Some of you may know that I had the pleasure of joining the team here at Tiger Two recently. It’s high time for an introduction.
I’m Ben, in my penultimate twenties, but I look more like 35 due to the last 7 years in the advertising industry. You name it, I did it – from sitting in a pile of crumpled scamps at 3 am on a Friday night, to brainstorming campaigns over the in-house pool table. As a Copy Writer (and on occasion an Art Director), I’ve seen the glamour of the industry first hand, and memorised the numbers on the takeaway menu from Room Service. It was incredibly hard work, but satisfying nonetheless. Nothing quite beats winning pitches or the simple pleasures of making clients happy.
As for campaign experience, I mingled mainly amongst the through-the-line crowd, working in a fully integrated environment for the likes of:
3 Mobile
Adidas
Asda
Carphone Warehouse
Coca-Cola
Coke Zero
Crisis UK
Department for Education & Skills (DfES)
Department for Transport (DfT)
Department of Health (DH)
Diet Coke
Discovery Channel
Disney Channel
Fererro (Kinder)
Food Standards Agency (FSA)
Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)
Gala Bingo
Gossard
Hallmark Channel
Harrods
House of Commons
Jack Daniels (DIAGEO)
Lego
Mecca Bingo
MobileAct
National Health Service
NiQuitin
O2
Orange
Powerade
Shell (UK, EMEA)
Sony (VAIO)
Sony Ericsson (UK, EMEA, Global)
Southern Comfort
The Cooperative Bank
T-Mobile (UK, EMEA)
Vodafone (UK)
Wonderbra
I’ve seen many an agency attempt to integrate a digital offering, but in doing so, regardless of how many people they hired, it’s still very apparent that it’s still a huge area of expertise in its own right. Over-specialisation within the confines of the traditional agency model spawned mini agencies and pushed the boundaries of their internal market.
Moving to Tiger Two is a natural evolution for me. Here, I can bring some complementary skills to an already widely experienced table and learn something new at the same time. Whilst I’m all ears for the wealth of knowledge the Tigers bestow, and the guys (and Nancy of course) have been equally happy to hear all about the way the ad industry has been changing.
Perfect then, that I would attend last week’s conference at ad:tech London. This was an excellent opportunity to pick some brains over 7 hours that I’m blessed with the honour of their company.
Starting off the morning were Drew Ianni from ad:tech, David Moore from 24/7, Darin Brown from Avenue A / Razorfish, and Pete Blackshaw from Nielsen Online. A perfect panel for a US perspective about the state of the ‘agency’ business model, discussing how things should move forward to break out of the silos in order to cope with growing world of digital media.
That talk soon turned to question the art of communication itself, and how it’s changing to suit. This is what’s upsetting the traditional business models and the above-the-liners. Social media marketing is incredibly measurable, but bloggers add a different dynamic to communication. As Pete Blackshaw from Nielsen Online so amusingly put, to have a voice in every conversation is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant.
On one hand, marketers are pushing those conversations, despite rising consumer scepticism. But on the other, brands now have more ways to listen, and learn to market themselves better than ever before. Lego’s case study rang especially true of this; telling an inspiring story of the conception of a Social Media campaign which stemmed from hackers, but now owes its success to having faith in new media and identifying with those very people as fans. Throughout the rest of the day, the question everyone was asking, was not unlike my own when I moved on from the last agency:
How can I take advantage of this right now?
The resounding answer is obvious. Stop talking about it, and get involved. And in my inaugural contribution to Tiger Two’s blog, I hope I have begun to do just that – embrace change, and come away even better for it.
Image: trompeloeil
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