The times, they are a changing. Nielsen is shifting its audience measurement methodology to account for viewership–or the lack thereof–during commercials. VOD is starting to make some relevant noise. Clients look for brand building answers wherever they can find them, no longer confining their search to mainstream ad agencies. Consumer-generated content emerges, yielding some gems yet at the same time contributing to clutter and potential backlash.
As we pass the midway point of 2006, SHOOT solicited feedback from the agency community about what they deem significant thus far this year. And we asked the more adventurous to offer some educated guesswork as to what’s in store during the second half of ’06.
The following questions were posed to a select group:
- Looking back on the first half of the year, what developments and /or trends stand out in your mind as significant? These can be creative and/or business trends.
- How would you rate the industry’s use of new ad forms beyond traditional commercialmaking thus far in ’06?
- What work (commercials or new media forms such as Web films, mobile phone/PDA content, VOD, podcasts) has struck a responsive cord with you this year?
- Though gazing into the proverbial crystal ball is a tricky proposition, we nonetheless ask you for any forecast you have relative to the creative and/or business climate for the second half of ’06?
Here’s a sampling of the responses:
Susan Credle, executive creative director BBDO New York
- Internet agencies are hiring talent from traditional agencies. Traditional agencies are hiring talent from Internet agencies. To have a free Internet experience, more and more often we are being shown an Internet piece of advertising that looks an awful lot like what has been the topic of many forums of late, the pretty much dead :30 TV commercial.
The word “screens” is appearing more and more: TV screen, movie screen, mobile screen, billboard screen. More screens mean sight and sound branding has many places to live in the future.
Content and brands are living together again. Brands are becoming more responsible for creating content not just hovering around existing content that reaches a brand’s perceived target.
Creatively, gimmicks seem to be winning over big brand building ideas. In an effort to cut through the clutter and own something, it seems brands own shticks and buzz words and trends more than insights. Too often, brands seem to be reflecting what we think the consumer wants the brand to be rather than saying this is who we are and we believe there are consumers who will find us relevant. - I recently saw a commercial for M&M’s done in the 1950s. It was about two minutes long and really, really, really explained the product. A spokesperson and the candy. And I am sure it was famous. Because it was film and it talked to you on your TV and that was cool. Today, it would not have a chance on TV. New ad forms remind me of this spot. We haven’t begun to explore the creative potential of the new mediums. We have only scratched the surface of engaging consumer experiences. Competition in the new spaces will drive us to push the creative in new mediums to a much richer place.
While TV seems to still be the fastest, loudest way to express ideas and reach consumers, we have done a very good job as an industry at embracing new ways to communicate with consumers. Blogs, pods, VOD, mobile, richer Internet experiences– I feel most brands are buzzing around these new places of communication. It was less than 10 years ago that we were talking about a site on the Internet. We weren’t sure why we needed it, but felt something was happening there. Today a brand questioning the need for an Internet site seems absurd. The first step to pushing these new mediums is playing in them. And brands are. - My favorite work this year was for the Tate Museum in London. Mainly because it didn’t matter where it manifested itself, the idea was great. Make art approachable and relevant to today’s consumers. They offered tours like the “I just dumped my boyfriend tour” or “my favorite color is yellow tour” that make me want to run to the Tate. The work was actually very classic. But the idea was fresh and smart.
The consumer generated content has also made me respond, though negatively. So much junk is being created and posted that there will be a backlash and consumers will demand quality over quantity. Too much choice will be replaced with good choices. Hopefully, very soon.
VOD is going to be the big winner if TV and the Internet don’t converge too near in the future. VOD is the Internet experience on TV. Give me control of when and where and what while I’m horizontal on the sofa ready for a passive entertainment experience. Consumers will trade free control for a bit of time spent with a brand. VOD is where TV and TV’s advertising impact will live in the future. - Unfortunately, creative will not be king in the back half of the year. Volatile markets tend to make advertisers resort to a reliance on the tried and true and tested. Breakthrough creative cannot by definition be tried and true. The new rules of great advertising are made by those who dare to break the old ones. Companies trying to make numbers in Q4 probably aren’t going to be breaking a lot of rules.
Internet brand building will be more and more important. And convergence will continue to happen. Mobile screens, though small, will be huge as more and more handsets come with 3G broadband-like delivery of content.
Maybe not in the back half of the year but soon, the cliché quote, “I know 50 percent of my advertising works; I just don’t know which 50 percent,” will not be as funny because it won’t be so true. We will have a better understanding of where and when consumers have seen us and whether or not we made an impact.
David Apicella, co-chief creative officer, Ogilvy & Mather, New York
- I didn’t see any significant new trends so far this year, just the continuing debate about the future of advertising, which gets louder by the day. The one creative idea that I saw too much of was “people running down the street.” It usually starts with one or two, and ends up with a mob all set to a strange music track. Very derivative Nike “Tag” meets Playstation “Mountain.”
As for the death of the TV commercial, there were nearly 5,000 spots entered into the Cannes festival–40 hours worth. It ain’t dead yet. - New Ad forms? There’s a lot of stuff out there, most of it too complicated. I like the simple ideas: The Japanese barcode idea that won the Cannes Titanium, The Starbucks holiday cups on car roofs. Simple but very, very smart.
- The one spot that I thought was great and different was the public service spot shot with a cellphone video camera for teenage street safety. It tells teens to mind the traffic when they’re talking on cellphones, and shows a teen getting hit by a car because she was looking at her cell phone instead of the road. Very powerful spot.
- I am optimistic about the rest of the year, I think it may be stronger than the first half.
Kevin Moehlenkamp, chief creative officer/executive creative director, Hill Holliday, Boston
- I definitely feel like I’ve been seeing more large clients taking risks again.
I think it’s in large part to the creative success that agencies like Crispin Porter + Bogusky have been having with blue chip clients.
But I think it’s also that some pretty lackluster marketing chiefs are finding it harder and harder to continually blame good agency after good agency for poor results. Whatever the reasons, it’s encouraging to see that clients are maybe once again realizing that having some creative balls can lead to standout results and that today, taking no risk is the biggest risk. - Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like there aren’t as many exciting breakout examples as there have been in the past. Or maybe it’s just that I’m more jaded about the whole category. A few years ago when it all felt like the wild west, it felt like there were more gunslingers. Now that alternative media has gone “legit,” it seems like it’s being put through a more rigorous shakedown by clients. There are still breakouts, but it doesn’t feel like it’s on the same scale.
- As consumers’ attention spans grow ever more infinitesimal by the second, my favorite work this year were by the folks who were willing to overlook this fact and create stellar long form commercials. First, is the two-minute spot out of Weiden & Kennedy London for Honda, “Impossible Dream”; and second is the epic Carlton Draught commercial “Big Ad” from George Patterson Partners, Melbourne.
Two great long pieces of work that go by in a heartbeat and prove it’s not that people today have low tolerance for long-winded ads. They just have a low tolerance for long-winded bad ads. - I predict that Brad and Angelina will split up and their child will go on to single handedly bring down the Hollywood machine.
I’m also thinking this Internet thing is definitely not going away. As for the Ad biz? I think the :30 second spot will survive yet another six months.
Al Moseley, executive creative director, Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam
- Everyone is talking about content creation. Traditional advertising suddenly looks old fashioned, again.
- I did say everyone’s talking about content creation, but actually very few are doing it. You only have to visit YouTube to see what little impact we have made with new ad forms. Content that people actually want to see, hmm- that’s tricky.
- The Ricky Gervais radio show podcast. It made me laugh out loud on a packed airplane.
- We will learn how to make commercials that work on a one-inch screen.
Diane Jackson, senior VP, director of production, Energy BBDO, Chicago
- The most significant trend is the greater realization that we truly entered into a new era of marketing and advertising well beyond the purported death of the :30 spot.
Bob Greenberg best sums it up in his article in ANA/The Advertiser, Feb. 2006, 21stCentury Marketing, in which he states that “we no longer live in a world of single channel outbound customer engagement. We have evolved to a multi- channel interactive environment in which the consumer has greater control.”
However, I still believe the majority of agencies and clients are still feeling their way through these new media outlets.
Advertisers are still bastardizing traditional platforms to see what will fit elsewhere. The concept of “re-use” is still prevalent–i.e., How can we also use our TV spot on the Web? Why are they not asking how the Web can serve the consumer with information, tools and other experiential elements that they can’t get elsewhere?
Marketers are starting to understand that consumers are asking “What is in it for me?” They want entertaining games, free ring tones, coupons and perhaps, most importantly, they want original content they can’t get elsewhere, which they can then share. - Better than in ’05
- Webisodes for clients such as Brawny paper towels and the Snickers series Instant Def are expanding the well-crafted storytelling ads of old and creating episodic entertainment.
Youtube.com has enabled all aspiring Fellinis and potential Internet stars to fulfill their dreams. Fantastic!
Mobile phone/PDA content is still too vendor-driven. PDA download times are too slow for most consumers, especially given what you get in return. Video podcasts on the Ipod is a better way to go–for now.
Cyber Lions winners say it all this year including ShaveEverywhere.com — brave client to allow edgy work. Talking of edgy–thighswideshut–most of the content I suspect is populated by agency creatives bored out of their minds waiting for their animatic test results to come in. - The general climate reflects the need to produce more for less and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
In terms of growth predictions, I think the surge of households with Broadband is significant.
Numbers have doubled since 2003.
Not sure we can ignore the lack of US Gold hardware for Film in Cannes this year.
Note to self–must try harder.
Keith Anderson, associate partner/director of interactive & design, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco
- After years of a slow and gradual recognition (or perhaps reluctant acceptance) that there are media venues beyond the “traditional,” I sense that there has been a wholesale decampment, a mad scramble–especially within larger agencies–toward embracing the Web as a viable creative and media solution.
Use of video is the trend of the moment–the Internet meets television circa the 1950s. Obviously the merge of media is making everyone rethink what “interactive” means. Hopefully that will result in multi-dimensional work, but I think it’s going to be an uneven few years creatively as we all figure it out. - It’s great to see more varied solutions in use. What remains to be seen is if the work will take full advantage of all the tools at its disposal, if that will mean more than putting up a Web page and sticking a video on it.
That isn’t interactive; it is lazy, no matter how good the film is. If you view the medium as viable, then take the time to understand its depth and its capabilities, not just take the simplest, easiest route. There is a drive for integration across media, which is a great thing, but it shouldn’t mean being slavish to an execution. Integration is about being true to a strategy and an idea, not sticking the same photo or video or words up in every possible medium. - The Phillips Body Groom work is pretty interesting. Nicely done, an example of what the Internet allows you to do that most other media outlets would never allow.
The “Second Life” phenomenon is really astounding. What does “virtual” mean now?
I just saw a Coke spot recently from Weiden and Kennedy Amsterdam (and some former colleagues of ours) that I thought was brilliant. Made me jealous. That is an example of engaging storytelling–regardless of what media it is in. It’s a brand thought that creates endless possibilities in other mediums.
Tim Foley, partner, Full Contact, Boston and New York
- This year continues to be all about consumer creativity, particularly on the Web. The popularity of sites like YouTube, and even MySpace is overwhelming.
In-boxes everywhere are filled with Monk-E-Mails. There is officially a Podcast for every topic under the sun. And consumers are designing and customizing everything from shoes to cars. The trend here, of course, is not that people are all of a sudden more creative or have a greater need for self expression than before, but that new tools are there to do it in a more fun, visible way. - I think it depends on where you’re looking. For the most part, there seems to be a real conservatism or lack of creativity with new ad forms. It’s as if people feel the new medium itself is enough, and they stop short of the idea. Or they approach the medium with a pre-conceived notion of what it should be.
Consumers, particularly young consumers, don’t think in terms of what a Web idea should look like vs. what a mobile idea should look like vs. what a TV idea should look like. They’re just ideas. And if they’re great, they stop and take notice. The best advertisers and creative people have figured that out, but there still seems to be a strong tendency in the industry to keep every medium in its own little box. - A couple of things jump right to mind. On the Web, I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. T as game show host for Comcast–great use of the medium, and a nice fit for the brand. Also, the Monopoly live game was very cool–with real cabbies as game pieces. It took what everyone knew and loved about the game and made it new and very exciting.
For commercials, it’s really just about spots that made me want to watch over and over. The Sony Bravia spot with the colored balls is probably one of the most talked about this year, so not a very original choice. But I loved it. And I’m not generally a fan of spoof ads, but the Tango spot that ripped off the Sony ad was just as good (maybe better). It had all the lyrical beauty of the original, plus it made me laugh out loud. I also really loved the weird and funny Skittles spot with the singing rabbit.
Lastly, for Web films, the Diet Coke and Mentos extravaganza on Eepybird.com was, for my money, the best of the entire soft drink meets mint candy genre. - As technology advances, it’s awfully tempting to merely follow the latest trend and drop the tried and true. The 30 second spot is dead. Quick, everyone throw all of your money and efforts into content for wristwatches! It’s all been very black or white.
I think what we’ll be talking about this year is that it’s about coexistence. The advance of HD should breathe new life into the medium of television and the TV spot. And we’ll continue to see the growing importance of mobile phones and other devices. And as long as consumers are embracing both, so should advertisers.
Tom Eslinger, interactive creative director, worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi
- Big agencies have significantly upped their use of interactive/emerging media. Clients are demanding this and only the smart cool shops were listening. Now everyone is listening and acting.
- Pretty poor. I judged the Titanium Lions this year and I thought I would leave with my mind blown. Lots of the work is starting to use the same channels over and over. The coolest new stuff is happening where interactive/creative/media/engineer are a multi-headed ideas monster.
- I’m drawn to anything that is new and/or under exploited. I’m spending lots of time working with our mobile creative partners, The Hyperfactory, to figure out how to make mobile content creative and use it to activate Web and more traditional types of advertising like print and TV. I’m also really keen on augmented reality, wireless everything and anything with robotics involved.
- Hopefully more mobile coolness, more emphasis on using more than one metric to measure the effectiveness of campaigns, less ‘fake campaigns’ which build up and then disappoint our audience. I pray for lots of interesting ideas that come from multi-disciplinary teams, rather than bolt-ons to traditional ad campaigns that get grafted on at the last minute.
