Blue Skies Blog

The 9th September 2008 saw Blue Skies Marketing Recruitment host an evening with keynote presentations coming from Andy Hyatt, Head of Digital, Bernard Hodes Group, Craig Morgan, Managing Partner, Spike, Buster Dover, Head of Digital, VCCP and Aaron Martin, Executive Creative Director, Syzygy. The event, chaired by Mike Spicer, Group MD at EHS Brann, was based around who, in this ever fragmenting marketplace, can own the ‘big idea’. Four leading lights from the Creative and Digital worlds put forward opening arguments and the audience was then invited to join the debate. Below we’ve tried to summarise the evening. To view the presentations just click on the images. And to add to the debate, scroll to the bottom and post your comments.

 

1. Andy Hyatt, Head of Digital, Bernard Hodes Group

The integrated agency is best placed to own the ‘big idea’

The notion of the ‘big idea’ is all about strategy. But strategy without solid execution is worthless. There’s absolutely no use in having the ‘big idea’ if it doesn’t see the light of day. On the flip side, execution without strategy is also pointless…

Defining exactly what the big idea actually is can be very tricky, with no clear definition. Camps though, are usually split into three different areas:

a. The client point of view – the concept of ownership of the big idea is meaningless – it’s a bit like men comparing penis sizes. Clients believe agencies should quit deliberating about ownership and just get on with delivering great work.

b. Digital and integrated agencies – they don’t think strategically, instead thinking tactically, purely executing campaigns. These kinds of agencies think just in terms of their channel.

c. The utopian, Pixar theory – a team effort to create big ideas working seamlessly in an environment to come up with the most fantastic finished product (possibly unachievable).

George Lewis claimed to have coined the phrase, the ‘big idea’. This arrogant, opinionated era of ad men believed advertising changed the world. They wanted to create mystic about advertising and did this through iconic campaigns such as MTV, with a killer strap line and great visuals. With this basic premise audiences actually became hooked on adverts, with many becoming mini soap operas in their own rights. People tuned in just to see the advert; the Heineken, refreshes parts other beers can’t reach, or the successful Gold Blend series of ads became more and more adventurous and ultimately engaging with the audience.

Then came the internet which challenged the status quo. Apple, for example has a symbiotic relationship between product and advertising; interaction and engagement. “Think different” isn’t just a strap line; it reflects everything about Apple as a brand. Tactical executions became interactive and engagement became king.

But how much has changed? Are these new ideas or a rehash of previous ideas using new media? Maybe there are no real new ideas and we’re all just portraying them in a different way? But the ‘big idea’ comes from those who know how to manipulate all media. You need comparable bench marks to achieve success across, digital, television, radio etc.

As the landscape becomes more fragmented the very notion and importance of the ‘big idea’ has increased. Agencies ability to come up with and sell in the big idea is where they’ve struggled. A symbiosis between coming up with the big idea and selling the big idea occurs. The big idea comes from people who understand how to manipulate all media to get the best result for the target audience. In a fragmented landscape the ‘big idea’ has increased, not decreased, in importance.

One of the strengths of digital/integrated agencies is how quickly they can see what elements of a campaign are failing. Agencies in control of strategy and execution can quickly make adjustments to a campaign, making them even more compelling. Agencies that can deliver both strategy and execution are best placed to own the big idea. In the current environment these are integrated agencies. A fully integrated idea can change perceptions and maybe even the world!

 

2. Craig Morgan, Managing Partner, Spike

The consumer owns the ‘big idea’

Don’t confuse creation of an idea with ownership! Take a car for example – someone makes it, someone sells it, but the consumer owns it. But the role of the consumer has changed, it’s no longer passive, it’s creative, opinionated and connected. Agencies need to be outward looking – recognising how consumers act, picking up on insights and then delivering an appropriate message.
 
“An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them” Stephen Fry. An amusing quote but consumers are in that library – it’s their behaviour that creates the ideas. Agencies recycle, distribute and amplify these ideas making them relevant to our products.

Nike and their recent advertising campaigns have tried to own running. But Nike can never own running, it’s too big an idea. The only people that could own running are runners. Therefore idea generators and owners are not always the same thing. Consumers are now also capable of generating and owning ideas. Agencies and brands are great at amplifying and improving these ideas.

 

3. Buster Dover, Head of Digital, VCCP

The client owns the ‘big idea’

Firstly and most importantly, “the client is always right!”

If a creative idea never sees the light of day is it really worth owning? Who ensures an agency’s creative sees the light of day, well that’s the client.
It’s the client’s brands, business and money that agencies create their ideas for and ultimately allow them to exist. Without clients, ownership is meaningless!

The power lies squarely with the client as to which ideas go forward and which are scrapped. The capacity to undermine, adapt and potentially ruin the original idea also lies with the client. Surely only the owner of the ‘big idea’ can make that much difference?

In the worst case, clients can have ownership without responsibility. Brands can come up with ideas that generate conversations and movements, and then relinquish control to their consumers.

If an idea doesn’t fully extend, clients have the potential to go beyond an agency. They might choose another specialist to help them with that ‘big idea’. Because they own that idea they can bring in other agencies from other channels, to work on your original idea. As an industry, agencies are particularly poor at retaining intellectual property rights in negotiations with clients, consequently in virtually all contracts the ownership of any idea is signed over to the client as soon as they’ve paid for it.

 

4. Aaron Martin, Executive Creative Director, Syzygy

No one owns the ‘big idea’

Pecha Kucha, originally the brain child of Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, is a presentation made up of 20 slides each one timed to change after 20 seconds. Aaron used this idea to show his presentation, but it wasn’t originally his idea, but did people care? Not really, they were more interested that he wasn’t going to PowerPoint them to death.

So who cares? Who cares who owns the ‘big idea’? To even have the discussion is so very 80s ego advertising. It means we’re losing sight of what we’re all really here to do.

From research on the web and the British museum it doesn’t really look like ownership of an idea is really possible. Can new work ever be completely original and where do ideas come from? So many ads have their origins in other peoples work. For example the Honda cogs ad looks remarkably similar to a movie made by a Swiss duo.

Sony bunnies and the New York bunny scape also look a little too similar to be considered a consequence. So can Sony really claim to own the idea? Any good campaign reflects the cultural / environment it was created in. Just as art imitates life and life imitates art, advertising should be the reflection of the culture and times in which we live.

Everyone in advertising knows there are only 7 true ideas anyway:
1 the superlative
2 the comparative
3 celebrity endorsement
4 philosophy, the product story
5 the demonstration
6 the pastiche
7 sponsored gag, art piece

As an industry we’re not in the best position to claim ownership of the ideas and the very thought of owning an idea is where we’re going wrong. Clients don’t care who owns the idea, they just want to make sure their creative is central around one. Consumers don’t care who owns the idea as they wouldn’t know what an idea is. Perhaps the notion of owning an idea is like chasing rainbows. We shouldn’t be wasting time on thinking about who should own the idea, just focusing attentions on making the executions as good possible.

The notion of who comes up with and owns the idea isn’t worth fighting about; agencies should just rally around an idea and then collectively execute it. You can’t own an idea, but you can own an execution.

 

Questions from the audience

 

q. If people don’t own the idea, agencies don’t own the idea and clients don’t own the idea. Isn’t it just one person who owns the idea?

All good ideas need one person to really drive them, persistence is often necessary,
but most big ideas are too big to attribute to one individual.  Again strategy without execution is nothing and vice versa.
q. doesn’t the big idea come from thought leadership? Something big/ATL agencies can afford to invest in.

Very few big agencies present anything other than TV scripts when purporting to do a big idea. For digital agencies often their clients are quite low down the food chain. Whatever ideas they may have had, they would struggle to get the exposure as their relationships with the people who hold the majority of the budgets (Marketing Directors) are limited. Could a digital agency get a multi national brand to spend their full 100 million pound ad budget on a digital idea – probably not!

Digital agencies, the Agency.com’s, the AKQA’s or the Glue’s of this World are starting to get the exposure to these decision makers and having the debate. 3 years down the line we will see digital agencies owning the idea. But for the moment most digital agencies still can’t sell the big idea, they’re very channel specific, but starting to broaden their exposure.

Digital agencies should try to create a product and value online, not just using the channel as a communications tool. TV now realise they need to start taking note of the digital channel whereas integrated agencies are in a very strong position to show
the process of ideation transforming across channels.

ATL agencies are desperately trying to retain ownership of the big ideas. What ATL agencies are very good at are client relationships, safe guarding those relationships and selling and driving the idea.

Many clients don’t have the specialist knowledge/skill-sets to be able to understand or appreciate some of the ‘big ideas’, but that’s when it’s down to the agency to have the confidence to sell it in. Technology is changing how businesses operate and their having to adjust. It used to be quite distinct - strategy and then channel execution. The speed of data in digital now means if something isn’t working they can get rid of it and adapt.

q. In today’s society is there still a place for the big idea with all the fragmented channels? Surely the new model is smaller ideas for lots of different channels?

An idea can move and adapt and evolve. Different tangents for different channels the need for an overriding idea is even more important now than historically. Something that can be recognised across all the fragmented channels is absolutely necessary.

q. Is it not the branding agencies that own the big idea. Because all of this conversation is about the execution, channel, style, format, but doesn’t the ‘big idea’ originate at the brand creation point?

An idea changes from agency to agency, it’s a constantly moving, evolving beast. Clients want to get the best out of a team of agencies and therefore this again comes back to the point that chasing ‘big ideas’ and ownership are where agencies are getting it wrong. Agencies should be finding an insight that taps into the way people navigate through their lives and using this to effectively sell to them!

Consumers need to engage an idea before it becomes a big idea!

q. We’ve talked about who owns ‘the big idea’ when it’s a good idea, but who owns the big idea if it’s rubbish?

The client…

 
In conclusion ownership of the idea should sit with whoever can push the idea forward. Let’s try and get rid of the territorialism although to many loss of control will continue to be a scary prospect. 

When put to the vote Aaron Martins, “No one owns the idea” theory won out!

Tags: big idea, creative, Digital, integrated, marketing