by Bill Sewell 05/17/09
Nick Law from R/GA delivered an elegant and concise 30 minute keynote presentation explaining the DNA of a modern agency. I’m a sucker for historical background, so I naturally loved how he described the evolution of agencies. He asked a simple question, “What should we be making?”
At it’s core, advertising delivers basic information about a product. Before TV, print ads were simple explanations of product features. Then along came TV and advertising agencies learned that if you interrupt entertainment, you also need to make the product message entertaining. People viewed TV advertising as having a salesperson in your living room delivering pitches in 30, 60 or 90 second blasts. The goal was to make ads memorable enough so consumers would act on the information when they went to the store. The premise works well If you have someone’s time and attention. If you don’t have their attention, you are talking to yourself . . . expensively.