To commemorate its 50th anniversary which comes upon us in December, SHOOT continues a special series of features that will run through 2010 in which noted industry executives and artists reflect on the changes they’ve seen over the decades, as well as the essential dynamics that have endured. These folks–from different sectors of the business–additionally share their visions, concerns and aspirations for the future.
In our first three series installments, we tapped into the insights of Lee Clow, chief creative officer/global director of Media Arts, TBWA Worldwide, and chairman of TBWA/Media Arts Lab; director/editor Larry Bridges, founder of Red Car; Robert Greenberg, chairman/CEO/global chief creative officer of R/GA; Rich Silverstein, co-chairman/creative director of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; Stephen Dickstein, global president/managing director of worldwide production house The Sweet Shop; former Interpublic Group CEO Phil Geier, current chairman of The Geier Group, New York; and directors Bob Giraldi of bicoastal Giraldi Media, Joe Pytka of West Hollywood, Calif.-based PYTKA, Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international Hungry Man, and the legendary, groundbreaking Joe Sedelmaier, who last year earned the New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award.
Now we garner observations from Dan Wieden, founder and CEO of Wieden+Kennedy; Susan Credle, chief creative officer of Leo Burnett North America; and Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award-winning helmer Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.
Wieden and David Kennedy co-founded Wieden+Kennedy, a shop which retains its independence yet has managed from humble, makeshift beginnings in Portland, Ore., to grow and evolve over the years into an agency with a global footprint and which has made–and continues to make–an indelible impact on industry creativity.
Credle came aboard Leo Burnett last October. Prior to that, she had been executive VP/executive creative director at BBDO New York. For over a decade, she had been leading BBDO’s creative development on M&M/Mars and Cingular/AT&T, among other brands. Under her aegis, those brands garnered numerous honors spanning Cannes, The One Show, the ANDY and Clio competitions, while meshing themselves into pop culture.
Murro won the DGA Award as Best Commercial Director of 2004 based on three entries: Starbucks’ “Glen” for Fallon in New York; adidas’ “Carry” from TBWAChiatDay in San Francisco; and eBay’s “Toy Boat” conceived by a team from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. This win came in the midst of a run during which Murro was nominated for the DGA honor five out of six years.
Dan Wieden “Back in the day, I used to complain quite a bit about our industry being very much reminiscent of a cul-de-sac,” recalled Dan Wieden. “You were always in the same neighborhood, going in a circle, pulling into one driveway and then the next–without any real difference between driveways. Well, those days of complaining are long gone for me.
“So much has been said of the rise of the digital class, the impact of social media and how these developments have changed everything,” he continued. “What is so interesting to me is that this whole technological revolution is shaking so many economic and business models to their very foundation. It’s like we’re doing business in the middle of an earthquake where you appreciate just having a base of operation from which to work and observe–a tent and clean water so to speak. But the fact is that this is probably the most exciting time ever in the business. No more cul-de-sacs–now we have a whole new frontier to work in, to innovate and in which to connect with people.”
Wieden+Kennedy, though, wasn’t quick to heed the call, acknowledged Wieden. “When the first digital shot was fired, we took our time before fully realizing the impact and the necessity to move quickly. But I’m feeling a lot better about where we are now.
“If you look at all our digital folks around the world today, the caliber of their work and talent is impressive. Still, we’re never satisfied, which is what helps push us on to do, to seek out and to achieve more. Dissatisfaction can be a most powerful motivator.”
Indeed as SHOOT’s Agency of the Year in 2009, Wieden+Kennedy turned out varied, creatively inspired, plum traditional and interactive media projects which connected with prospective consumers worldwide.
Yet Wieden said he is looking to go well beyond that as agencies redefine themselves and what they do. He cited P.I.E., which stands for Portland Innovation Experiment, as an example.
“We’ve gathered a bunch of young developers who wanted a place to come together, develop ideas and start up new businesses,” related Wieden. “We’re working with them in an interesting way, trying different experiments in developing businesses and products.
“P.I.E. entails partnering with clients and retailers to do things differently. Right now some of those ideas are half-baked. Others are ongoing and show promise. The real key for us is to work on a different level with clients, to partner with them when it makes sense and to give ourselves as many options to redefine ourselves as possible.”
Somewhere in this exploration, though, resides an incongruity that fascinates Wieden and which he hopes to somehow reconcile.
“As part of this huge technological explosion, human beings have never been connected to so many others in so many different places in so many different ways as we are now,” he observed. “At the same time, there’s never been a greater lack of intimacy despite all these connections. That search for intimacy even with all these connections or touchpoints is fascinating. It’s like you discover sex which is great but eventually you’re looking for something that increases the meaning in your life.
“That’s the role,” continued Wieden, “we’re trying to explore as an agency–connecting with people in ways that are meaningful and valuable to them.
“What is ‘meaning’ today? What is ‘intimacy’ today? What kind of relationships can you build today that enlarge and enrich you in a more profound way? Connecting with people through media is not enough. It still comes back to quality, not just measuring by quantity. We have to try to connect with people in as meaningful a way as possible.”
Susan Credle
Susan Credle remembers when she was a teenager watching television and by chance came across director Ridley Scott’s Chanel No. 5 “Share The Fantasy” commercial for the first time, with arresting imagery unfolding to the Inkspots song “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire.”
“I had never seen anything like it before,” recalled Credle. “I had never heard music like that. I had never seen people like that. Shortly thereafter I bought Chanel and I am still buying their products today.”
The commercial took Credle to another world, and made a lasting impression, sparking not only her imagination but also what has become a most notable career in advertising.
Today that classic piece of filmmaking still provides a spark–for concern on her part.
“I’m not sure that where we’re currently taking marketing would allow for that 15 or 16-year-old girl to see that commercial and open up communication with that brand,” she related.
“We are so specific now on who we target for our brands–we’re often stereotyping and not allowing society as a whole to grow together. In the process we’re limiting those whose attention we seek to connect with. We’re limiting those who could become believers and participants in a brand. At times I’m a little thrown by that desire to find that perfect target for that perfect message. It makes me nervous. You can end up shutting out people who might not seem perfect but turn out to be just that for a brand if we reach out to them.”
The Chanel commercial also underscores Credle’s love for craft, which triggers seeking out talented directors, designers, artists and actors.
“Craft makes us more civilized,” she said. “Craft like any art can help us to be better people. There’s a saying that ‘porn sells but thank goodness people make other movies.’
“You can have a particular marketing solution that sells,” continued Credle, “but was it responsible to the brand in the long term? Was it responsible to the public? I’ve always thought of advertising as architecture. It’s there in some form whether people ask for it or not.
“Our responsibility is to be out there in a way that not only sells product but does something bigger and of service to the world. A well designed house makes you behave differently than a poorly designed house. Well crafted pieces of marketing make us better as people. Yes, ugly, obnoxious advertising can work but we should aspire to do more.”
And it’s that “more” which helps to build brands and connects over time with people. Driving sales over the short haul doesn’t build a brand. Building a brand is a long-term proposition. Credle affirmed that if you have a voice in public, that power carries with it important responsibilities. What are you doing for people through your voice? The brand’s voice needs to mean something that’s lasting and carries meaning and value for people.
In that vein, Credle cited Leo Burnett’s approach which centers on what the advertising agency succinctly identifies with its coined word as being “HumanKind.”
“We try to look at a brand and determine how it touches people’s lives in a way that makes their lives better,” she explained. “Sometimes that’s product specific. Sometimes it involves a bigger voice that serves the product, the brand, the people we reach out to and their communities.”
Credle went on to observe, “I don’t care so much for ads because they’re fleeting. I do care that these ads add up to a brand that is strong. With all the different ways we have to greet and meet consumers, they mean nothing if they don’t add up to a strong feeling for a brand, a brand’s purpose and a purpose for the people we’re trying to connect with.”
Relative to the green enviornmental movement, in which she’s glad that the advertising industry has taken a proactive messaging role, Credle sees a bit of irony.
“There’s talk about sustainability everywhere but no one talks much about the sustainability of brand message,” she said. “Coming in with a whole new campaign every nine months, recasting brands, is a luxurious position to be in. But the long-term big picture can suffer when working this way. There’s sustainable marketing versus short-term marketing.
“What work are we leaving behind that the next generation of marketers will be able to play with and build upon? I’m not so sure how much we’re leaving that will be around in twenty years,” she observed. “That says to me that we can do a much better job of building brands.”
Noam Murro “You have avenues that go beyond the confines of 30 seconds, the opportunity to do whatever length you like. That’s a major shift,” said Noam Murro. “I now often hear, ‘We’ll do the :30 but do whatever other length you like. We can run it on the net. If the work is interesting, we can screen it on Youtube.’ For a director it’s tremendous to be able to do microform and short-form content. The thirst for content is a blessing.”
On the flip side, with all these opportunities, there’s still a lack of interesting concepts, he observed.
“That isn’t confined to the advertising industry. Look at the state of cinema. There’s less and less stuff that is small and interesting, and more and more stuff that is big event blockbuster, which can be wonderful to watch but sometimes lacks storytelling. When you think about what kids are exposed to visually, it’s unbelievable. At the same time it starts to be formulaic and audiences can become numb to that. There’s a lot of eye candy out there. Look at the genre of the special effects/3D movie which seems to be dominant. What is going to separate one from the other is how good the story is, how good the storyteller is. That’s true for our world as well.
I remember once in an interview saying, ‘digital, smigital,” and I stand by that. Story is important. If doesn’t matter if you read it on a Kindle, a printed page or it’s engraved on stone. ‘Anna Karenina’ is going to be pretty good no matter where you see it. Story is king.”
Murro noted that quality storytelling not only spans different media but different forms.
“It’s important to clarify that a story doesn’t have to unfold in three acts. It doesn’t have to be linear. It can be completely visual, completely modern, completely relevant. At the end of the day, our job is to move people. We respond as human beings when we are moved emotionally. I hear clients, agencies, writers today still talk about storytelling and finding an emotional avenue that people can relate to. It’s like real estate–‘location, location, location’ is the saying for good reason. For directors and creative people, it’s ‘story, story, story.'”
However, there are obstacles along the road to storytelling. “I’ll never forget being on a flight from Europe and seated next to me were two French businessmen working on some really complicated charts,” said Murro. “I was sure they were looking at blueprints for an atom bomb. They seemed like serious mathematicians. I finally mustered enough courage to ask them in broken French, ‘What kind of math are you doing?’ The answer: ‘We’re doing marketing research for an ad.’
“The stuff they had on paper looked like mathematical equations,” recalled Murro. “This seems dangerous to me–not because it’s not successful but because at times it is successful. When you use the same research, this can lead to homogenous content and homogenous points of view. There’s a danger in mathematical or scientific answers to things that aren’t scientific or mathematical by nature. So much in our industry goes through the filter or prism of research. At the end of the day, it can be a killer of instinctual ideas. We can’t forget that ‘mistakes’ can be the fuel to create and make great things.”
For these “great things,” Murro embraces the increasing number of distribution conduits.
“Whether on the small screen, streamed, on the iPhone, on the subway or at home on television, these different outlets are all welcomed as progress,” he assessed. “To have more avenues, more places to tell stories that people can access in a less cumbersome way is great. I’m up for it and I love it.”
Click here to read Part I of this series. Hear from…
Lee Clow, chief creative officer/global director, Media Arts, TBWA Worldwide, and chairman, TBWA/Media Arts Lab
Bob Giraldi, award-winning director, Giraldi Media
Larry Bridges, director/editor & founder, Red Car
Robert Greenberg, chairman/CEO/global chief creative officer, R/GA
Click here to read Part II of this series. Hear from…
Rich Silverstein, co-chairman/creative director, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco
Stephen Dickstein, global president/managing partner, The Sweet Shop
Phil Geier, former Interpublic Group CEO and current chairman, The Geier Group, New York
Click here to read Part III of this series. Hear from…
Joe Pytka, award-winning director, PYTKA
Bryan Buckley, award-winning director, Hungry Man
Joe Sedelmaier, ground-breaking director
Click here to read Part V of this series. Hear from…
Tony Granger, global chief creative officer, Young & Rubicam
Kevin Roddy, chief creative officer, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), NY
Kristi VandenBosch, CEO, Publicis & Hal Riney
Click here to read Part VI of this series. Hear from…
David Lubars, chairman/chief creative officer, BBDO North America
Jon Kamen, chairman & CEO, @radical.media
Stefan Sonnenfeld. president/managing director, Company 3 & oversees features and commercials business, Ascent Media’s Creative Services
