ADVERTISING&MARKETING TONY KOENDERMAN
DDB Chairman Bob Scarpelli and CEO Chuck Brymer talk creativity and the ad business with FinWeek’s Tony Koenderman in Cannes, June 2009. Reproduced with permission from Finweek.
global trends
Hit the reset button! …and start swarming, as ad industry starts over
tonyk@finweek.co.za
Stings
Seeing is believing SAMSUNG HAS VIRTUALLY taken ownership of FHM’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World” supplement this year, thanks to smart media creativity by Starcom. In one example the agency booked the inside front cover and showed a Samsung LED TV
with a die-cut screen, so readers saw the model’s body on the underlying page as if it were on the screen. The visual is captioned: “Seeing is believing” – facing on the reverse page: “The Samsung LED TV has revolutionised the way we look at colour: Experience Real Life-Like Images.”
At a loose end? BEEN RETRENCHED, downsized or, frankly, sacked? The AAA School of Advertising will let former ACA-member staff attend lectures in Joburg free of charge. n
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THE ADVERTISING WORLD has “hit the reset button on everything we do,” says DDB chairman Bob Scarpelli, using online jargon for the structural shifts taking place in marketing communications. “We’ve started afresh on everything. None of the old categories apply any more. There’s an increasing fuzziness of definition. The way advertising is going we could end up with a single award for the best idea.” But everything is still judged
in categories at awards shows such as Cannes. “So you don’t get a sense of the totality. Two years ago TV commercials were seen as something different from Internet and mobile. Today, we’re working at least four screens. We won an Emmy for a TV commercial only ever seen on the Internet.” Scarpelli, the creative head, and president/CEO Chuck Brymer, are the force behind DDB Worldwide, the world’s most successful award-winning agency in
Global agency invests in sa DDB WORLDWIDE has bought a majority stake in DDB South Africa from the former Jupiter Drawing Room Partners. The SA agency, a non-equity affiliate of the Omnicom-owned global network, was named Agency of the Year at the AdReview Awards in April. Then known as Framptons International, it became a DDB associate in 1998. The Jupiter Drawing Room acquired a 53% stake two years ago but after selling 49% of its own equity to WPP, an Omnicom rival, it had to sever the link. Currently managed and part-owned by CEO Glen Lomas and MD Emmet O’Hanlon, the agency has quadrupled in size over four years and won a rare Cannes Grand Prix for Energizer last year. Clients include Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s and Knorr. The global network, the world’s largest, is also acknowledged as probably the world’s top creative agency over the last five to 10 years. Patrick Ehringer, regional Middle East/Africa president, says the agency will serve as a regional hub. “We’re counting on DDB SA to make its creativity resonate across the continent under the exceptional leadership of Lomas, O’Hanlon and CEO Gareth Lessing.” DDB chairman Bob Scarpelli says the management team had raised the agency’s creative ranking in less than three years and “firmly established the agency within our network. It’s now a major part of DDB Worldwide”. n PATRICK EHRINGER Counts on quality.
recent years. As two of the best thinkers in world advertising they make a formidable team. They talked to Finweek in Cannes. Under Scarpelli’s creative leadership, DDB has won almost every advertising award there is. In 32 years at DDB he’s created some of the world’s most talked-about and awarded creative work, including Budweiser’s “Whassup” campaign. But consumer motivation has changed in ways that are difficult
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to fathom, says Brymer, who outlined his “swarm theory” of consumer activation in a recent book, The Nature of Marketing. Thanks to the Internet, Brymer says, human beings act like swarms of ants or bees. A colony of a million will form complex and efficient super highways, prompted by a mysterious collective intelligence to flock to resources or flee from danger. Humans, who once socialised in small groups and watched TV for product information, are becoming a human swarm linked by digital social networks, following similar behavioural rules. Like their insect counterparts, highly connected human swarms move with lightning speed and flock to the same brands. Seeking best value, they check consumer ratings online or tap into favourite blogs and social networks, sharing information with perhaps 200 people a day. Marketing will never be the same again. So no surprise that DDB is investing heavily in new technologies. “But integration of old and new channels is crucial. Look how important TV was to achieve reach and impact for the Obama presidential campaign and convey the heroic nature of the product. A two-minute TV commercial was the campaign highlight.” Technology has a long reach, notes Scarpelli. “The mobile phone will become the primary medium of communication and online access in the emerging world. In South Africa, as in India, slow broadband connections stimulate the advancement of mobile technologies. The world is opening up, borders coming down. There’s no stopping it.” n
SPONSORSHIP
Cricket, tea and biscuits IT WAS AN INSPIRED decision. In the dark days of apartheid, cricket supremo Ali Bacher – recognising the need to develop a love of cricket in South Africa’s black community – asked Bakers Biscuits to sponsor “mini cricket” in the townships. Bakers jumped at the idea, setting in motion a programme that’s been enjoyed by 2,5m primary schoolchildren countrywide for 26 years, WAYNE PARNELL with a Bakers schoolchild. spawning such talents as Mark Boucher, JP Duminy, Makhaya Ntini and Justin Ontong. “Without it, I would have been out stealing cars,” says Ntini. It’s also done an enormous amount for the Bakers brand, though Snackworks category director Heather Partner is quick to emphasise it wasn’t treated as a marketing tool. “It was never intended as a CSI project,” she says. “We never quantified it. We don’t do it to sell more biscuits. It’s part of our DNA. Our challenge now is how to make it bigger and better, more current and now-focused.” The programme is no longer limited LEARNING the skill of running between the wickets. to underprivileged communities but operates across the socio-economic spectrum, from St Stithians to the poorest rural Governenvironment. It’s not run on a competitive basis, so ment schools. “In many areas it’s the only sport they there’s no winner. play,” says Partner. “They have nothing else. Bakers “It promotes leadership, sports mastery, camaMini Cricket has become as iconic as our biscuits.” raderie, good health. We don’t apologise for our However, she agrees there’s a “tremendous feelproducts but we promote a healthy balance. We don’t ing of goodwill towards the brand. Bakers has 97% want them watching TV and stuffing biscuits into spontaneous awareness, though it doesn’t give us a their mouths.” logo on a TV screen.” The programme has been copied in England, The programme has also expanded in other ways. New Zealand and Australia. “It works because it’s There’s a cricket coach training academy whose 30 000 well structured, with a specific programme, rules and graduates include current Protea coach Mickey Arthur guidelines and has the continuity of a single sponsor. and Vincent Barnes. There’s also a schools road show, And we don’t just write cheques – we’re physically a feeding scheme and a new initiative – Bakers Bisinvolved. We provide the kit, scoring mechanisms – cuits for Charity. everything. Both boys and girls participate and, says Partner, At a cost of R8m to R10m/year,” says Partner, “it’s “they just love it. They learn to play cricket in a fun money well spent.” n
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