Over the last six months, Mark Gorman of Think Hard has been bringing up some advertising legends to give us of their wisdom; I missed Trevor Beattie, I enjoyed Mark Waites from Mother, who told us why it's important to think "Inside the Box"(because that's where we are), and I was lucky to get a last minute invitation to see John Hegarty, Creative Director of BBH.
I foolishly didn't bring a notebook, so this isn't a proper report, merely my own unreliable memoirs of some the points he made.
He didn't show us his reel, but he did use some of BBH's more recent work to support his main contention that this really is the golden age of Advertising. (And he made it sound plausible at the time, but he is a great pitchman!)
It's not about Technology, it's still all about The Idea, but when agencies use all the amazing opportunities given to us all by new technology, great ideas can cut through more strongly than ever.
Yes, the work is being researched and measured to death and yes, clients are all terrified of losing their jobs, but Hegarty believes that it's time to change the conversation, and lead the client away from the false reassurance of statistics. Sometimes that means putting your money where your mouth is.
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BBH couldn't convince Microsoft to run this launch idea for X-Box on TV in the UK, so they made it anyway and posted it to the web. It went viral, the client bought it and it ended up as a conventional TVC after all.
Oasis wanted to launch their new album, Dig Out Your Soul, but their previous two hadn't done so well. BBH suggested that they give away four songs to street musicians in New York and have them play them all over the city.
Working with @radicalmedia, BBH came up with The Gamekillers, a TV series for Axe (Lynx in the UK) that won huge audiences on MTV, one of the rare instances of genuinely successful Branded Content.It's still a strong case study, but he admitted that there weren't many great subsequent examples to talk about.
And he showed us a spot (not this one), from their powerful campaign for Barnardo's that shows how advertising is increasingly important as an agent of social change. And told us about the agency's own product ideas that they are now developing either with clients or third parties.
What did I take out of it?
Some good sound bites.
Effectiveness is the goal, creativity is the strategy.
When the world zigs, zag.
And
Don't confuse principle and practice.
There were others, but I've forgotten them for the moment. (Memo to self, make notes next time)
One of the things that attracted me to work in advertising was a BBH brochure I saw back in the 80's. It was A5, and black, and on the cover it said, We Don't Do Creative Pitches.
It stopped me in my tracks; I thought it was a brilliant example of zagging. And I took it to be a BBH principle. But then, some years later, I learned that BBH DID do creative pitches. What the hell was going on?
So I asked him. He said, it wasn't a principle. It was practice. At the time, a lot of clients were making terrible ads, because they didn't have a strategy. BBH saw an opportunity. So they said (in the brochure) let us come and work with you, and learn about and come to understand your business. And then, once we've worked out a strategy, then we'll do some creative work. Now clients understand strategy. So that approach wouldn't work any more. And BBH do creative pitches like everyone else.
But it was an inspiring talk; thanks to @markagorman for organising it and for the pics of Sir JH (Don't you think he looks like Mick Jagger?)
And big thanks also to STV for sponsoring it. I look forward to the next one!
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