“To no one's surprise,” writes
Michael Bush for AdAge , “the first topic of discussion at Advertising Week's CNBC CEO Summit was the meltdown of the financial markets last week.”
The panel of advertising agency CEOs, Andrew Robertson (BBDO), Nick Brien (Mediabrands), Sarah Fay (Aegis Media North America) and Irwin Gotlieb (GroupM) covered a lot of ground but never got far from the debris of the investment banks’ collapse the week of 15 September 2008.
BBDO’s Mr. Robertson sees what he believes is a fundamental shift in how consumers process information from marketers and their clients:
We have to stop thinking of media as bridges that we march messages over into people's minds and start thinking about creating experiences that change behavior and providing access to those experiences in the most relevant places...That's a different language and different way of thinking from the way the business was approached even three years ago.
"We used to think about messages that created a case for a particular behavior," Mr. Robertson said.
"It's not about that now. It's about creating experiences that, by participating in them, change consumer behavior. I'm only interested in behavior. Everything else is just a proxy for it. Unless behavior changes, it's all been a waste of time and money. That's an important lens through which to look at everything, because there's a lot of interesting stuff going on, none of which is going to change behavior. And our clients can't make any money unless behavior changes.
No news here beyond declaring the shift practitioners like
Seth Godin have trumpeted for years on end. When BBDO gets it, is it real?
[read the rest]
Interesting commentary from Martha Irvine at Associated Press this morning: Kids labeled 'generation next' before they grow up. Ms Irvine takes on the cultural propensity to put people—whole "generations" of them—in boxes and leave them there.
