1) Empathetic and values based advertising. This has been growing for the last number of years but the idea of defining your customer through product seems, i dunno, so counter to the reality of today. Like any relationship, we choose our partners based on shared beliefs, why would companies we choose to do business with be any different?
2) We are a Reinvention company…we don’t call ourselves an agency very deliberately because, well, we aren’t. Insight and strategy are central to our approach…a balance of fact and feeling. As a result our work and briefs come directly from what is core to brands. This obviously, and immediately, engenders work derived entirely from what the brand stands for.
3) I think we’re most proud of our Staples work for back to school. We made a conscious effort to stay a bit quiet. Rather than big musical numbers, dig into the notion of what it’s like for parents, children and teachers to unlock the potential of product to achieve, excel, dream.
4) They always have. Jeff Gooby led the way, and the lines have become increasingly blurred. However, this is why values and value lead communication is so darm important. With a dearth of streamable and bingeable (sic) content available, audiences will quickly ignore those things that are purely about moving product. To give them a story or a narrative that appeals to them intellectually or emotionally is critical. This is what entertainment does to avoid the click away. Client Partners don’t demand this, they are savvy enough to expect it.
5) Simple stories told with some narrative complexity. Serial, follow ons, distributed story, connection. I think the channel world and audiences sophistication with it will produce, or should, ways to tell stories in a distributed manner across channels. The interesting thing to me is that we now are embracing mindsets, psychographics but media/channels are still a demographic game. The mindsets are real, but 37 year olds aren’t on tik tok or snapchat (mostly) so how does the story work demographically so it gets in-font of various audiences?
6) To replace volume with precision. To engender empathy within the department by being empathetic and to make sure creatives get away from their computers and live a life in the cultural zeitgesit they are meant to know and understand. Personal? More plant based food
