. Who needs brands or marketers or pros. We’re all connected to each other, not to the brand.

We rushed out and read Here Comes Everybody. Or The Groundswell. Or we should have.

We learned to market through conversation, not shouting.

And it was no longer about getting people to listen to us, rather it was about getting to join us or like us.

But now we move to the next stage. ME dia. You are the center of the universe.

It’s our job to find you.

So we make apps that you can choose to download

We allow you to choose whether or not we enter your life in a more contextual way.

Made in 2002. Set in 2054. Already coming true.

How do we influence or motivate

prospects and customers?

Yet we are still in the business of influencing

There’s much we, as marketers, are supposed to know. Which screen are you on?

shopping watching connecting sharing creating responding interested

What mode are you in? Can’t build an eco system or develop content without knowing.

branding

We’re supposed to know how to brand, create content, build platforms like Garmin, that become part of your daily life.

contentbranding

contentbranding platform

crowdsourcing

There are new tactics to master. An agency needs the people and know how (along with the judgment) to apply them all.

crowdsourcing geo-targeting

crowdsourcing geo-targeting gaming dynamics

transmedia

Gary Shteyngart, inventor of the Apparat.. ..

And finally, there is new technology invented daily. The importance of staying current has never been so acute. (Fun book, Super Sad True Love Story)

meanwhile

What did agencies in their infinite wisdom do?

Specialization

Claim they work together

But clients will tell you they don’t. See Forrester’s research on the frustration clients have with this system.

More than ever all of this stuff has to work together. Consumers don’t distinguish from one to another, they simply interact with brands and content.

Antidotes to what’s wrong: fat, expensive, slow not creative enough; unable to get the different components to all work together.

It’s not either or. All of this stuff is still necessary and essential to a marketing plan. TV, advertising, UX, conversation, mobile, geo, ME ME ME marketing.

Yet some agencies focus on just one.

or two.

or what’s new.

Three different ways to hold onto what is. But

that’s a strategy for extinction.

Good luck with that.

We should get our inspiration from outside our direct industry.

current

clients

services

Here’s the dilemma. You can maintain business.

current

clients

services

Expand (hard due to all the competition.)

current

clients

services

Adapt and sell new services to current clients. Hard as they didn’t come to you for that.

current

clients

services

Or innovate. Challenging and requires culture and commitment.

different people

different processes

different briefs

different teams

different mindset

The ingredients to innovate.

this is hard

Understatement of year.

madmen cast

let’s make cool messages

Hardest is evolving from traditional

microsoft cast

let’s build something of value

to digital (Thanks Scott Prindle for this visual idea.)

who the fuck’s in charge here anyway?

And here’s where you often end up.

four things we’ve learned

We, Mullen, have been trying and making progress, for a few years now.

can’t change behavior by changing thinking

have to change thinking by changing behavior

1 2 3 4

Some things we learned.

Instruction manuals don’t work. Behavior and trying things work.

A story needs to be repeated many times

before someone understands how it relates to

them, and many more times again before they

change their behavior.

Along with repetition.

talent alone isn’t enough

1 2 3 4

People (without process and culture and a respect for different perspectives) ain’t enough.

We had lots of nerds.

Digital Delivery

Executive Producer

Sr. Producer

Producer

Associate Producer

Digital Creative

Chief Creative Director

Group Creative Director:

Lead Information Architect

Senior Information Architect

Senior Art Director

Senior Copywriter

Art Director

Copywriter

Information Architect

Associate Copywriter

Associate Art Director

Associate Information Architect

Production

Digital Studio Manager

Lead Flash Developer

Senior Flash Developer

Flash Developer

Junior Flash Developer

Production Designer

Junior Production Designer

Technology/Development

Technology Director

Technical Lead

Software Engineer/Database Architect

Senior Web Developer

Web Developer

Associate Web Developer

In lots of positions.

Tech on left. Ad CD on right. Left knows stuff right needs to know but doesn’t realize it. Right needs stuff left knows but doesn’t know left knows it. How to bring together.

Read The Checklist Manifesto. By Atul Gawande. Great surgeon. Great writer. Majority of surgery mishaps (wrong leg, suchers left in body) because team doesn’t know each other, never worked with each other, isn’t comfortable speaking up, defers to much to the CD-God-Surgeon. Introductions at start of surgery reduce accidents by 35 percent.

everything is connected to everything else

1 2 3 4

DIGITAL PRODUCTION/TECHNOLOGY CHRISTIAN 1,800f 100%f

Tech’s not in the room, because there aren’t enough of him, because understaffed, because not in staffing plan because client and or account service thinks its part of production rather than creative. Follow the problem to the source.

expect a lot of mistakes

1 2 3 4

how we delivered - collapsed all project management

into one group, allowing key online pm to leave -

assumed a “brand” creative brief was enough

despite lack of details to do effective digital work -

allowed traditional creative teams to present ideas

before including UX and technology - failed to unite

different groups physically l delayed integrating

digital media, creative, Technical Support -

neglected to invest in collaborative technology,

depending too much on IT instead of developers

how we rewarded - assumed digital people would put

learning on hold while they spent time cleaning up

after offline colleagues - under invested in training

(formal and informal) - didn’t mandate digital skill

expansion as part of performance evaluation for all

how we scoped - refused to acknowledge true costs

of digital - gave team leftover money squeezed from

offline budgets - failed to train clients on actual

value - brought message rather than experience

mentality to the space - gave digital work away to

“get” the business - perpetuated the diminished

worth of digital

how we sold - encouraging offline ae’s to think and

sell digital with no training or supervision -

neglected to put digital-savvy person in new

business role - arrogant enough to think we knew

what we were talking about

how we staffed - continued to hire legacy talent l

focused on usage rather than future when

downsizing - assumed traditional talent could lead

digital efforts - believed project management could

compensate for digitally naïve account people -

defined integration as offline people could try

digital (but not the other way around)

Other mistakes you might make.

10 things we did right

But, things that work.

declare your vision

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

From the top. Declare your change.

Ours started with a word

take action

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

We also took dramatic action, moving from the woods of Wenham after 38 years to downtown Boston.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

create collisions

Steven Johnson tells you and us that innovation comes from collisions. We knew that already and created an environment and location of people that forced collisions. Tech, UX, mobile and social strategy in the middle of the creative department.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

connect people

Play leads to friendship leads to trust leads to risk taking. Risk taking is essential to innovation.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

do it to get it

Two years ago, almost, before any of the ad agencies were there, we got everyone onto and into Twitter and social.

And we created experiences that let people unfamiliar with new spaces start to get it.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

change the brief

audience

messages

target

media plan

penetrate

community

experiences

invite

interest plan

collaborate

Old way of seeing world on left. New way on right.

what do we stand for?

who is our community?

where do they hang out?

what is our content?

how will people share it?

how can they get involved?

what will make it ongoing?

what do we want to get out of our efforts?

Ask new questions. Still working on this. Thank you Gareth Kay for some of this thinking.

interactive

shareable

participatory

ongoing

We want everything to be this: these are filters we use to evaluate the work.

We’ve experimented with digital briefs to remind people that the brand is in the dialog at every moment.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

think ecosystem

SEARCH

LEARNPL

CONNECTWednesday, October 13, 2010

Consumers come to a brand for a lot of reasons in a lot of ways. Be there with the right stuff and think about what kind of content or experience you need to create in each of those places.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

change the team

Hire different people: GenY content creators, bloggers, social strategists, mobile experts.

Mobile especially.

Change the team. Depending on the assignment, but change the team.

CWDesignUXSocial

CWADSocialMobile

CWDesignUXSocial

CWADSocialMobile

DesignUXTechMobile

Hard but necessary. CW and AD need just one agreement. A bigger team needs more agreements. Takes a certain kind of person and a certain kind of CD.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

elevate media to creative status

Media is the new creative department. How can you possibly have a separate agency.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

define the job differently

Create an experience that encourages

reducing energy consumption

Don’t ask for an ad. Ask for an experience.

national grid polar bear

Get a cool site and platform.

launch a product using the

platforms where it’s most relevant

Use social media as an engagement and creative environment.

It has its own vernacular and tactics.

invite the public to join in making

donations to Feeding America

Don’t write a check and a press release.

Get your consumer to create artwork, donate money on their behalf. It spreads all over the web. And beyond. Project Bread Art landed us on GMA with Dianne Sawyer.

do something that mirrors the

product position

Your product is not your product in mobile and social. Content is your product. Here our product was a site that helped contruction workers find jobs, courtesty of Timberland Pro boot, whose tagline is stay on your feet.

let people play with the product

Augmented reality can be good and actually useful. Not a gimmick.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

continuous experimentation

Make stuff.

Try stuff.

Play with stuff.

so, does it work?

‣ Prevailed in Jet Blue and Zappos

‣ Built a robust social media business

‣ Won digital assignments from

Olympus, Timberland, Martha Stewart

‣ Grew our iPhone app business

‣ Launched a mobile practice

It works.

“Throughout the pitch process, you couldn't really tell in the room who

was creative, who was digital, who was media, who was planning —

everyone was equally adept at talking about all disciplines.”

Marty St. Georgesenior vp, marketing and commercial

…as told to Ad Age, July 2010

Testimony

Tweenbot. My interpretation. Accomplish great things if you break them into small tasks. Give psychic reward. Trust the crowd. Don’t be afraid to ask. Smile. Or at least be passionate.

Progress.

• develop launch plan for either The Social Network or SCVNGR

• write a modern, digital/social brief

• include role of consumer participant

• determine make-up of the team CW/AD/SM/M/UX/D to work on it

• set criteria for what constitutes creative success

WORKSHOP A: LAUNCH ____________

• define its proposition and the problem it solves (why will clients hire you)

• how does it work: standalone, alliances, embedded, other

• what kind of people do you hire

• what do you make

• set criteria for what constitutes creative success

WORKSHOP B: INVENT THE NEW AGENCY

WORKSHOP C

• honest assessment of who you are

• clear definition of what you want to be, do different

• key challenges obstacles to getting there

• five specific steps to make progress and achieve

WORKSHOP D

• create a skunkworks inside your agency (alternative, or model to replace what you have)

• define mission and purpose

• service and offerings

• staffing

• marketing

WORKSHOP A

• honest assessment of who you are

• clear definition of what you want to be, do different

• key challenges obstacles to getting there

• five specific steps to make progress and achieve

WORKSHOP B

• create a skunkworks inside your agency (alternative, or model to replace what you have)

• define mission and purpose

• service and offerings

• staffing

• marketing

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