Time to teach, Part 2

Wow. I got a lot of insightful response very quickly on this new advertising curriculum I'm trying to develop for MCAD. (Check out the comments.) Thanks to everyone for responding thus far!

I thought I'd share an especially interesting email response from Edward Boches, Chief Creative Officer of Mullen. Edward's not on Twitter, not on Facebook. But he's been in the trenches of trying to figure out how a large, national agency should evolve and adapt to what Lebowski might refer to as "the new shit." So I found his comments particularly intriguing.

Edward's email...

Tim:

I think what you’re doing is great. A few initial thoughts.

Too much of digital creative is often influenced by what can be done digitally as opposed to what does a client need to accomplish (awareness, transaction, loyalty, building advocates, sharing common beliefs). So one thing to think about is how to distinguish what one kind of company or brand should do digitally
vs another. Not everyone should send out messages to a cell phone. (Certainly a mobile company with a new plan or lower rates should.) Can you get people to think about how to apply digital possibilities to a specific problem/opportunity and look at the world from the specific business objectives/needs of the client. What does digital mean to Porsche vs Ben and Jerry’s vs Terminex.

2. Not a criticism, but a thought: your current definition of integration is more what I would consider a definition of consistency. Let’s take our idea and express it in all the different media. I believe the true future opportunity is to conceive ideas that couldn’t even exist if it weren’t for their ability to employ different digital media to make the idea possible. Dove gets close. Maybe Axe. But the fact is neither is as big as the future. I once had an idea for XM that tapped into the fact that they recorded hundreds of bands in their studio every year. What if each band recorded the same song and then users could go online and pick different vocalists, guitarists, base players, etc and mix their own version of the song, download it, share it, etc. What is that? An application, an ad idea, a community idea, a brand idea? Whatever it is, it couldn’t happen without advertising to promote it, the web to share it, technology to play with it, and a core brand passion (music) to inspire it.

3. I hope a few years from now the ideal agency will have but four departments. Strategy. Channels. Content. Production. You won’t be able to conceive an idea or a program without one person from each group in the room. Strategy: What are we trying to do and to whom are we talking. Channels: How do we connect, inspire, engage and interact. Content: What do we create (or get them to create.) Production: How do we produce it timely and efficiently. Ideally, the channel and the technology inherent in that channel will inspire creative execution as much as a strategy brief will. Production techniques, whether for ipods, cell phone, the web, digital billboards, etc. will be equally influential in driving a creative idea.

The challenge is that we will need strategists who can think across disciplines, channel (media) people who are technologically tuned in, production people who know how to maximize assets and steer creative based on how/where the assets will be used, and creative people who are comfortable in all of these areas.

So how do you teach a course? Can you get anyone to learn all of these things? Or rather can you simply get them to understand that this is what they have to think about, incorporate into their specific area of focus, or simply be aware of to make something great that will work in the marketplace on a consumer’s terms?

Hope this helps. Let me know.

Edward

Thanks so much for the insights, Edward! I'm particularly drawn to the ideas in point #3. It's simple, easy to understand, it would appear to be "implementable" within the framework of most large, traditional agencies. Though, I suspect the challenge (as Armano put it recently), would be in terms of empathy and passion for the new direction.

Please keep the comments rolling. I hope to unveil some course description ideas and course outlines early next week for further feedback.

- - - - -

UPDATE: Here's a third post on this subject. And thanks to all who've responded thus far!

And a fourth post with course title, description and objectives.

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Wow, Tim. I'm blown away. Now I want to take your class ;-) Since you received such strong suggestions on the agency side, I would like you to consider the client. Being on the client side, I receive pitches all the time.

Although the words and nice capabilities graphics are very good and some even perfect, often it all falls apart when we look at case studies and work. Why? Was it client who held the agency back? Maybe. Or maybe there was nobody inside the agency who thought of starting the meeting by listening to what the client is wrestling with, then adapted the conversation to the why, what and how the agency could provide.

Think market-driven, problem-solving, big picture attitude. What Edward describes here is fantastic -- it is still internal. How can that membrane between how the agency works and how the client works/what we need be more permeable? The underlying theme to every successful campaign is a series of successful conversations and a meeting of the minds, the connection. Let's not forget that a brand needs to be the reflection of reality, at least aspirationally.

[Chris Wexler]

Tim,

Loving this post and comment string... Being a media geek, or if Edward Boches has his way – and I hope he does – channel geek, part of what I grapple with each day is measurement and optimization. Once the idea is sold, more and more, we worry about “did it work?”

Now before all you brilliant creative and strategic types roll your eyes at the direct response, bass-o-matic implications of my comment, hear me out.

Data does not necessarily lead you to ugly and stupid. If you look at numbers in an ugly and stupid way it does, but that is largely because people are either looking at the wrong numbers (initial response) or there is no way to measure the numbers that really matter (most branding impact. Is unaided recall the end-all-be-all?).

That said, there is so much more data out there that can be harnessed to expand brand impact and enhance creativity. If you can find data that there are more users on a particular web site with a particular mindset that will leave them more open to the idea/creative execution of your campaign, data adds to the creative process, far from detracting from it.

Couple of pieces of suggested reading – and nothing that is from the marketing world per se. Since my background includes Capitol Hill, Wall Street, independent theatre, and now an ad agency, I’m the poster child of not getting too industry-centric in my thinking.:

Freakonomics – the book and the corresponding blog http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/ show the power of looking at data with an open and creative mind. Anybody going into digital needs to have read this…

How to Lie With Statistics, Darrell Huff (1952) – Really, these days everyone needs to take a basic Stats course. But this little book (142 pages) covers all the bases, and the basics of stats haven’t changed in 50 years. Plus the illustrations are worth the price of admission. Remember use the lessons for good, not evil.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2574646-5157746?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189284823&sr=8-1

Good Luck at MCAD – the students are better off with you there.

[Tim Brunelle]

Valeria & Chris -

Thanks so much for your kind words and engaging responses! It's quite wonderful to receive the benefit of your insights and see how they all map against the big picture.

Someone once said, "If you want to learn something, teach it." I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to teach this class, but even more so because of your willingness to share and improve my own understanding.

- Tim