Minority Report Becomes Reality

Did you know? The Winnipeg Remix

In a continuation of Crystal Ball Gazing & More Balls Please. Courtesy of Michael Darragh

Mr. T-Shaped People

Mr T. could drive a truck as well as turn lawnmowers into cabbage firing machines and kick arse.

I assume the is why the new concept of T shaped people was so named. Once was, ok so upto about year ago, if you didn't fit into a planning/creative/account/digital/direct/traditional box you were a pariah.

Now it is almost a necessity to have a core vertical skill with complimentary horizontal skills. As agencies struggle to cope with the changing communications channels and how to navigate them cost effectively the need to have smaller teams of more versatile people who link together across their shared skills will increase.

The term was coined by David Guest in "The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing," in The Independent, September 17, 1991.

I would however agree with the people who have said that this is overly simplistic and the agency of the future will require people of all different shapes integrating across a variety of levels but we are starting from a low base.

Tags: t-shaped david guest

Power of Search

Search for Coke's new global end-line "The Coke Side of Life" and you get this image.

Search is much maligned as just a single stage at the bottom of the purchase cycle. It does that and more besides.

More examples from Amelia Torode including a link to "Google isn't a search engine, it's a reputation management system." from Clive Thompson.

Tags: search giles rhys jones google

Product Outreach

Nokia N series target Dave Armano for blogger seeding progam. Some interesting perspectives from numeous bloggers on the etiquette and approach.

All I need is afew more of you guys reading and I might get an N95.

Tags: nokia buzz seeding giles rhys jones

Search Is Not Just A Safety Net

In response to my comment that search was increasingly taking the first spot on the marketing plan over TV this post on adliterate talks about search as a necessary evil. I have detailed my response below:

Whereas search is increasingly the first or at least constant thing on your marketing plan, of course it is not the only thing.

As information becomes increasingly available navigating it becomes exponentially more important and search is the number one activity online.

It is not my job to educate about the merits of search advertising quoting facts and figures but suffice to say a much more sophisticated tool than it is often given credit for, not just at the bottom end of the funnel but across the whole of the purchase cycle.

It is hugely accountable, it allows you to optimise in real time, it gives you a cost effective way to have a constant presence and manage volume. Also, as you point out, it provides an indispensable safety net.

Most importantly however rather than, as with most other channels, taking a proxy for audience intentions deduced from the content they read, we actually know what their intentions are because they type them into a little box or a clever little spider analyses the content they are reading. It is obviously not a bad model as Google’s advances into print, TV and radio seems to indicate.

It would be remiss of us as brands not to be there for these; our most important and qualified audience; advertising is about relevancy after all.

Of course the rest of the marketing mix and how it all works together is vital but for you to dismiss this offhand and a necessary evil is irresponsible. Do you think the same about shelf wobblers?

Tags: adliterate integration giles rhys jones bad advertising search

Ogilvy Pipe to Widget

Take the Yahoo! Pipes generated Ogilvy Blog Aggregator combine it Widget Box and suprise, suprise you get the Ogilvy Blog Aggregator Widget.

Tags: *ogilvy *giles rhys jones *widget

For IBM Second Life Is Not A Game

CNN money article on why IBM's Sam Palmisano and other tech leaders think Second Life could be a gold mine.

By early January more than 3,000 IBM employees had acquired their own avatars,
and about 300 were routinely conducting company business inside Second Life.
"The 3-D Internet may at first appear to be eye candy," Palmisano writes in an
e-mail interview, "but don't get hung up on how frivolous some of its initial
uses may seem." He calls 3-D realms such as Second Life the "next phase of the
Internet's evolution" and says they may have "the same level of impact" as the
first Web explosion.

Cheers Rob.

Tags: IBM social trends giles rhys jones second life Sam Palmisano

Blogging isn't killing planning, advertising agencies are.

In response to this huge thread - 105 odd responses - about whether blogging is killing planning.

As the lines between communications channels blur so do the lines between sales, service, HR and delivery. The uncovering of insights that drives solutions not just across channels but across business becomes even more important.

In an older, simpler world, agencies often operated in this way. Mr Kipling is probably the best known example. Over the years however fragmentation of media and agencies and the fact that TV’s first place on the marketing plan has been replaced by search has meant that they are no longer the first port of call, rarely sit at the top table and have limited impact on business bar broadcast communications.

In the current structure classic agency planning just can’t do the job. Incidentally neither can brand, media, data, digital, communications, process and change management planners, especially when they are tied to a particular channel or discipline solution.

Until agencies change their structures, remuneration and skills and consequently their remit planners will continue to operate with one, if not both hands behind their backs.

Teams of multi-discipline "T" shaped planners, with core skills but an understanding of others, no vested interest in channel delivery, with remuneration tied to the performance of the solution would be a start.

Tags: is blogging killing planningplanningintegratedgiles rhys jones

Nice Pipe: Generate Your Own Mash-Up

Yahoo! Pipes allows you to aggregate and manipulate numerous interactive feeds outputting them in the way you find most relevant. As information becomes ever more available navigating it becomes increasingly important.

See this Ogilvy Blog Pipe which takes numerous RSS feeds from Ogilvy worldwide blogs, translating the French and German, then orders them by date published. i have dropped the combined feed into my sidebar.

Tags: yahoo! pipes ogilvy

Anomaly: Advertising Evolution

Has Anomaly NYC progressed marketing communications to its next natural stage?

The more markers and their agencies integrate established communications channels the more channels beg to also be included. Holding and group companies like WPP and Ogilvy or boutiques like Naked have devloped cross channel teams to ensure the right comunications mix.

This in turn however highlights the need to align the rest of the marketing mix: staffing and process, companies like the Ingram Partnership blend business consulting with communications planning to offer this hybrid service.

The next logical step is of course product development. Anomaly is selling an all-in-one package of services for advertising, product design, strategic consulting, and technology licensing. The remuneration structure is interesting; not fee based or, god forbid, a percentage of media spend but they believe in the partnerships with their clients so they a percentage of sales or equity.

Business 2.0 Magazine inteviews Anomaly founder Carl Johnson on the the next agency model.

Interestingly this is pretty much the role that advertising agencies played in the past - see Stephen Kings invention of Mr Kipling - but as roles and remuneration fragmented and became even more specialised we lost sight of this and our place at the top table.

Tags: anomoly, naked, integration, agencies, ogilvy anomaly nyc giles rhys jones

You Don't Own Your Brand - You Never Did

Cisco have taken the user generated communcations i have blogged about before (superbowl, dove, coke) to the next level with a constantly evolving definition of their brand.

The campaign involved multiple channels to communicate their positioning: "The internet isn't a network of computers, it's a network of people. Cisco is unleashing the power of the human network."

Initially they asked key luminaries to define "The Human Network", these were posted on their site and consumers were asked to rate each one.

The best were used as the start point for a wikipedia entry which to this day is constantly defined and redefined by their audience.

A living brand.

Disclosure: This was developed out of Ogilvy's LA & NYC office though I was not personally involved.

Tags: cisco, human-network, ogilvy, brand, con-gen

Embracing Disruptive Technology

Reuters look back at a demanding, disruptive and exciting year in technology.

Technologies are converging and media meshing, allowing people unprecedented choice over the media they consume.

Though this has been a challenging time for many traditional media businesses, it is also one that is rich in possibilities.

Reuters technology correspondent Matt Cowan revisits some of the highlights and top talking points of 2006 in tech.

FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Chuck D, Rapper
Marissa Mayer, Google VP of Search Products
Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital Partner
Maurice Saatchi, M & C Saatchi Executive Director
James Murdoch, BSkyB CEO
Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy Group UK Vice-Chairman

Tags: Ogilvy, Disruption, Murdoch, Saatchi

Communities in Advertising

Tomi Ahonen interviewing Rory Sutherland, Creative Director of OgilvyOne. Rory Sutherland has been very closely involved in guiding the company on its path of interruptive advertising through interactivity and onto engagement marketing. He has a passion for learning about customers and communities and speaks frequently on these topics around the world. Tomi and Rory discuss the fundamentals about community. While MySpace, YouTube, Second Life and Flickr are all the rage today, communities are as old as human existence.

Tags: ogilvy , sutherland, community

More balls please

More crystal ball gazing, this time from the guys at trendwatching.com, and looking a little further in the future BT's Innovation Timeline.

Tags: trends, future, bt

Does Dove Drop The Ball On Survey

Amelia Torode points out that Dove's latest campaign missses a trick. The campaign encourages consumers to fill in a survey: "Real women know best when it comes to beauty care. So good or bad we really want to hear what real women have to say." However it resorts to banal questions like "Dove makes me feel more confident to reveal my underarms. Agree/Disagree".

This is annoying that they missed a trick on this one. With innovative research techniques like Imagini's visual based work they could have done something more interesting that actually lives the brand of consumer champion and real-ness.

Surely they would have enough insight from the vast commentary they get on campaignforrealbeauty.com. This smacks of marketing size 12s stomping in.

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Social Regulation

Brands including Masterfoods and Pepsico have started to pull back from targeting kids online. In a recent article in NMA I commented that this has major cash implication for the industry that has particular affinity for youth and that was anticipating a windfall. Though not short of a bod or two this could become a trend that could potentially extend from food to other areas.

Another point I raised but that didn't make the article was the web's ability to self regulate. From Kryptonite and Dell to Hummer consumers have not be shy about pointing out corporate hypocrisy or malpractise. Companies need to self regulate before people force them to.

Media Agencies Pass The Buck

In a recent article a number of prominent media agencies slammed the larger portals for not doing enough to push the medium. Media agencies are hardly renowned for their innovative and creative thinking so there is quite alot of "the lady doth protest too much, methinks".

As I mention in the artile the onus is not on any one single company in the communications mix but media, creative and clients as well as consumers need to all work together, dont worry no group hugs involved.

I have always found that given a compelling strategic reason all involved, but especially media owners are more than willing to think outside traditional formats. Ogilvy's Cisco livecast with the FT.com as an example for one.

R/GA and Bob Greenberg

Some interesting musings from the founder of AdAge's Agency of the Year and much lauded as the big thing:

Bob Greenberg on web 2.0’s impact: “If web 2.0 represents community and social collaboration on a grand scale, then in many ways we’ve simply gone back to the web 0.0 future”.

R/GA Earns 'Adweek' AOY Kudos: “The nature of storytelling is changing in a world shifting from analog to digital media.”

Branding in 3-D (pdf): "Message, time, place must align to really reach consumers"

Ad 2.0 (video): "Nightly Business Report"

Redefining Relevance (pdf).

Though their site talks about engagement neutrality yet they only operate in the digital channel, err surely something wrong with this picture.

Martin Sorrell On The Media Industry

Martin Sorrel on MediaWeek.tv, a series of web chats from Media Week in association with Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. The Webchats feature some of the highest-profile names in media from Andy Duncan – CEO of Channel 4 to Fru Hazlitt, CEO of Virgin Radio. They discuss the big issues of the day: from the future of traditional media channels in an increasingly convergent and digital world, to the evolving role of media agencies in the modern client mix.

Crystal Ball Gazing

What's going to happen in 2007? What will be the impact of convergence? How will the net neutrality debate be resolved? What will be the impact of social computing? Will I still have a job?

Vincent Thome found: Predictions 2007 from Deloitte, three reports onoutlining the critical trends that will influence the global TMT market in 2007. A couple of other reports for the year ahead:

Future Media Trends from the Future Exploration Network.

Breakthrough Ideas for 2007 by Harvard Business Review.



Any more for any more?

A Global Planning Brain

Russel Davis has launched a new tool for the planning community, in the form of a Plannersphere wiki. A great idea along with his coffee mornings and the account planning school of the web. Ogilvy have also been investigating wikis as an ongoing working tool.