Tag: Presentation Recap
First CATFOA of 2011
by Rachele on Jan.31, 2011, under Interactive, Marketing
On Monday, 1/31, I attended the first installment of the 2011 edition of Conversations About The Future Of Advertising (CATFOA) titled, DO WE NEED A NEW DEFINITION OF CREATIVITY? Rewriting the Creative Dictionary. The event is put on by MCAD and MIMA. You can follow the Twitter feed here: @catfoa
The speaker was Ana Andjelic (@andjelicaaa). As the e-mail invite put it, she would be speaking about how “the creative of the digital world is vastly different from its traditional predecessor; where creative once represented the astounding idea comprised of art and copy, or a brand identity turn cultural icon. Now the best work is about coming up with relationships and interactions that connect people into networks – potentially never ending, always in beta.”
This was expanded on that night to a crowd at the Fine Line Music Cafe, left with standing-room only. Ana spoke, in a beautiful Serbian accent, about the Complex Adaptive System. Where expertise isn’t needed in this age because we have entered into a world of the “Unknown Unknowns,” which is digital media. We don’t know what is going to happen next, like at a kid’s birthday party. But what you must remember is, you can position a product in three ways: individual, behavioral or cultural.
She lead the audience through an example of how Coke-a-cola focuses on the product, Pepsi focuses on the person. This desire to focus on the person adds complexity. And as a creative, your job is to put your idea through this complexity to deliver something simple. Some brands respond to the complexity of this world by being consistent. Do something more than a banner ad. Make your campaign thrive in this newly complicated environment. It’s about people! People have many mediums now to interact with your brand. How is your campaign going to make behaviors evolve?
Focus on the needs and behaviors of the people you’re trying to reach. It’s not about the product.
A great example she shared was NeighborGoods. It’s a platform making the assertion that its users need a “hole in wall” not a “drill,” so this website was built to let neighbors loan items to one another. It created a collaborative community. How are you going to make your creative solution work within this context? Focus on the people.
Is there a culture surrounding your product? Embrace it like Nike did with their Tour de France Campaign.
Another example is a store that announced its sale’s discount would be dependent on how many times someone tweeted about it. They rewarded people who talked about the sale with a larger discount. They used people as the medium.
The best creative is alive. It evolves together with its environment.
She told us to inspire emotions and follow up. Don’t just receive a big moment of attention and then let it die (like the Old Spice Campaign did). Create a blog to start conversation. Let the campaign live. How you frame a question creates a simple answer. Organ donors are higher in Germany than in France, because in Germany the default answer to the question is “yes.” Simple as that.
The Poppy Project, put on by Coach, encouraged participants to place a widget on their blog to lead a you on a trail. Whichever website gained the most attention won. Of course Coach threw in 50 little surprises along the way. This discovery of new content intrigued people and these guided steps were meant to build a system.
Take a culture and make it global, but always learn from mistakes.
She summarized her point this way: Insight is part of context. Make a creative solution so it can live in a wider behavior. Say, “Let’s try this and see where it goes.” Build for process. Monitor. Revise the insight. Think long term. Creative isn’t an end product. Change by observation. The best platforms are based on an assertion that exists. Ask yourself, “What kind of behavior do we want to transform and make better? Once answered ask, “What functionality do we need to include to make it happen?”
Create a simple interface, not a simple environment. Embrace the complexity of the situation (i.e. the fact buyers are persuaded by online reviews of your product while reading the reviews on their smartphone standing in the aisle in front of your product and the competition). Focus on behaviors. Crowdsource. Interact.
Ms. Andjelic is highly educated and intelligent, which shined throughout the entire presentation. Ech03 captured live video from the event, which may be posted on the CATFOA blog soon.
I was jotting notes on the bar top in the back of the room, so I’m open to comments on points I’ve missed or misinterpreted.
Hopefully, Ana’s presentation will inspire you to reevaluate and question if your creative solution is focused on long-term existence, embracing current culture, evolving behaviors and providing a simple call-to-action in a complex environment.
