A STORY ABOUT FACING CHANGE
IN ADVERTISING TOLD IN 30 QUOTES Published on mad-blog.com

Change started here: “Technology is
shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are in control.” Rupert Murdoch, Global Media Entrepreneur

People got power: “Consumers are
beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation … We need to begin to learn to let go.” A.G. Lafley, CEO and Chairman, Procter & Gamble

People lost trust: “People don’t
trust businesses the way they used to ... For the first time we found that the most trusted sources were ‘a person such as yourself or a peer’.” Steve Rubel, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital

People don‘t care that much
about brands: “Often our biggest mistake as managers is believing that, in general, customers care a lot about your brand. They do not.” Prof. Patrick Barwise, London Business School

People don‘t care that much
about advertising: “Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them. And sometimes it’s an ad.” Howard Gossage, Freeman Mander & Gossage

And the lack of interest
gets bigger: “There’s a limited amount of attention in the world. If more of it is going to personal, non-commercial, un-advertised media, less of it will go to advertising.” Russel Davies, Strategist & Author

A logical deduction: “Brands that
rely too heavily on mainstream media, or that are not exploring new technologies and connection points, will lose touch.” Jim Stengel, Gobal Marketing Officer, Procter & Gamble

Remind yourself of what the
actual job is: “We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive. We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” Trevor Edwards, Vice President of Global Brand Management, Nike

Today‘s possibilities to connect are
endless: “In an interconnected world, media is everywhere: (...) The opportunities for value creation are greater than ever before – but we must expand our vision of what media is to begin realizing them.” Umair Haque, Director, Havas Media Lab

So: “Everything a brand does
that connects to the consumer is media.” Lee Clow, Director of Media Arts, TBWA Worldwide

The change in media broadens
the creative playground: “By 2015 there will be no separate media and creative awards because there will be no distinction between ad agency creativity and media agency creativity.” Cliff Francis, Manager of Global Media and Communication, Procter & Gamble

The change in media alters
the way brands should communicate: “Every brand today has to think and act like a media company, rather than pushing stuff out there, to instead aim to pull an audience in. With our audience, word is spread like wildfire and it’s much more cost effective for the client.” Spencer Baim, Head of Virtue

Stop boring the people by
sending simple messages: “The whole industry is obsessed with the idea of a simple message, endlessly repeated (...) What people actually want is stuff with some complexity, some meat, some richness (...) Not stuff that’s distilled to a simple essence or refined to a single compelling truth. No-one ever came out of a movie and said ‘I really liked that. It was really clear.’” Russel Davies, Strategist & Author

So what should brands talk
about: “If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.” Hugh MacLeod, Cartoonist, gapingvoid.com

Stop interrupting what people are
interested in. Become part of it: “You used to use your budget to buy an audience. Now you have to invent ideas to attract an audience.” Lisa Seward, Mod Communications

Because today ... :“Audiences can
now watch whatever they want, whenever they want. ‘Safe’ advertising gets ignored. It is the beginning of the end for repetitive advertising.” Jean Marie Dru, Chairman, TBWA Worldwide

And they are right: “The
audience is right. They’re always, always right. You hear directors complain that the advertising was lousy, the distribution is no good, the date was wrong to open the film. I don’t believe that. The audience is never wrong. Never.” William Friedkin, Movie Director (“The Excorcist”)

What agencies should deliver to
attract an audience: “The agency’s job is to create content so valuable and useful that consumers wouldn’t want to live without it (…) create content that’s interesting and entertaining enough to invite the consumer.” Jeff Hicks, CEO, Crispin Porter Bogusky

Giving becomes crucial for a
brand: “People become loyal to that what the brand is giving.” David Armano, Vice President of Experience Design, Critical Mass

Create something valuable that people
can engage with: “The key is to produce something that both pulls people together and gives them something to do.” Henry Jenkins, Director Comparative Media Studies Program, MIT

Why strive for engagement: “Engagement
has a psychological component, but it will manifest behaviourally – it will lead to an action.” Robert DeSena, Director of Relationship Marketing, MARS USA

But ... : “Content isn’t
king. Conversation is king. If I sent you to a desert island and gave you the choice of taking your friends or your movies, you’d choose your friends – if you chose the movies, we’d call you a sociopath. Content is just something to talk about.” Cory Doctorow, Sci-Fi Author

The content must contribute something
interesting to the conversation: “Brands only have a role if they can make the conversation more interesting. Advertising can’t succeed against the conversation but it can influence and contribute to the conversation.” Richard Huntington, Director of Strategy, Saatchi & Saatchi UK

So ... : “If it’s
not worth talking about, it’s not worth doing.” Andy Sernovitz, Author of “WoM Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking“

Finally media changed marketing: “New
Marketing isn’t a single event or website or technology. New Marketing treats every interaction, product, service and side effect as a form of media.” Seth Godin, Author of “Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?”

Finally media changed model: “The
old model was informing, persuading and reminding, the new model is demonstrating, involving and empowering.” Mitch Matthews, Marketing Chief, Microsoft

We can face the change
by being prepared: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” Sir Ken Robinson, Author of “Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative“

We can face the change
by celebrating trial and error: “Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius.” Dave Kelley, Founder of Ideo

We can face the change
by failing again: “Always make new mistakes – If we keep doing the same thing, we’ll get the same results. We need to be unafraid to experiment, to try new approaches. And we need to be unafraid of cocking up and of failing.” Esther Dyson, Journalist, on emerging digital technology

“We are at the beginning
of the most exciting time the advertising business has ever seen. While lots of people are talking about the challenge of the multi- media future, I believe it is the biggest opportunity for creative minds since the ‘60’s.“ Lee Clow, Director of Media Arts, TBWA Worldwide

TBWA Group Germany Hubertus von
Lobenstein, CEO Rosenstrasse 16-17 10178 Berlin (Germany) Compiled and arranged by michael.zorn@tbwa.de