This year’s SHOOT mid-term Industry Report Card taps into advertising agency creatives and producers for their takes on the first half of 2008 spanning the creative, business and media fronts. A mix of ad shop artisans–from Rich Silverstein, co-founder/creative director of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, to Brian DiLorenzo, director of integrated production at BBDO New York, to Rob Reilly, partner/co-executive creative director of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami and Boulder, Colo., and Richard O’Neill, head of broadcast production, TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles–offered their reflections on what they deemed significant thus far in ’08, which at times serves as a portent for what might be in store for the second half of the year.
(For an additional informed perspective on the state of creativity in the digital realm, check out this week’s story on Colleen DeCourcy, chief digital officer of TBWAWorldwide, New York, who assessed her recent experience as president of the Cannes ’08 Cyber Lions jury.)
For our Report Card, SHOOT posed a couple of survey questions to a cross-section of noted ad agency folk. The queries were:
(1) What’s your assessment of the first half of the year creatively?
And (2) Are there any trends or developments you would point to thus far in ’08 as being most significant, perhaps carrying implications for the rest of the year and beyond?
Here’s a sampling of the feedback we received. Responses are numbered as they correspond to the aforementioned questions.
Roger Camp, chief creative officer,Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco.
1) My creative assessment of first half of the year is colored by recent award shows which recognized some really amazing global creative.
To have five black D&AD competition pencils handed out may have been generous, but it DOES show that those juries saw work that blew them away creatively.
The work this year at Cannes was also very good and inspired. And while it’s been stated that the United States had a less than stellar representation this year, I think that we will be pleasantly surprised at what this current year has yielded when we see it all culled and gathered next June.
2) I think so far in 2008 were seeing more and more integration happen on behalf of all clients at all levels of spend and product category. Years ago, there were a select few companies that had the foresight and understanding to encourage this, and now as more and more marketers have seen the value and success in this even the more traditional companies are forgoing the veneer of advertising for a deeper and more comprehensive presentation of their brands at all touch points.
Brian DiLorenzo, executive VP, director of integrated production, BBDO North America
1) I haven’t seen a ton of stuff that’s grabbed me, but there are a few standouts. I really enjoyed the nolaf.org microsite for Tostitos. The most seamless approach to streaming content I’ve seen and the content was worth the visit. I give props to the brand. Probably a no-brainer, but I also love Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” music video. The stop motion animation of Muto by Blu is really inspirational too–a fantastic use of the environment. Each of those projects succeeded in disarming me- gaining my attention and turning me into a sharer.
2) Tight budgets and media fragmentation make the key effort all about identifying and prioritizing the truly meaningful points of engagement with the consumer- and focusing on producing impactfully for those moments . Which means ever more collaboration with companies and creative partners that bring specific skills and fresh thinking to the party.
Box-ticking integration for integration’s sake isn’t enough.
You need to produce for the people behind the “eyeballs.” The task at hand is in creating moments of brand engagement that have a chance of cutting through the clutter by being the best executed message at the most relevant moment. That can happen on shelf space as well as anywhere else, so be prepared to make anything.
John Maxham, group creative director, DDB Chicago
1) The first half of the year reflected the general softness in the economy with many clients in “wait and see” mode. Quite a few projects have been scaled back and some were cancelled outright. However, agencies and production companies are adapting by finding creative ways to repackage good creative ideas in ways that are more palatable to belt-tightening marketers. For example, we recently presented an idea that our client fell in love with, but his TV media budget was subsequently slashed. We are now working to produce the spot, in its entirety, for the web as a rich media application.
2) The days of spots being widely seen just on the basis of a massive media buys are over. Not long ago, commercials would be seen by millions before they ever went in front of an award show jury. Now there is more and more quality work showing up at Cannes and the AICP Show that hasn’t been widely seen before. Since traditional media is now so precise and targeted, the Internet has actually become the ideal vehicle for getting your work to “spill over” beyond its intended target audience. So the question is no longer, “did you see that spot?” but rather, “did someone forward you that spot?”
Richard O’Neill, head of broadcast production, TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles
1) At 10:14 p.m. PST on July 9, 2008 I believe we probably hit the climax of an advertising age that has exploded into diverse styles, genres, stories and platforms. I’m sure others in THE BUSINESS felt it at that exact minute in New York, Mumbai, LA, Rio, Cannes, Toyko, Beijing and all parts of the world just like it hit me. I had seen it coming but didn’t know it would be so spectacular. The signs were there with clay bunnies jumping in the streets, gorillas playing drums, guys poking fun at each other from their white room, people’s stories being projected on walls, and mankind desperately fighting the draconian beings and living to tell the future history. I believe that this climax was the BIG ONE we in California have been waiting for all these years because how much greater could it possibly get?
2) It’s now 2010. In the latter part of 2008, as I predicted, we continued to feel the shockwaves of the advertising climax that happened earlier that year on July 9. We all saw the great advertising during the China Olympics on our HD sets and i-Phones. I was particularly proud of our Visa “Go World” advertising. Afterwards, in May of 2009 we experienced the fall of the euro and climb of the dollar, which helped with the cost of gas and plane flights that are now an everyday reality following the events of late 2008. This year, helped by the value of the dollar, I’m looking forward to taking my wife and (finally) college graduated children to Cannes. I expect to be thrilled, as always by all the new advertising I couldn’t have imagined back in 2008.
Rob Reilly, partner /co-executive creative director, Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami and Boulder, Colo.
1) It seems the “reality” based advertising trend has taken over the industry. We’ve done our share for sure. But hopefully people will continue to try and push it into a new space. If we don’t, it will get bad very quickly.
2) It’s hard to say. If you look at what happened at Cannes, you have two distinctly different paths. Halo was just a mass of amazing, well-thought out content that linked together like we have never seen. It shows that if you can convince a client to take the leap and invest the time and money, you will be rewarded heavily.
On the flip side, “Gorilla” was probably the most entertaining :60 of the year. So in the end, they both were equally praised and written about by the press. And they both seem to have done well for the clients’ businesses. It’s a good sign. It means there still are a lot of options as to what way you can make your clients famous.
Rich Silverstein, co-founder/creative director, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco
1 & 2) After the Cannes show, it is clear that the industry is trying a little bit of everything.
Hard sell with the Whopper Freak-out, technique with Halo, cause marketing with The Millions project and, not to be outdone, rich websites like that for HBO.
The work cannot be defined by the 30 second spot any longer. The Star of the show is still a great idea, but it is now playing in any medium.
It is just a great time to be working in advertising.
Damian Stevens, director of integrated production/multimedia, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif.
1) Even though the majority of marketers are playing it safe with traditional advertising there have been some breakthrough campaigns utilizing various mediums and techniques. We’ve seen everything from hidden cameras, staged events, stunts, projections and downright great shooting/direction of content.
The work produced here at Saatchi & Saatchi LA for Toyota and Surfrider recognized the most by our peers was largely non-traditional. We picked up a Bronze Lion at Cannes for a viral that mimicked authentic footage of the World of Warcraft game for the Toyota Tacoma truck.
We created a mobile widget for Corolla, long-form travelogues for the Sequoia Web site, and for Surfrider, we did a stunt where trash was collected on local beaches, re-packaged in food containers and displayed at farmers’ market booths.
2) Overall, with an unsettled economy, the election and rising gas prices I would expect the majority of marketers to play it safe and rely on the traditional commercial, print and outdoor mediums where they’re historically more comfortable.
With that said, there will be clients who view this as an opportunity to do something different and ultimately stand out among their competition.
