Here are my 10 and-a-half books for you:

Mode En Module by Wim Crouwel

I don’t speak any Dutch, but that doesn’t really matter with this incredibly beautiful book. Wim Crouwel’s designs have served to lift me out of a creative black hole many a time.

A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary

The only book I have read more than 5 times. A brilliant account of the year 1996 in Eno’s life. Spiked with loads of eclectic observations on life, music and everything in between. Very inspiring and life affirming.

Printed Matter by Karel Martens

Another Dutchman, but this book is in English. What I love about this book is the fact it comes across as an object as well as a book, Japanese bound and wrap around cover. The colours of Martens’ prints will blow your mind. 

You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier

Yes, I have just crawled out from under a stone, but I only just discovered this book. Every single word is like a drop of vintage wine served at perfect temperature. A Silicon Valley veteran’s humble views on how technology is shaping who we are. Good and bad. A very important book for future generations. If you are connected and interested in digital-ness, you cannot afford to not read this book.

Russell Brand: My Booky Wook 1 and 2

Don’t laugh. The man’s a genius. Regardez.

Nabokov’s Butterflies by Vladimir Nabokov

One of my true obsessions since I was a child: entomology. A brilliantly written science book about the Blue. A poetic butterfly. Admittedly not for everyone.

The Search for the Giant Squid by Richard Ellis

And this is my other obsession. The hunt for the last true giant on earth that no one has ever seen alive. Careful. This obsession is infectious.

Hinkepott. Autobiographische Hüpferei in Briefen und Aufsätzen. Bd. 1 by Horst Janssen

When I studied art in Munich in the early nineties I first came across this artist from Hamburg and subsequently devoured everything he’d ever written. Not sure how well known he is outside Germany, but check him out. His etchings are exquisite. This is his autobiography.

Super-Cannes by J.G Ballard

I am not much of a fan of science fiction writing, but Ballard’s work is different. Science fiction set in the near future. Unsettling fucked up scenarios painted in everyday situations of corporate boredom. Scary, fascinating and probably true.

And this what I am reading right now…

The Machine Stops by E M Forster

A short story describing what can only be the first account of the internet – in 1928. Spine tingling.

Oh, and here is one more since the last one is only a short story:

The Faith Of Graffiti by Norman Mailer

The only book on graffiti you need to own.

Mike Bayfield
Senior Copywriter
balloon dog

When I was a kid, growing up in the UK, wrestling was big. So were the wrestlers; larger than life grapplers like Big Daddy, Kendo Nagasaki and Giant Haystacks – a seven-foot, six hundred pound man-mountain of blubber, beard and badness.

It was more pantomime than sport. When Big Daddy floored Giant Haystacks, little old ladies watching at the ringside would jump up and beat him with their handbags, umbrellas, tyre wrenches… They were so absorbed by the spectacle that they completely suspended their disbelief. They bought it. How do we get our audience to do likewise?

‘Willing suspension of disbelief,’ as Coleridge coined it, is what you do when you read a book, watch a movie, go to the theatre. Or to the wrestling. You say to yourself, “Okay, I know this isn’t real, but let’s go with it for a while, see where it takes me. I want to be entertained.” But with entertainment the key word is ‘willing.’ The audience have tacitly agreed to suspend their disbelief in advance – in a kind of contract – by buying the book, the ticket or hitting the button. With advertising they haven’t.

Advertising is inherently intrusive. People don’t ask you to interrupt their day. So, when we do, we have to try that much harder to suspend their disbelief. Make them forget, for a moment, that they’re watching an ad. We have to reward their attention, but unlike with a movie or a book, we need to do it fast.

We’ve got seconds. Or less. That means there has to be something immediate that enables the viewer to suspend their disbelief, without even thinking about it. There must be a meaningful message about their world, delivered in a convincing, original and maybe entertaining way, which transports them into the one we’re creating. We need to short circuit the ‘Yeah, right!’ reaction. Because if they don’t buy the ad, why should they buy the product?

Take a beautifully simple print campaign for Lego a couple of years ago. Each ad just showed a couple of Lego bricks stuck together to form rudimentary, shape, against a plain coloured background. But it cast a shadow. The shadow represented what a child saw – a ship, plane, dinosaur…. No headline. No strapline. No doubt.

Now, on the face of it, we know they’re just simple bits of plastic, stuck together. A kid didn’t really do it. An art director did. And they definitely don’t make a shadow like that. But the point is made so beautifully, we buy it. It captures the magic of childhood where anything is possible and momentarily takes us back there. We really do forget it’s an ad. Our disbelief is completely suspended and we’re left feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. By two small pieces of plastic.

There are hundreds more ads you could probably think of that do the same. Well, maybe dozens. Look at some of them again and ask yourself why they work. For every one of these though, there are a thousand that don’t. That you simply don’t buy. They make it impossible for you to suspend your disbelief, even for a second. They lack that central human truth. The unthought known.

Suspending disbelief in advertising is always a tough call, but some brands just seem to do it time and time again. Volkswagen for example – ever since Bill Bernbach told us a Beetle would make your house look bigger.

Adweek voted The Force, by Deutsch for Volkswagen, 2011 Commercial of the Year. Why? Because it connected so beautifully with just about everybody who saw it. Even many hardened cynics. It wasn’t ground-breaking, radical or revolutionary, just warm and human and perfectly executed. And we rolled with it. Our disbelief put comfortably on hold.

However, it’s not quite as simple anymore as a single killer spot in the Super Bowl. With the explosion of digital/social media there are so many more touch points – which this year’s ‘killer’ spot from Audi is aiming to utilise.

On the one hand digital media gives us more opportunity to engage people, helping them tell the story too by being part of it. But there are also more potential pitfalls, more chances to unsuspend the disbelief. Like the kid going back into the house in a slasher movie.

Last summer, Tribal DDB created a brilliantly original campaign in Ireland; the Budweiser Ice Cold Index.

A series of ads, website, social media presence and an app allowed users to claim money off a pint of Heineken in pubs across Ireland. The hotter the weather the cheaper a pint became. When the mercury hit the heady heights of 20C it was free. Hard to believe? Then you probably haven’t been to Ireland in the summer. It’s not so different from the winter.

Of course it’s completely counter-intuitive. Which is why it’s brilliant. Any economist would tell you they should have put the price up. But hey, look at the economy.

With the ever-changing digital landscape we can involve and engage people so much more, to be part of the story, to create real benefits for themselves. Like free beer. That will always work for me. But the benefits don’t necessarily have to be as tangible. The medium really is the message.

For our audience, digital is the link between the artificial environment we’ve created and their real lives. It actually becomes part of their real lives, adding value before they’ve even set foot in the store. Like those little old ladies at the side of the wrestling ring, it helps them cross the suspension of disbelief bridge.

All products (with the possible exception of sprouts) help fulfil an elemental human need. Otherwise nobody would buy them. We simply have to convey how brands can meet those needs, in an original and believable way. And now there are lots more shiny new tools to help us do it.

Troy Scarlott
SVP/ECD
Ignited

Advertisers and brands that are destined to raise the proverbial advertising Lombardi Trophy after the 2012 Super Bowl “Ad” Game might want to look beyond simply producing that “one great spot.” While that “one great spot” may win the USA Today Ad Meter, garner positive reviews and chalk up numerous industry accolades, the true winner of the Super Bowl “Ad” Game will be the collective client/agency team that both created that “one great spot,” and pro-actively built an in-depth social hub for that “one great spot” to live on well after the big game ends.

Working across multiple disciplines, the true winner of the 2012 Super Bowl “Ad” Game will have thought about much more than thirty seconds of air-time. The winner will have engaged in the following process:

• Build media and mass audience excitement through pre-game press releases, announcements and video teasers. This year we have seen numerous teasers, the most popular being VW’s The Bark and Honda’s Ferris Bueller video.

• Launch a social media ecosystem before the game. Brands like GoDaddy and Doritos are building entire online campaigns around their spots and driving action as opposed to just brand awareness.

• Deliver a call-to-action to watch the spot in a specific quarter of the game. Almost every brand is taking control of its destiny and telling consumers when to take the bathroom break so they don’t miss their spot.

• Run the spot during the big game and make it good. As creatives who have worked on past Super Bowl spots, we know that creating Super Bowl commercials takes months of hard work, a brave and trusting client and a little bit of luck. Simply making a great spot isn’t enough. It’s only the price of admission. What each brand is actually hoping for is that they have lightning in a bottle or at least a little kid in a Darth Vader costume. Consumers want to be entertained and the best clients are the ones that always remember that, especially when it comes time to make the final decisions on what will run.

• If and only if the idea dictates it, buy a full: 60 seconds for bigger production value and richer storytelling. With the average cost of a :30 spot coming in at $3.5M this year, many brands not only didn’t blink, they actually upped the ante. Many have adopted a “go big or go home” strategy by producing :60 spots. In instances such as this, when more time serves to enhance the idea, the entire creative team (from agency to client to production company) is afforded more opportunity help bring the story to life, build emotion and deliver a well-crafted message that will hopefully elevate the work beyond the requisite cliché guy humor, talking animals or hollow CGI-driven executions.

• Build hubs online for the spot(s) to live. Everywhere. Before, during and especially after the game, consumers will be grabbing some device to view the spots they loved or the ones they missed. Be ready for them.

• Engage in social activation around the campaign (spot) so that it remains relevant. One of the goals of a Super Bowl spot is to avoid being just a $3.5 million one hit wonder. The spot needs to work harder for both the brand and the campaign. It is estimated that 110 million people will watch the Super Bowl. That’s a lot of eyeballs. Which, of course, begs the question; what happens after your :30 seconds are over? The winner will be the brand that knows this answer and is ready to drive more impressions, greater awareness or even pursue purchase intent. This strategy will generate huge dividends for advertisers like Best Buy, TaxAct and even the movie studios.

• Win awards in the ad industry. Both client and agency worked hard, and found success in their strategy, production and final spot. Enjoy the rewards.

• Generate millions of views on YouTube. Now that you received a pat on the back, get back in the game and continue to drive. VW’s Darth Vader spot has over 45 million views on YouTube, nearly half of the number who watched the Super Bowl last year. And these are quality views as people chose to view it. You do the math.

• Build on the momentum and start planning for 2013. The planning, creative and media strategy are all working together and creating success. Remember to build on it as today’s consumer has three screens vying for what little attention span she or he has.

In looking back at the past three years, the USA Today Ad Meter’s winning spot was a clever, funny :30 second spot, for a big brand (2009 Bud Light, 2010 Snickers, 2011 Doritos). All three of these were fun to watch and provided a lot of discussion during the game. However, we believe, the true winners of the Super Bowl “Ad” Game will be the brands who remember that the “ad” game really begins when the big game ends.

Of course, since this is a Super Bowl article attempting to forecast what will and won’t work on the big day, it wouldn’t be complete without our prediction. Based on what we’ve seen so far, Chrysler, M&M’s and VW have the strategy to win. Let’s see if they have the spot to get it all started.

Oh, and the Patriots by 4.

Renata Florio

I open the door to my house and there they are: two deliverymen from the household appliances store bringing in a brand new washing machine (what happened to my former one is a story in itself and I can talk about that some other time).

The first one to come in is obviously the boss (he’s too old to be reporting to the other guy). Actually, I will find out exactly how old he is because today is his birthday and that’s the reason for this article.

The boss says, “Where is the machine going, miss?”

I respond, “Downstairs, in the basement.”

The look he shoots to his partner is not very positive. They both seem to know something I don’t. They come in. The boss looks down the stairs, then looks at my machine and says, “Hmmm, not sure this machine will fit through the passageway. I’ve seen that before. I’ve been in this business too long, know all kinds of houses and apartments in Manhattan and New Jersey… it seems too small.”

Obviously I become apprehensive. The last thing I need is to have to break the wall to make room, or even worse have to send back the washing machine.

But since I joined Wing, everything is all about the Hispanic market to me. What this man just said takes me miles away from the possible problem and all I can concentrate on is the fact that he is Hispanic and has been working for a long time at this. He probably raised his family doing that job. ‘How big is his family?’ I think. Three, four kids? He doesn’t seem to have been born here. I wonder where he’s from. I wonder if he left relatives somewhere back home. I wonder when was the last time he bought a washing machine himself. I wonder what brand he would get if he had to buy one.

A cell phone ringing brings me back from my thoughts. It’s his phone. He picks up the call and says, “Thanks mom, yes, sure, sure, thanks… yes, I know.” The man who knows all about his work and sounded kind of bitter at first, smiles at me very sweetly and says, “You know, it’s my birthday today. That’s my mom, she lives with us — my wife and my three kids— and she doesn’t want me to miss dinner. You know, they’re cooking something special… Mexican food, you know… we’re Mexicans and for my mom a party must have our food.”

I almost gave him a hug. Not only because it’s his birthday, but because he’s just answered some of my demographic questions: a Hispanic household, originally from Mexico, living with at least one adult over 65 years old, plus a wife and three kids.

The younger guy reminds us of the reason we’re all there.

“So,” he says, “are we going down with the machine or what?”

They start speaking in Spanish. I understand and smile at the joke. The younger man is saying the birthday boy is probably getting too old and that’s why he doesn’t want to bring the machine down. The boss pretends to get angry when his phone rings again… yes, halfway down the stairs.

He stops, holding part of the machine with one of his legs, one arm supporting the other side, while telling us, “It’s my wife, I have to get that.”

When the call is over, we don’t have to ask, he doesn’t have to tell. We know; she doesn’t want him to be late for dinner.

I can’t help thinking about how Hispanics relate to their families, how they value being among their loved ones. It’s not that non-Hispanics don’t. It’s just that the unique way Hispanics do it is a whole different and exciting world for me. See, they do answer calls from their wives and moms at work as if they were young kids, even if they’re 50 years old (yes, he told me very proudly, “50 years old, 30 in this business”).

The men get to the narrow passage at the bottom. The machine doesn’t seem to fit.

The phone rings again. It’s his sister from New Jersey; she won’t make it for dinner because her kids (she has three as well) have to study for tests tomorrow.

I don’t care about the washing machine anymore. All I see is an image; a live demographic showing me that yes, family plays an important role for Hispanics in the U.S. Right now in my basement I can see that. I see they celebrate birthdays with home cooked meals, and they care for their elders and want to be happy together. This is great inspiration for me. I must depict them as naturally as possible, so when they see the work we do at Wing for them, they can identify, hopefully entertain themselves, and say, “Yes, that could be me.”

I realize we are all speaking in Spanish now, no more Spanish between them, English with me, their customer. I feel proud. I am having the experience of being both a customer and a hostess; they are working but are also my guests. We are all playing these roles within roles in such an amazing cultural event called the Hispanic market.

The machine is now installed and all set. They did it!

The phone rings yet again. It’s his mother again, this time she’s checking if he’s already on his way home. I can almost tell she’s mad on the other end.

Let’s hurry.  No one wants “El Jefe” to be late.

Still very quickly, I say, “Feliz  cumpleaños, señor.” And he says, “Thank you, Ma’am.”

If you too have a story or a thought about Hispanic families please share them with me at rflorio@insidewing.com or in the comments below.

Michael Weiss

So you think you know how to present? Let me be the first (or maybe the 10th) to tell you that you don’t. In fact you have no idea how to present. How do I know this? Because you’re making it to finals and you’re not winning. Why? Because you are focusing on yourself and not the client. It’s that simple.

Why is that agencies feel that ME ME ME is the way to go into a pitch? If you are lucky enough to get into the room with a client, then chances are there is a reason you are there. No client is going to take the time of their stakeholders and have you schlep to their offices for just another meeting. The client has read (or at least scanned) your proposal, they have spent time on your website, and they have checked with trusted sources to see if you are worth it. Bottom line – they already know you can do the job. In fact they have created a short list of three agencies that can do the job. The pitch is not the time to prove you have what it takes – they already know that. The pitch is your chance to differentiate yourself from the competition.

If you walk in there with a 90-page PowerPoint deck chock full of past client Logos and Case Studies you are going to lose your audience in a matter of minutes. Each of the finalists has the same client list and skill sets. On paper you all look the same. At this point it is not about your past. Clients do not want to hear what you did for OTHER clients. They want to know what you are going to for THEM. What’s their future look like?

The truth: The client most likely has already made up their mind before your even open your mouth. So you’ve got 60 minutes to either confirm their decision (they already chose you) or change their mind (they chose someone else). Do you think talking about your past is going to inspire them? Not a chance. Chances are 90% of the people in the room do not want to be there – to them it is just another meeting. Well, what if it wasn’t? What if you turned it into a riveting, inspiring, engaging performance? I am not talking about interpretive dance, but not too far from it…

Take the time to think about what you can do in 45 minutes (leaving 15 minutes for Q&A and/or applause) to win them over. What can you do to make them put down their Blackberries and iPhones and pay attention? The clients want new ideas; your proposal and website highlight your creative – well, why not be creative when you are in the room with them? You have the opportunity to set the stage for a collaborative and successful partnership.

Some of you already know this. You know that you have to be different. You create compelling comps and weave in a story. It’s a step in the right direction, but you put together epic pitches that should take 2 hours and make you look desperate. You are trying too hard. Again, the client put out the RFP and you already answered every question in your proposal. At this point you should not be retelling that story. They have their answers. Instead, why not choose a couple of key points that you can get creative with and expand upon with them in the room? What I am saying is that you do not have to tell the whole story! Show them just enough so that they “get it,” they see the potential. Basically, leave them wanting more.

If you are an agency, then you are in the service business. It’s your job to deliver high quality work within time and budget. It’s your job to manage expectations. It’s your job to “wow” them and remind them why they chose you in the first place. 99% of your relationship with a client is based on whether you can work together. Do you actually like each other? This is a personal relationship, which could last for many years. Oftentimes the initial pitch meeting is the first time you are meeting each other face to face. Think of it like a first date. You don’t want to come off egotistical and only talk about yourself. You need to ask questions, be witty, smart, likeable. If you take away one thing from this rant, remember that a pitch is not a meeting; it’s a performance. It really is your time to set yourself apart from the pack. To be different, creative, fun, engaging and most importantly to focus on THEM, not on yourself.

Okay, jargon alert! I’m going to talk about T-shaped people. While I’m there I may throw in the odd reference to silos, pushing the envelope and fluffing the sausage. So get your jargon bingo cards ready and eyes down for a full house…

Back in the 1950s Bill Bernbach, DDB’s founder and philosophical guiding light, was the first person in the industry to formalise the Copywriter/Art Director relationship. Prior to this, writers would dash off witty headlines in between cocktails, cigarettes and sexism and the art department would then lay out the ads in a fairly predictable and formal way. But Bill Bernbach came along and shook it up. He didn’t just get rid of the silos (make sure you tick that off your jargon bingo card) he also hired people from ‘outside’ the industry. He didn’t hire WASPS, he hired immigrants, Jews – kids from Brooklyn. He mixed it up, challenging the collective wisdom with his hiring policy the same way he did with his ads.

But advertising today is a more complex business. We don’t just create print ads and TV spots anymore, we need to innovate (tick), build relationships (tick), earn media (tick) – oh, and still sell stuff. So by my reckoning that makes us inventors, psychologists, media planners, marketeers and shit-catchers (not on your card?). What can we do?

There are two things agencies can do; they can either hire someone from every single discipline they touch; which is an expensive hobby as it’s impossible to make everyone billable, or hire versatile or ‘T-shaped’ people (tick – that’s the jackpot.) For those of you who’ve been living under an ‘O’ shaped object, T-shaped people describes those who have a strong single discipline such as copywriting – that’s the vertical stalk of the T – whilst the horizontal top of the T reflects their empathy and ability to understand other disciplines. Of course, this was always true to some extent. Writers have never just been writers, they’ve had to understand art direction, strategy, photography, directing, editing etc. But in these digital times, the list gets longer and longer as copywriters and art directors need to be able to talk media planning, UX, creative technology, service design, mobile technology, trend watching – but still be able to write great scripts and create compelling advertising that people want to share.

So where do we find these people? In Amsterdam at a local level, people with this level of expertise and experience are often found running their own agency. Even if they’re not running their own agency, they’re still very hard to find, very senior and very expensive. If you want a big T you have to pay for it.

At Tribal DDB Amsterdam we have hired a range of smaller T’s with genuine variety in their make up. These idiosyncratic-mini-T’s (I’ve just invented a new term that won’t be on your cards) are actively mixed up thanks to our new office redesign to hopefully create an agency that can handle the complexity of modern advertising and the demands of digital. Here’s how it works. We have classic creative concept teams (in name, not make up) who are curious about digital and love new stuff. We sit them in project teams alongside an interactive designer, a user experience (UX) person, a tech lead and just off to the side we have strategists and creative directors who work across multiple projects but can dip in at a moment’s notice. Even project management and account managers are invited to share the space when the project demands it. The office has been intentionally designed to have all creative disciplines around one table sharing a space, knowledge, ideas and respect. So what we end up with are T-shaped pods that can handle anything clients want to throw at them.

Of course, finding the right people who can work in these teams is still a challenge, but it’s not as hard as finding people who can ‘do everything.’ We have to hand pick these teams to make sure we have not only the right mix of disciplines (our vertical stalks of our Ts) but also a good and varied selection of tops to our Ts. Some creatives’ ‘tops’ might be better suited to social media, others may have a traditional background that makes up their top, and some are

happy talking e-commerce. But ultimately everyone learns from everyone else because we literally knocked down the walls, we think hard about casting and how we mix people up. Many innovative companies run on casual interaction – but what we have done is accelerate that casual interaction to help us come up with the kind of ideas our clients have come to expect from the agency of today; socially led campaigns with digital at the centre.

You could say that we simply put a lot of smart people in a room and give them a bit more of a free rein than other agencies. It’s probably the main reason I work in innovation driven advertising (tick); I like being surrounded by smart and curious people because it makes me smarter and more curious. My T gets bigger, which means I can spot the skills and interests of other Ts, who in turn help influence other Ts and help them grow.

We all know that our ideas are only as good as the people who come up with them, our work is only as good as the people who touch it and our ability to change and innovate is driven by versatility, a willingness to adapt and the need to fluff the sausage. (Full house!) More T anyone?

I recently read a compelling New York Times Op-Ed piece by Susan Cain entitled, “The Rise of the New Groupthink”. In it, she highlights a dramatic trend in business, education and religion that moves us away from individual thinking to an almost forced collaboration, something she calls “The New Groupthink.” It’s an intriguing comparison between the solitary efforts of “lone geniuses” and the seemingly homogenization of the work that occurs with endless meetings and brainstorms.

The fascinating content of the article led me to apply Ms. Cain’s ideas to the advertising industry. I was surprised and intrigued by how my opinion fluctuated back and forth with each passing paragraph. I was desperately trying to pick a side with which to align my own personal beliefs and behavior within these two extremes. Should we spend more time ideating in solitude? Does true innovation only come from individuals working alone? On the flipside, how can we deny the power of what happens when the right people connect, collaborate and selflessly serve the greater good of the group?

During this process of going back and forth, thinking about the merits of these conflicting ideals, something occurred to me. The question isn’t whether one of these is better than the other. The question is why does one have to be better, and ultimately replace the other? Or, put another way, why can’t we leverage the power of both so they can exist equally and in harmony?

This got me thinking about the bigger phenomenon that we’ve seen time and time again. In the face of the newest and latest trend, we have a tendency to replace rather than repurpose the knowledge that we’ve spent so long accruing. We make grand statements proclaiming the end of this and death of that only to realize that in this day and age the only true certainty is that there are no absolutes. With the rapid speed at which our industry is evolving, it’s counterproductive, if not irresponsible, to categorically abandon elements of what works today with the allure and promise of what tomorrow will bring.

Take digital for example. When our industry first began to shift from traditional to digital, in order to take advantage of (or moderately experiment with) this highly-targeted, easily optimized new frontier, daily eulogies were written for the :30 television spot. While people were definitely consuming media in a radical new way (skipping and/or ignoring commercials), moving entirely from traditional to digital wasn’t the answer. We swung the pendulum too far back to the other side of the spectrum only to find ourselves, as marketers, being ignored in a whole new way. It’s only when digital was able to leverage the power of storytelling and elevate itself above the tactical that we were able to fully realize its extraordinary potential. Replacing traditional with digital risks doing so at the expense of the story and ultimately an emotional connection with consumers. Replacing digital with traditional fails to take advantage of unprecedented access to data which, when used correctly, provides a utility and value rarely seen in traditional advertising.

I believe when moving forward, our success will lie in our ability to shift from a mindset of “this or that” to a behavior of “this and that”. If we can learn to repurpose the suite of tools that have worked in the past and marry them to the emerging platforms of today and tomorrow, we have the best chance of doing the kind of work that we all aspire to do.

Repurposing rather than replacing applies to the teams we assemble as well. Instead of being seduced into hiring people with fancy new titles with buzz words that reflect an ever changing marketplace, let’s repurpose the skill sets of the people that have made us successful in the past and partner them with the folks that we see as having the capabilities of the future. The truth of the matter is, none of us really knows what lies ahead for our industry and I believe that to be exciting, if not a tad scary. In this case, a little fear is a good thing, so long as it doesn’t lead to panic and short-term thinking. To replace rather than repurpose, in an attempt to try and gain temporary footing within these choppy waters of uncertainty seems like an ineffective way forward. Put another way, our understandable tendency to forsake all we know in attempt to align ourselves with what we don’t shows the lack of vision that has made our industry such a formidable entity.

As I’ve said before, the power lies, not within the extremes of “this or that” but within the powerful combination and assembly of many different pieces. There has been plenty of memorable work over the past few years, and when I think of an example to demonstrate my point of repurposing in an effort to create something new, there is one pretty clear example.  The Wilderness Downtown was an interactive HTML5 short created with data and images related to the user’s own personal childhood. Set to Arcade Fire’s song “We Used to Wait,” the experience takes place through choreographed browser windows. For me, it kicked open the door and sent a wake up call letting everyone know what was possible when you combine elements of what we’ve seen and showcase them in a way we haven’t. Perhaps the most important element of this project, beyond the magical integration of video, HTML5, music, and nostalgia was the inspiration it ignited in its wake. An awesome TV spot will leave you saying; ‘I wish I’d done that.’ The Wilderness Downtown left you saying; “I can’t wait to do something like that”.

In my opinion, the future belongs to our industry’s artisans and craftspeople with the unique ability to lean forward and innovate without ever abandoning the undeniable core principles of what has gotten us this far.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Margaret Johnson,

Executive Creative Director and Associate Partner

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

I’ve always been an ad geek. In the fourth grade, our art class was asked to create a poster advertising an airline. My poster was eight feet long—a billboard, really. Smiling people with large suitcases lined up to board a plane. I won the contest.

During the summer between my junior and senior year of college at UNC, I decided I wanted to go to summer school at Parsons School of Design. What could be better than an unchaperoned summer in New York City?

My mom didn’t want me to go, but my dad decided that it was a worthwhile experiment. Or maybe it was that my dad wanted an excuse to take my 87-year-old grandfather on a road trip. Either way, my dad picked me up in our family’s wood-paneled station wagon, and we hit I-95 with my grandfather riding shotgun.

I remember that the first thing I saw as we got to the city was a guy jimmying the coin slot of a pay telephone with a knife.

Student housing was on 3rd and 11th in the NYC dorms. I had two Japanese suitemates who (I quickly learned) had been forbidden by their parents to answer the door.

The first girl I met in class was from the Dominican Republic. She was chic and beautiful and very tall. We hit it off and spent the summer together exploring New York’s art scene.

The class assignment: Name a business and create a brand look. Mine was for a balloon company. Not sure why. I think it was because I knew how to draw balloons and animals. So I spent my summer doing that.

When the session was over, it was time for my dad to come pick me up. As I was waiting out on 11th Street, it dawned on me that I was going back to Chapel Hill and that I was going to have to make a decision about the future. What was I going to do after college? I knew I needed to get a portfolio together, but I didn’t know where to do it. Was Parsons the school for someone like me? I had also heard of an ad school in Atlanta called the Portfolio Center.

I walked over to the same kind of phone booth that I saw the guy jimmying when I arrived in NYC and opened the phone book (remember those?). I tore out the pages listing all the ad agencies and put them in my suitcase.

When I got home, I cold-called two dozen advertising agencies in New York City to ask for help solving my dilemma. This is roughly how these calls went down:

Receptionist: “Hello, J. Walter Thompson.”
Me: Can you connect me with someone in the creative department?
Receptionist: Who, specifically?
Me: Anyone.
Receptionist: (perturbed) Anyone?
Me:  Yes, please.

And then, I would be dropped into someone’s desk phone. When they answered, I would ask, “If you were going to hire a junior art director for your agency, would you most likely hire someone from Parsons or The Portfolio Center in Atlanta”? Nine out of ten said Portfolio Center. So I went to Atlanta to create my portfolio.

My first job was at David Lubars’ shop in Providence, Rhode Island. It was called Leonard Monahan Lubars & Kelly, and a creative director named Jeremy Postaer gave me a shot. In a telephone call that I had with him before the hire, he said, “I like your book.” It looked just like his, by the way. I had studied his work in the award annuals and, um, “patterned” my portfolio after his. “But how do I know if you’re any good?”

I told him, “I don’t know. If you like my ads, you’ll like me.”

Shortly after I got to Providence, Jeremy ended up leaving LML &K and going to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. My next job was in Dallas. I worked for Grant Richards and Todd Tilford in a cool, carved-out R&D agency-within-an-agency at The Richards Group. After working there for about a year or so, Grant left and headed to GSP as well.

Shortly after, Grant and Jeremy told me I ought to consider joining them at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. And I did.

Ignacio Oreamuno

The world might not end in 2012 as the Mayans predicted, but you don’t need an ancient calendar to see that the traditional way advertising is created, and more specifically the way ideas have traditionally been created, is quickly becoming extinct.

In the good ol’ days of advertising, the joined-at-the-hipster duo of copywriter and art director was the most efficient way to develop ideas into a campaign. Whether they were locked in an office together, in side-by-side cubicles, or sharing a table at the local coffee house, these two people were expected to change a client’s fortunes, or at least come up with something decent for the agency reel.

But in 2012, not only are we starting to see a decline in paired teams, I believe that the two-person team is about to vanish.

A campaign is no longer a campaign.

It used to be that an advertising campaign was an idea glued together by two elements, a pretty image and a catchy tagline. A campaign might include a TV spot, a magazine or newspaper ad, a little radio and some web elements, all feeding off of each other and growing in a manner that two people could handle. They could take a simple idea, add a joke and slap it across multiple media.

However, in recent years, the definition of “campaign” has changed. Nowadays a TV, print, radio and web campaign also has a big launch event, mobile apps and games to engage people on the go, social media seeding, and sometimes even package and product design, architectural elements (like store designs) and more. In a lot of cases the same ‘campaign’ is not connected via art direction or taglines, but by strategy. As such, the traditional set of specialists are no longer suited for creating the campaign of the future — or even the campaign of the present — because it is impossible for them to posses a solid knowledge of the possibilities each media holds.

Giant Hydra solves that dilemma by allowing multiple people from around the world to work together, building on each other’s creative and strategic ideas. There are only so many ideas that a traditional duo can create with their skill set, but when you bring nine or ten people together, ideas grow exponentially. In very little time, a small idea can become a gigantic idea with legs, all because those nine or ten advertising professionals bring very different expertise and experiences to the table. And they do it around the clock.

All advertising creatives have felt the ominous weight of the great white wall, that blank sheet of paper in front of them that they are ultimately responsible to fill with brilliance. In traditional creative teams, a competent partner helps to alleviate some of that pressure, but in a larger group of people, this pressure melts away and is replaced entirely by fun and camaraderie. The “mass collaboration” nature of Giant Hydra allows you to put a germ of an idea on the table, then step back and watch your peers across the world in the UK, Brazil, India, Singapore — wherever — develop that seed in a ton of different ways and add more fuel to the fire.

More people is also more fun. When I travel around the world, I’ve met a lot of HydraHeads who have revealed to me that the most inspiring projects of their careers have been with Giant Hydra, working alongside a bunch of other people. It’s strange to hear that an online environment can be so fun, but I think we can all attest to the fact that virtual worlds and communities have taken over most of our social lives, and that relationships, laughs and the joys of teamwork can be felt via digital means as intensely as within a roomful of people.

And of course, a “roomful of people” is another way that an agency could try to do more than a two-person team can accomplish. In fact, agencies do these all the time; the hapless participants derisively label these sessions “gangbangs,” and the most common outcome is a large Chinese take-out expense report. No such worries within the Hydra!

Many other industries have been transformed by the web, but advertising has resisted. I don’t think that will last much longer. As much as the advertising industry likes to think of itself as innovators, ad agencies are followers as much as anyone. As soon as the big shops… or the smart shops… or the small shops take the first trials and take the plunge into mass collaboration, everyone else will soon follow.

Either that or the Mayans will get us.

It is hard to believe, but IHAVEANIDEA has never profiled a Parisian agency. To right this wrong, I enthusiastically volunteered myself to meet our first: Sid Lee Paris. My personal obsession with Paris may or may not have had something to do with my enthusiasm… at first. But when I left, my enthusiasm had everything to do with Sid Lee Paris’ people, its work and its leadership.

The Sid Lee Paris atelier sits in the second arrondissement of the City of Light, in the middle of an up-and-coming neighborhood near the famed rue Montorgueil. The building that houses Sid Lee—its second location on rue du Sentier since the birth of the Paris atelier, in fact— sits smack-dab in the middle of the textile district known as the Sentier. Not far away are the Paris Opéra, the former stock exchange (known in French as the Paris Bourse) and the Opéra-Comique.

I spent a day exploring the rue Montorgueil (and its restaurants), the Sentier district and of course, the Sid Lee Paris atelier. Achieving a level of hipster chic that Williamsburg, Brooklyn would work years to impersonate, the Paris atelier is authentic, organic, raw and yet sophisticated, as only Parisians can be.

I soaked up every moment. After all, I’ve got Paris fever and the only prescription is more Sid Lee Paris.

 ___________________

Atelier: a French word, which translates to “workshop.” I don’t know if the ever-pervasive advertising of the holiday season has yet to leave my head, but the thought of a workshop conjures up an image of an old man with a white beard whittling away amidst a bevy of little elves.

But at Sid Lee Paris, the atelier is more of an artisan’s workshop. Instead of an old white-bearded man, there is Creative Director and Partner Sylvain Thirache. And rather than a bevy of elves, Thirache is surrounded by a band of specialists from architects, to illustrators, to web designers to typographers. There are also copywriters and account managers, all working to bring fresh creativity to clients including Ubisoft, Coca-Cola, Vitamin Water, Adidas, 1664 and Carlsberg.

The atelier is an inviting space. From the courtyard outside, an open glass façade shows off the office within and after passing through an entryway, the atelier opens up into a bright two-storied open floor plan. A second-floor balcony wraps entirely around the office, overlooking a huge banquet table on the ground floor that stretches from one end of the office to the other. A greenhouse-like sunroof extends over nearly the entire ceiling, allowing the light of day and the elements of the outside world to penetrate the workshop. The Sid Lee Paris artisans sit at desks around the border of the banquet table downstairs and the perimeter of the balcony above. A foosball table, kitchen and garden terrace complement the upstairs workspace. The space shows signs of projects en process, with agency work not only on the walls, but popping out everywhere against the black and white décor. Furniture, designed by one of the Sid Lee Paris artisans, completes the office with a funky flair.

Sid Lee Paris has grown organically and proportionally to its business development since March 2009, from just one person to the more than 25 people who now comprise the team. Growth is kept purposely proportional to ensure that both clients and staff are properly taken care of. Both are invited to enjoy the space as much as they desire– clients are as welcome to come and work within the walls and under the sunroof as the staff (and many do). Each client visitor is both welcomed as a guest, and invited to make themselves entirely at home. The Sid Lee Paris artisans are provided with resources to feel comfortable and taken care of as well, from dinner after hours to a safe taxi ride home on a late night.

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For every “former ad guy” or gal at Sid Lee Paris, there are just as many who don’t come from an advertising background. Sid Lee Paris welcomes untapped perspectives from other creative disciplines among its ranks, so creativity does not materialize via the traditional copywriter-art director team. Sid Lee Paris’ success is reliant on its distinctly blended ideas, which is why each new project calls for the custom-assembly of a team at the intersection of need and talent. Teams constantly blend and change, and according to the Sid Lee Paris artisans, every day is a new adventure, every task is approached with fresh eyes and the rules change often to ensure that people are doing what they do best to apply their skills in new and fresh ways. To some degree, that makes every project a challenge, but not one that any artisan at Sid Lee Paris would back down from. The only things not welcome in the atelier are ego and an agenda.

Though Sid Lee Paris is very reflective of Paris and French culture, it is proud to be a part of the Sid Lee family. To give the band of creatives a common page to work from, all newbies at Sid Lee attend an internal training program called Sid Lee University. The courses are also available online to staffers on Sid Lee’s social business platform. In fact, the Sid Lee Parisians just returned from two days immersed in Sid Lee University with their peers in Amsterdam, learning, bonding, celebrating and competing in a Paris v. Amsterdam office soccer match. The competition may have been fierce, but fun was the name of the game.

The eccentric crew at the Paris atelier does not take itself too seriously, but they are very serious about the quality of the work. The work coming out of Sid Lee Paris has a distinctly urban esthetic, perhaps derived from Thirache’s early days as a tagger, but definitely tuned in to the most current of culture and technology. This cultural currency is what drives results for Sid Lee Paris clients.

When Adidas Original wanted to reach out and make a deeper, more meaningful connection with teens in France, Sid Lee Paris had the solution. Recognizing Adidas Original’s European roots and the fact that many consumers wear the brand solely for its urban appeal (and have never played a sport in their life), Sid Lee Paris leveraged the style factor of the most popular athletic brand in France. The “All Event” celebrated and dovetailed with the Adidas “All In” campaign. The “All Event” Facebook app allowed a diverse spectrum of participants to design their own dream event, from celebrity to venue, to food, drink and music, reflecting individual tastes in art, music and fashion. Adidas and Sid Lee Paris brought one such event, including every dream-derived detail from a limo ride accompanied by attractive women, to the chosen locale and celebrity, to life for a lucky winner in Paris and Marseille.

Sid Lee Paris also reminded us that in today’s modern world, the idea of our dancing feet as music makers is not exclusive to tap-dancers. It applies to b-boys and b-girls as well. Bringing footstep music-making into the digital realm, Sid Lee designed the technology for Adidas’ MEGA shoe line in collaboration with French breakdancers such as the famously talented Les Twins. Sid Lee Paris worked to ensure that the idea did not only sound cool, but that it worked in reality as well as it did in concept. A wireless system records sound through the dancers footwork, and then links back to a computer that builds the tracks. Word of the Megalizer shoe exploded throughout the internet among dancers and sneakerheads stunned by the potential of the new technology.

But Adidas has not been the only recipient of Sid Lee Paris’ innovation. When La Gaite Lyrique museum opened, the new “Parisian centre of digital culture,” Sid Lee Paris was charged with bringing the heart of La Gaite Lyrique’s mission and spirit to life. Existing, or aiming to exist, at the most current crossroad of technology, art and digital culture, La Gaite Lyrique displays the potential of new media. Sid Lee Paris took to the streets, using the capability of the latest in digital technology and the arts to captivate Parisian civilians and pique their interest in exploring and supporting the new museum.

Day-to-day client work at Sid Lid Paris involves bringing so many engaging ideas to life, you might think the artisans would be satiated. But where creativity overflows, there is the Sid Lee Collective, the agency’s “cultural and commercial incubator.” Sid Lee finances employee ideas and projects born of personal inspiration, which for Sid Lee Paris meant taking to the streets of London to create “Blind Spot,” turning urban landscapes into works of art.

No matter the success of the work – and there has been much success in the past three years – you will not see Sid Lee Paris singing its own praises from the rooftops. They will, of course, graciously accept acknowledgement from others in the industry, but patting itself on the back is just not Sid Lee Paris’ style.

Besides, why look back when there is so much to look forward to? The future at Sid Lee Paris is as sunny as the light pouring in through its greenhouse roof. And as the sun set on my visit to Sid Lee Paris, they showed me how a Parisian work day wraps up.

Once the work is complete and pencils are set down (okay fine, or Macs are shut down), the Sid Lee Paris crew sticks around to unwind together. Friends stop by and the crack of foosball games and a bottle of red wine begins, as they gather to discuss the day, the work and above all, la vie.

And the one thing I can assure you from my vantage point on the couch at the Sid Lee Paris atelier, a glass of French vin rouge in my hand? La vie est belle.

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