Financial Times

Perspective of the World Advertising Congress
Through the looking glass
By Jagdish Hathiramani
On returning from the 40th International Advertising Association (IAA) World Congress, it struck some of the delegates from smaller countries what all the fuss really was about. The scale of the 40th world congress was truly staggering – not only from an events and entertainment perspective but also from the sheer scale and importance of the global issues discussed. As a part of the IAA Sri Lanka Chapter’s contingent, it thus took reorienting back to a small country existence for those visiting Dubai to truly appreciate what was witnessed.

The themes emerging from the various speeches and presentations with direct bearing on small countries and their place in the global advertising industry were multiple. Although it often proves true that the bigger the name the weightier the issue, it was actually some virtually unknowns who truly amazed the audience with their work: EMEA Regional Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi John Pallant astounded the audience when he showed examples of creative work derived using the intensity of the TRIBE approach (an in-house Saatchi & Saatchi tool to facilitate dynamic creativity). His presentation was a creative director’s dream as he spoke in depth of how the process could fuel dynamic creatives.

There were also innovative speakers such as Chief Creative Officer of R/GA Robert Greenberg and MphasiS CEO Jerry Rao, who spoke of the planned obsolescence of press, radio and TV in favour of an all encompassing interactive medium, where their companies (R/GA and MphasiS, respectively) are geared to compete.

Greenberg highlighted the need for a new model for agency teams beyond the conventional account director, account planning, account servicing, and creative dynamics. He suggested that it was time to include interactive elements such as data analysts, technicians and interactive designers in the fray when searching for integrated marketing communications solutions.
Pointing to the success of his alternative model, he showcased a campaign he had just completed with Nike recently; including a Nike billboard at a prime location in Times Square, New York City, where people with mobile phones could customise the colour, style and type of shoe on an over-large real-time interactive billboard.

The conference also showcased enlightened and fruitful client and agency relations such as Jim Stengel’s relationship with Leo Burnett, as well as the Steve Zyman’s more tenacious interactions with several agencies during his time at Coca Cola.

Zyman, an acknowledged visionary in marketing, highlighted the need for employing a disciplined approach to marketing which encompassed creativity. He offered more reasons to utilise marketing’s cross-functionality instead of just the vertical, direct and obvious elements available to achieve success. He in particular schooled the audience on the fundamentals of great marketing: Know where the company is going and what success looks like; get the right people in the right places to fill voids and gaps, train subordinates and build competencies; the right volumes and marketing credibility are just handed out, they have to be earned by getting constant results; and, most pertinent to advertising, communicate the brand out loud for all to hear. Meanwhile, Stengler highlighted the positive benefits he derived from challenging his agency partners to think beyond the norm.

In the end, the event achieved its most important goal in the view of small country participants, which was to allow us a view into the global arena of advertising. ; a taste of what issues that Sri Lanka’s own industry will face in the not too distant future forecasted by what mature industries are facing today.

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