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04 Inspired US Content 2015 | rankin 18 | the source

a TOWN CaLLED RaNKIN Rankin, the most famous photographer on the planet and portraitist to the likes of the Queen, Mick Jagger and shots cover stars, reveals his muses, which range from The Jam to Paddington Bear

What is the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen in the last few months?

Mac or PC?

Nothing’s totally blown me away over the last few months, but I absolutely love Always #LikeAGirl; I really wish I’d been involved in making that. And I think Guinness Made Of Black is nuts to watch and would have been so much fun to make.

What track/artist would you listen to for inspiration?

What’s your favourite website/app?

I absolutely loved The Gambler with Mark Wahlberg. It wasn’t perfect but it really got to me and I love the line “You need to get yourself some Fuck You money.” We all need Fuck You money.

I also loved ’71 by Yann Demange. I thought it was one of the best directed edge-of-your-seat films I’ve seen in years! Yann Demange is going to do great things.

this is a bit sad and old in app terms, but I think [traffic and navigation app] Waze is incredible. It’s always so accurate and I hate wasting time!

What product could you not live without? the Leica s-system. this is my preferred camera. It’s the best there is.

It’s easy to use, the lenses are the best in the world and the file sizes and detail are amazing. It’s a no-brainer.

What product hasn’t been invented yet that would make your life/job better?

A teleporter. I travel with work for about three months of the year, so I’m up for anything that gets me away from planes, trains and automobiles.

Gimme Shelter by the rolling stones – I’m listening to it now to help me answer these questions!

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?

What show/exhibition has most inspired you recently?

I really enjoyed Hockney, Printmaker at the Dulwich Picture Gallery last year. It was a show of his etching and lithography printmaking and so much of it I hadn’t seen before. For me it just cemented my love for him as one of the best artists in the world. Bold, funny, technically amazing and very diverse, if you ever get a chance to see the show you’ll be inspired.

I love Apple products. our whole studio uses them and I’m never far from my MacBook Pro. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and read emails or watch a film on it. I’ve been using Macs since ’87.

If you could live in one city, where would it be?

What fictitious character do you most relate to?

What’s your favourite magazine?

As a kid I was obsessed with the Paddington Bear books. I liked him because he was an alternative thinker. there’s one story where Paddington went on a quiz show and was asked, “If you take an eight-foot plank of wood and cut it into eight same-size pieces, how long would each be?” he answers, “eight feet,” and the quizmaster said, “No, young bear, that would be one foot each.” “Not if you cut it lengthways,” Paddington replied. that’s exactly the way I think.

I adore magazines; I consume them like a drug addict. For me at the moment I think Love Magazine, AnOther, Purple and Garage are some of the best magazines in the world.

“I absolutely loved The Gambler with Mark Wahlberg. I love the line; ‘You need to get yourself some Fuck You money.’”

London is the only one city for me.

I adore living here and wouldn’t move out for love nor money.

Who’s your favourite photographer? there are too many to mention, but I do love Bailey, Nick Knight and Juergen teller – whatever these guys do always inspires me.

Who’s your favourite fashion designer? tu at sainsbury’s.

If you could have been in any band, what band would you choose? the Jam. they were my boyhood heroes and you never lose that. If you see me at a wedding and the Jam come on, close your eyes because it’s embarrassing! S

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What inspires Rankin: 1 ’Mark Wahlberg in The Gambler 2 Paddington Bear 3 Tu clothing at Sainsbury’s 4 71 directed by Yann Demange 5 Guinness, Made Of Black 6 The Jam 7 AnOther, Love and Garage magazines 8 The Rolling Stones

06 2015 | dD isIS for...

22 US 25thContent Anniversary FOR…

is for

PHOTOGRAPH: DROGA5

There’s no question that there’s an Australianness to my sense of humour and by default Droga5, whether it’s intentional or not. Aussie humour cuts to the chase – it’s direct and that goes into our work too, whether it be humorous or thoughtful. Too many people spend time circling the issue. I like stuff that doesn’t faff around. People appreciate you being straightforward, saying what you’re about.

I was really lucky to grow up playing in a national park [Kosciuszko, in New South Wales].

It allowed my imagination to run free. It was self-preservation – you had to create your own reality, your own fun, your own games. I’m not trying to pretend that I’m Bear Grylls but I was very comfortable in my own skin, in my own head.

Also, because I was the fifth of seven children [his mother would sew labels in his school clothes that read Droga5], I had to get my opinion out there or I might just be invisible. It made me want to prove myself, be a scrapper.

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DROGA Unlike many daydreamers, David Droga is also blessed with drive, derring-do and a heroic work ethic; qualities that saw him swiftly move from 18-year-old mail boy at Grey to partner and ECD at Omon, Sydney, at just 22.

By 33 he had the unquittable role of Publicis worldwide CCO. He quit, of course, to set up Droga5 in New York. A brave move that paid off due to the agency’s bold work, from the apparent defacing of Air Force One for Ecko, to comic Sarah Silverman waving a fake penis around for the Equal Payback Project. He and his agency have won every accolade going, but as the Aussie daredevil tells Carol Cooper, he’s still happier chasing chooks with his kids than chasing awards

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24 US 25thContent Anniversary FOR… Not coming up with an idea is part of coming up with an idea. It’s weird but I’m not intimidated by pressure and problem-solving and working within the constraints of a brief and deadlines.

I’ve always performed better when I knew the pressure was on, rather than having total freedom.

I was once asked to paint a picture for an advertising auction, something that would be auctioned off, but knowing I could do anything was so debilitating. If I’d been given a canvas that had two lines on it and a triangle and told to do something with that, I would have been more excited. But being given a blank canvas…

“We all have the same dots, we just try and join them in a different sequence.”

At school I used to get into trouble for daydreaming. I spent more time daydreaming than actually studying, but I knew I could sit down and write an essay about anything. I may not have known anything about the subject but I could tell a great story. I used to convince myself that I was going to write a novel or a screenplay, but I didn’t have the time, the patience, or the confidence to do that. I’ve written short stories but they’re not for publication, although my wife has read them.

It’s good to get something out of your head, to see if it’s what you think it is, or whether it’s a piece of shit. You’ve got to clean all the pipes out.

PHOTOGRAPHS: PAUL MCGEIVER

It was fortunate that I managed to get into a career that allowed me to daydream. Our job is like those drawings where you join the dots by numbers. We all have the same dots, we just try and join them in a different sequence. Instead of 1, 2, 3 maybe you go 1, 4, 2, 4, 3 to try and create something original. That’s what daydreaming is – you’re not following anyone else’s footsteps, anyone else’s thought process.

On holiday I buy those cryptic puzzle books, which I’ve loved since I was a kid. I like trying to solve problems in original ways. A lot of creative is like that – you try and work out how to get to the end point and the end emotion, and there’s a million ways to come at that.

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I admire artists. From a standing start, to do something original and incredible, I applaud that. I love architecture. I love the thought that someone can be confined by budgets and engineering but still create something spectacular and amazing. And practical. It would be amazing to be a great architect, to build something that stands the test of time. But I wouldn’t have the discipline to be an architect.

I’ve never thought of becoming a politician.

What is it that they say? Politics is showbusiness for ugly people. There’s too much dodginess in politics. Also I think I’d always get in trouble because I say the wrong things.

I didn’t want to go to university because the idea of parking myself there for three or four years just felt like treading water. I regret not having that social period in my life, but once I decided what I wanted to do I thought, “I’m just going to get into an agency and work my way up – I want to start now.” My four older brothers all went to university and got scholarships to Cambridge etc, so it was a foregone conclusion that I would do that too. But I didn’t want to wait. I’ve always been in a rush. Someone told me, in advertising, if you want to be a writer you write things and within a few months there will be different opportunities and that appealed to my short attention span.

I kept thinking, “Wow, I can do that.” Maybe it’s a flaw, but I’m pretty tenacious. When I want to do something then I do it, all guns blazing.

As soon as I got into Grey in Sydney I loved the energy of it. It was run by a young hotshot creative called Simon Reynolds and he made me realise that you don’t have to be old to be good. It was just his attitude; he really had an impact there.

At Grey I delivered the mail and when I put mail on people’s desks I would look at their work.

Maybe this is where my ego and naivety kicked in, but I thought, “I can do that,” and that gave me the incentive to move up faster. People there knew I wanted to write, but they told me I’d have to work my way through the agency, so I signed up to study at the Australian Writers & Art Directors School. I think I was the youngest there and

I thought, “If I’m going to do this, and sacrifice being an 18-year-old guy who goes out and parties, I’m going to have to win this,” so I worked my arse off, won top student and got a job straightaway as a copywriter. I’ve been appreciative and working hard ever since.

Working at Saatchi Singapore was fantastic.

Two years there, working at such a fast pace in such a tiny, competitive market, was like five years anywhere else, and that really embedded in me the idea of a work ethic. I felt that Saatchi London was dismissive of us as an agency, so I thought the best thing was to do better work than them.

The irony is that they then offered me the job of running Saatchi London. That was a great learning curve because it taught me about the balance between creativity and business and craft. In the three years I was there I really gained in confidence and appreciation of scale, and then when Publicis bought Saatchi, they offered me the global gig [of worldwide chief creative officer] and I chose to live in New York.

It wasn’t lost on me that Publicis brought me in as the young gun to try and make them shiny again, which was a fantastic opportunity. But then I got to that thing… I was worldwide CCO of a big network, I was 33 – I didn’t want a job where I was wheeled in as this wonder kid. When you have a big position, you go to meetings and you talk about what you stand for and your principles, but you’re as far away from those as you can get when you’re in a position where you can’t implement stuff. And I thought I don’t want to be fixing something, I want to be building something.

Agencies try to make it impossible for you to quit, because they pay you enough and they incentivise you enough, and they’re smart, it’s smart business strategy. But I liked the idea of being the guy who quit the job no one else would quit. So I thought I’d go back to the rawest and purest thing – which is me, a plan, an ambition and good intentions and see where we go. I’ve been fortunate to collect a lot of good people on the way, and I try to stay true to the reason I set up the agency.

My ambition for Droga5 to be the most influential creative agency is one of those grand plans where there’s no real finish line. It’s not really measured by accolades or stuff like that, it’s more a focus on what we’re doing today and what we’re going to do tomorrow. The only thing the success we’ve had to date has allowed us is to have a little wind at our backs, a bit more self-belief that we can do it. Influence isn’t measured by the number of employees, or offices or awards. I just want to feel that our work has a positive impact.

If we can contribute to our industry and make people believe that things can be better, then that’s a good thing.

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“Agencies try to make it impossible for you to quit… they’re smart, it’s smart business strategy.

But I liked the idea of being the guy who quit the job no one would quit. ” Every campaign is just one dimension of a grander ambition, and it’s better that it’s something that’s always just out of reach, to keep running forward. Some days we’re sprinting forward, some days we’re falling forward, but we’re always moving forward, and I like that. I’m not a coaster. I’m not scared of failure – I’m scared of repetition.

In advertising sometimes you do have to compromise, you just have to try to do it as little as possible – I think whoever compromises the least wins. I like to think I’m a principled person, but I’m also an optimist, so there’ve been times

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when I have convinced myself something is better, or going to turn out better, than I thought. I have good intentions in everything I do.

At Droga5 we try to be authentic to each client.

I love the fact that we don’t have an agency style, so what we do for Prudential is very different from what we do for Newcastle Brown. We have always had different styles – I can make you laugh until milk comes out of your nose, or I can make you cry and think about your family. I want us to be super smart and really thoughtful about why something is right for this client, why it’s authentic.

Each morning before I go to work I get the kids off to school. It’s unbelievable. Even the busiest day in the office, no matter what happens, it’s going to be calmer, more manageable. My wife is a fantastic mother and she’s a creative force as well, which is why my kids are all over the place!

The majority of my day is spent interacting with the work at some level. Sometimes my contribution is heavy-handed, and sometimes the best contribution I can make is to get out of the way – but every decision I make is about how to help the work. We are our biggest critics, and we

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10 Content 2015 || d DisISfor...

26US 25th Anniversary FOR… Obama mentioning our Honey Maid campaign This Is Wholesome [on how it promoted more diverse perceptions of families] was definitely a high point for us. I think it probably drills down to the origins of most of our work – the best things are grounded in really smart roots and observations, and aren’t just trend-based or technique-based. I’m not afraid of the obvious – because obvious is a really core starting point, and then you can be exceptionally creative with that.

We can’t just bombard people with marketing messages anymore, we’ve got to put something out there that touches them in some way, and people can make a connection with it. Advertising at its best is extraordinary. The problem is that 90 per cent of advertising isn’t at its best.

People appreciate honesty. They don’t like things that are manufactured or curated, pretending to be authentic. That was the whole thing with the I Will What I Want campaign [for Under Armour, with the model Gisele Bundchen that won the 2015 Cyber Grand Prix at Cannes].

If you’re going to make a point about female athletes, that they’re in charge of what they do, you have to show that it’s not all positive and rosy.

“I definitely feel like a foreigner in America, but I feel very at home in New York, I love it. I love the energy, the people, the attitude, the ambition, the quirkiness.” look at what we can and should do better. We’re not growing the agency for the sake of it. Our biggest accounts are our most progressive accounts – you’ve got to be selective about who you work with, and how and what criteria you come together in. Fortunately, we’re not for every client – we’re aware of that, and we turn down more business than we take on. As soon as you take on one big account for the numbers that it brings, not what you can do together, that’s when you lose your soul.

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A brand now has to be in sync with what it’s saying. A brand can’t just claim it’s something if all its behaviour behind the scenes isn’t consistent with that. So you’ve got to be a lot more transparent about what you put out there.

And we’re all learning, no one has a formula for it, but good intentions get you half way there. If you’ve got good intentions then you’ll find a way.

The deal with the talent agency WME [in 2013 WME bought a 49 per cent stake in Droga5] hasn’t transformed us in the sense that we are still very independent, it hasn’t changed the fundamental core of our business. WME has access and influences that no one else in the industry has, so it’s more about being aware of what’s coming up in the pop culture pipeline – it doesn’t suddenly get us celebrities cheaper. I’m not anti-celebrities if there’s a good reason to use them beyond just using their identity, or if you can be a little bit subversive with them. In our industry, just putting a celebrity in an ad usually means you don’t have an idea. There has to be a reason to have them in there, beyond them just being famous.

What’s really interesting is that a lot of celebrities now see adverts as showing a different dimension to them, like with Anna Kendrick and Newcastle Brown. It was authentic to her character: she’s cheeky, irreverent and she put herself out there – it was fantastic. But if she had just been wheeled in and propped up to hold up a product then that’s just dime a dozen stuff, and you also pay for that, it costs you a fortune.

I think I’m both extrovert and introvert. If I’m in an environment where I’m comfortable around the people, I think I’m an extrovert, but I don’t have to be doing tap dancing jazz hands, I don’t have to be the centre of attention. I like being a leader of an agency, I definitely like that, but not just for the sake of being a leader. I like that with it comes responsibility and I like the thought that it gives you the opportunity to do stuff.

My mother [a Danish artist, poet and environmentalist] is not seduced by her children’s success – she wants us to be happy, contributing people. She’s not caught up in the shininess of success. She just wants to know if I’m happy, and being true to myself. She still talks about The Tap Project for Unicef or the stuff we do for equality – that’s what she wants to talk about, not awards.

I go back to Australia once a year at Christmas and it’s fantastic. I’ve spent a couple of years building a farm in upstate New York, so this year I’ve convinced my family to visit for Christmas – so I’ve got 26 people coming…

My time is divided between the office and my family. I’m not a social animal that has to go out three nights a week or go to galas and dos. I like skiing and the outdoors if it involves my kids. At the farm we have a trout stream, so we do a bit of fishing, trail bikes, chasing chickens…

I definitely feel like a foreigner in America, but I feel very at home in New York, I love it. I love the energy, the people, the attitude, the ambition, the quirkiness. And I’ve got deep roots here – the company, my wife’s a New Yorker, we have four kids who are 49 per cent American. I still get excited by the city. I don’t walk the streets like a tourist, but it’s not lost on me. I’ve worked around the world, and loved my time in Asia, but I always missed Australia. Now, when I go back to Australia, I miss New York.

The one thing that makes me angry is dishonesty. It drives me crazy. People make mistakes, that’s life, but people who are deliberately dishonest just infuriate me.

If I were US president for a day I’d try to ban guns. There are just too many incidents involving guns, it’s unbelievable. Then I would have a great party on the White House lawn.

If I could change careers with anybody, it would be David Attenborough. He’s brought the world to people and he’s done it so charismatically and honestly… has there been a better storyteller over the last 50 or 60 years? Isn’t that the best possible thing? To make people look at the world in a different, better way? To be able to see things for the first time that no one has seen, and bring it to everybody – that’s about as good as it gets, mate. S

02/09/2015 08:28

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Political advertising GETTING THE PARTIES STARTED

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Cannes Special TOR MYHREN, CINDY GALLOP & THE CROISETTE CONTENDERS

shots.net Susan Hoffman Ben Priest Andy McLeod

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...thank you for the highlight party of Cannes...What a great celebration of our advertising industry” Nicola Valentine Executive Producer, Velocity

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48 12 US Places Content | los angeles 2015 | Deutsch LA

“We need to bring people into the agency that are not like us at all, because the more diversity that is embraced in our agency, the better it will become.”

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Deutsch LA’s CCO and partner Pete Favat enthuses to Simon Wakelin about not feeling existential gloom, the benefits of a brand having an enemy and how the convergence of content, advertising and entertainment is re-igniting Los Angeles

Pete’s POsitive POsitiOns

50 14 US Places Content | los angeles 2015 | Deutsch LA 2

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eutsch LA lies in the Playa Vista region of Los Angeles, an area steeped in Hollywood history. Martin Scorsese used soundstages here for his Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, while James Cameron filmed parts of Titanic and Avatar in the area, and Transformers, Iron Man and Star Trek were also lensed close by.

I sit pondering this filmic history while waiting in Deutsch for agency partner and CCO Pete Favat. We meet and I shake hands with an optimistic, upbeat chap.

Favat arrived at Deutsch back in 2013 after 14 years at Arnold in Boston. Ask why he left Boston for Los Angeles and Favat responds “A group of us owned an agency [Houston Herstek Favat] that was eventually acquired by Arnold back in 1999 so we impacted on Arnold in a big way,” he reveals. “I became Arnold’s chief creative officer not long afterwards, but felt that I was in the same place for a very long time, and if you stay somewhere too long you just become myopic.”

The discussion turns to his new life in Los Angeles, a place Favat first visited in his 20s. He admits the city tickled his fancy back then, but there were no real prospects for him at the time.

“In the 80s and 90s it felt like the place to be but there were just no agencies out here,” he explains.

“The general feeling was that if you moved to LA and didn’t take a job at Chiat, then you really weren’t doing anything of consequence.”

We note how times have changed and how the advent of technology has shaped a new creative

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landscape, one giving rise to a vibrant community eager to shape the next big thing. The recent collision of Silicon Valley and Hollywood is evidenced by tech titan Google scooping up Frank Gehry’s celebrated Binoculars Building in Venice, plus a huge video production facility for subsidiary YouTube in a renovated Howard Hughes building less than a mile from Favat’s office space: “What we’re seeing here now is a convergence of many things,” notes Favat. “As the blurring of the lines between content, advertising and entertainment continues so does the reasoning to be here. Every city goes through its ebbs and flows, and right now Los Angeles feels like it’s happening again.”

On not hiring spark plugs The conversation switches to Volkswagen, an account Favat handled under the Arnold banner.

He was behind the heralded Drivers Wanted campaign for the auto company before the account moved to Deutsch in 2009 – a move that immediately caught his attention: “After Deutsch won the VW account it made the agency legit in my mind,” he explains. “They were always a really good agency, and we’d go against them all the time. I knew [VW head of marketing] Tim Ellis very well, and he explained that the account had moved to Deutsch because of its strategic thinking. That really got me curious.

“Then [co-CEO] Eric Hirshberg left Deutsch, and I got a call from [CEO] Mike Sheldon who

wanted to hire me. I really wanted to go and agonised over the decision, but the timing couldn’t have been worse,” he remembers. “Then I ran into Mike a couple of years later with [Deutsch partner/ director of integrated production] Vic Palumbo and [partner/chief digital officer] Winston Binch.

That night it was a done deal. Like everything in life, timing is crucial.”

Favat has been focussing on developing the agency’s culture since landing at Deutsch, discerning the right mix of creative energy to magnify its appeal, a challenge that he admits is still foremost in his mind. So what is his

“Art needs resistance, and that creates engagement. If you want to be Superman then you need that villain. The enemy is all about duality. Identify the enemy, find that tension, and you’ll also find the idea.”

1 Pete Favat 2 HTC, Gary Oldman – Ask The Internet 3 Pizza Hut, Flavor Of Now 4 Taco Bell, Ronald McDonald

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“As the blurring of the lines between content, advertising and entertainment continues so does the reasoning to be here. Every city goes through its ebbs and flows, and right now LA feels like it’s happening again.”

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approach? “You don’t hire basic ‘spark plugs’ who simply allow things to run smoothly,” he outlines.

“And you don’t hire anyone because they’re just like you – you should run like hell from that kind of proposition.

“We need to bring people into the agency who are not like us at all, because the more diversity that is embraced in our agency, the better it will become, and that’s true from a geographical, gender and creative standpoint.”

Your enemy is your friend Going against the grain is also a tactic. “I really like hiring people who have never created advertising at all,” he adds. “I’ve done it a couple of times now where I’ve brought in writers and art directors who have never done a piece of advertising before, but just through conversations we’ve had I knew they were smart enough to be successful in the industry.”

Favat unveils a presentation to further illustrate his approach. Entitled ‘You Need an Enemy’, it’s a provocative outline, one that sometimes rubs clients up the wrong way. But that doesn’t bother Favat, as the message is as genuine as can be: “We all need an enemy to define us and brands are no different,” he posits with a wry grin.

“Look at America. It always needs an enemy because no superpower exists without one. Look at the Bible. If there was no hell and no devil then, with all due respect, there would be no Bible – just a pamphlet that says, ‘God is Amazing!’

“Antagonism brings a healthy tension, and without that tension people don’t pay attention,” he observes. “Most people stay in the middle where it’s safe, where there are no polar extremes.

Clients often say, ‘OK but can’t we just say how amazing our product is instead?’ But art needs resistance, and that creates engagement. If you want to be Superman then you need that villain.

The enemy is all about duality. Identify the enemy, find that tension, and you’ll also find the idea.”

Favat believes that when advertising fails it does so because an agency has wasted its most precious resource – its creatives. “Creatives are better at expressing ideas than coming up with them,” he says. “Creatives are not great business people. I had my own agency and tanked it because I’m not a business-minded person. I always say the strategy is the idea. The problem is that many agencies are not starting off with any kind of strategy and expect creatives to come up with ideas. Unfortunately it’s a practice that has inverted the proposition. It’s all backwards.”

People can also quench creativity in the name of fear, allowing mediocrity to rule the day: “You’ll hear people say how great their meeting was, but if you ask what idea the client bought they’ll invariably say the safer one,” he continues.

“In that case we didn’t have a great meeting.

We actually had a terrible meeting because our best idea died. Many people operate this way.

It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a nice car, a big house and a cool boat so let’s go have a bad meeting!’

That’s also a big issue.”

Quizzed on his upbeat attitude and persona, Favat explain that life’s way too short for existential malaise. “Ride on the crest of the wave in the sun instead of twisting in the murky waters below,” he quips. “Don’t swim against the current, otherwise life’s going to be tough.”

It’s an apt metaphor for life in California, a place where its attitude matches his own optimistic feelings on life and art.

“There is a, ‘Yeah, fuck, we’re gonna do it’ attitude to life out here in Los Angeles,” he explains. “Maybe the city’s attitude goes back to the pioneers, men placing their families in wagons and crossing Native American territory on their way to California. There were some ballsy-ass

pirates that came out here back in the day. Maybe that spirit is still part of the zeitgeist. People still risk everything to get out here.”

Delving into Favat’s creative past, I ask what, in hindsight, is his favourite work. He brings up the much praised and highly controversial Truth anti-smoking campaign for the American Legacy Foundation [read about Ari Merkin’s Body Bags spot for this campaign on page 44] “The Truth campaign was one of the best of the 21st century,” he says. “Its strategy was very clear – the tobacco industry lied. There was so much to play with, and so many ways to be shockingly frank and honest. We weren’t looking for ideas because we already had the idea, just words from internal documents used against the industry. It was more about discovering the most compelling expression of that idea.”

Compelling expressions should soon be afoot in work for new client Sprint, leaving Favat to ponder how to do battle against rivals AT&T and Verizon. “Sprint’s new CEO [Marcelo Claure] is an amazing guy,” he reveals. “He’s a self-made billionaire with an entrepreneurial spirit. He’s done things his own way his whole life, and it’s that kind of fearlessness that people like to embrace. We will work tirelessly for him to bring the brand to the forefront of people’s minds.”

A band can be a brand As for other upcoming propositions, Favat notes how Deutsch is making headway into the music industry, connecting with labels and artists through the agency’s music director Dave Rocco.

“We’re working with Capitol Records right now, looking to brand their artists while examining the potential of Capitol creating acts for us to market and brand,” he outlines. “ It’s an exciting proposition. After all, Gene Simmons taught us all how a band can be a global brand.” S

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KARDASHIAN Kim Kardashian schools the Cannes Lions crowd on being the brand

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hat is the X factor that differentiates contemporary celebrity brands from merely very successful footballers, cyclists, golfers, singers, actors, models? What distinguishes celebrity self-branding from the endorsement model of the pre-social media world, or the more adventurous cross-branding of, say, Beyoncé with O2 or David Beckham with Haig? And what are the perils and pay-offs of a big brand drawing a celebrity into its web of influence in an aim to make them both shine like a set of new veneers?

Matching the right product with the right celebrity name is the Holy Grail of advertising, the gift that keeps on giving, but when it goes wrong – well, consider the case of Lance Armstrong, a sports and lifestyle brand whose adventures in enhancement medicine finally put his career six feet under in 2013, with little chance of resurrection. Further back in 2009, Tiger Woods’ sexually

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Celebrity branding has come of age. Tim Cumming tries to find that special something – the X factor – a celebrity needs in order to win millions of fans on social media, the type of fan who will follow them wherever they go, and buy whatever they tell them to buy, whether it’s a gaming app, a whisky bar or eco baby wipes. The question is, how can brands get their share of that precious cultural influence juice, without coming across as the embarrassing old dad at the celebrity party?

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“The massive cultural changes wrought by digital and social media, in which everyone becomes a player, mean that celebrity branding isn’t about static endorsement, but a product in itself, just as celebrity is no longer the by-product of success in other cultural areas.”

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N complicated fall from grace left him below par virtually overnight – and his game never has recovered. Gillette, Gatorade, Accenture, AT&T, Buick and Tag Heuer all abandoned him. However, Nike, which had sponsored Woods since the 90s, loyally stayed on board.

Similarly, cosmetics group Rimmel chose to stick by supermodel Kate Moss in 2005 after a drug ‘scandal’ tarnished the face that launched a thousand container ships of make-up. Although Chanel and H&M dumped la Moss like radioactive waste, it seems her brand was bigger than theirs – a demonstration of celebrity branding’s dominance over corporate product, including tabloid exclusives. Moss strode through the storm as if it was just another catwalk. Ten years on, the Moss brand shows no sign of dwindling.

The brands so big you can see them from space In the 20th century, stars were larger than life; today, celebrities are a part of life, something communal made large. The massive cultural changes wrought by mobile, digital and social media, in which everyone becomes a player, mean that celebrity branding isn’t about static endorsement via poster or TV, but a product in itself, just as celebrity has itself become self-generating, no longer the by-product of success in other cultural areas.

David Beckham, once famous for playing football, recently replaced filling underpants with filling glasses with the launch of Haig Club whisky, tying his brand to a whisky label backed by a pop-up whisky club in London’s Wellington Arch and a Guy Ritchie-directed TV spot, all orchestrated by Diageo, Beckham and Simon Fuller. adam&eveDDB won the Haig Club account, but remain tight-lipped about the mechanics of working with Beckham, or what’s in store. What’s certain is that the old static

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endorsement model is no longer ready for its close-up.

Today it’s all about involvement – an interactive, accessfriendly 360-degree celebrity turn.

Take O2’s Priority campaign with Beyoncé, featuring an opulent Louis XIV at Versailles-style video, advance UK tour ticket offers for members, and The Walk, a live, exclusive feed from dressing room to stage – a trick that’s been repeated by the likes of Coldplay, Gorillaz and Ed Sheeran. As the man behind it – Darren Bailes, ECD of VCCP London – explains, it began with Michael Jackson’s ill-fated series of concerts, announced for the O2 in 2009. “I had the idea to stream a live TV ad of Michael’s walk from dressing room to stage…” he says, “ending just as he hit the first note. Priority endframe. Fade to black.” Alas, that fade to black was all too real for Jackson.

“But out of this came the idea of The Walk,” continues Bailes. “Dressing room to stage door. Access only we can give you because of Priority. First off, we had to pay artists to appear in our Walks. But pretty soon the music industry worked out that giving us an artist to film and put in a spot in the middle of The X Factor to help sell their gig tickets was good business, and no more fees exchanged hands. We started off with JLS and Leona Lewis, but before long we were filming Gaga and Beyoncé. Pepsi had just paid her a reported £33 million. We didn’t pay a penny. The deal worked for everyone.”

Bailes stresses how crucial the celebrity brand – as opposed to mere fame or notoriety – is to modern-day campaigns. “Nowadays the celebs are the brands themselves,” he says. “Brand Beckham and Brand Kardashian are mega, almost visible from space. George Clooney making coffee could be awful, but it works because he’s so likeable.”

While it’s true you don’t get celebrity without the attending furies of social media – Twitter storms are the standard meteorology of the celebrity age – celebrities feed their devoted audience from these same platforms.

They have, as Bailes points out, “millions of followers that hang on to their every tweet or Instagram post. Actual fans. Brands think that they have fans – but that’s not always the case. So they love nothing more than having access to a real celebrity fan base.”

To hear from the source how a world-crushing celebrity can work that fan connection, this year’s Cannes Lions featured among its 560 speakers one Kim Kardashian, owner of the derrière that broke the internet, and doyenne of the heaving cleavage selfie. It was a low-key affair.

“The Forum stage is where delegates can explore more specialist topics,” says Cannes Lions CEO Phil Thomas, who gave the green light for Kim to Cannes-do. “It’s a place where you can see more familiar faces talking about topics you might not expect. Kim is a world-famous celebrity, but the story at Cannes was about her work with Glu on her gaming app.

The discussion and press conference were both focused on the game development story, which is very relevant to the audience at Cannes. It was a discussion panel that explored the back story and creation of one of the most popular mobile games of the year. We deliberately kept her appearance relatively low-key.”

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1/2/3 O2’s Priority campaign with Beyoncé 4 Kim Kardashian on the Forum stage at Cannes this year

Not for the branding professionals the rolling thunder of celebrity entrances and exits, and Thomas happily reports that KK and her entourage presented no challenges at all on the day. “There were no demands, no riders, not even a green room. She was an absolute professional – polite, punctual and prepared.

She came with a tiny entourage that included her mother, an assistant and a bodyguard.” Handily, her bodyguard knew the backstage layout of the Palais pretty well. No “Hello Cleveland” Spinal Tap moments here.

The ascendency of personality as product Elsewhere at Cannes, there were numerous sessions on the power of celebrity brands – Maurice Lévy and David Guetta, the MAC Presents panel featuring Lars Ulrich, Ketchum Sounds with Natalie Imbruglia – and, like them, Kardashian’s appearance worked because it was relevant and in context.

When it comes to social, brands want to know how she works it. “When there is no relevance or relationship between the celebrity and the host,” says Thomas, “the session loses authenticity and the audience sees right through it. Cannes Lions isn’t a celebrity arms race.”

However, if it’s full-frontal assault you want, there’s always The Rock.

The movie star and wrestling icon Dwayne Johnson recently signed with Droga5 in New York to prepare the launch of Project Rock, which goes beyond the cross-branding model of Beyoncé-O2, Beckham-Haig or Kardashian-Glu, to a new world of total, 360-degree lifetime branding, working directly with the audience.

Droga5’s director of brand influence Matthew Gardner explains: “Project Rock is a result of the partnership between us, Dwayne Johnson and WWE. Very early on in that relationship we took a meeting with [Johnson’s] manager. At the time he was the highest grossing actor on

Rock, which is a collaborative mission using his strengths to get everyone to achieve their goals, and to actually get up and do something about them.”

While the likes of The Rock and Kim Kardashian (“people like to make fun of her, but no one’s got a better POV on social than she has,” says Gardner) are well established, Gardner is also tasked with sifting the wheat from the chaff when it comes to upcoming trends. “You’re not playing God, where you’re making the emerging culture and defining it, but you are spotting what will happen. It’s knowing about the emerging culture and knowing who knows who is emerging. In other words, knowing the most influential networks in the audience is just as important as knowing the most famous and the most talented person on stage. If they’re clapping, you’re on to something. They’re the ones who have good taste and a good eye.”

The mechanics behind self-branding as opposed to endorsements and collaboration is all about big, big numbers and big, big authenticity.

“Every single celebrity now, or at least those on a level with people like The Rock, is a single media platform,” says Gardner, “with dozens of millions of followers – a TV show might get two million. And that’s a new landscape for them, but what you need to make sure is that what you’re saying is super authentic to what they love and who they are and that you’re not going to give them something that’s not true to them. If it’s true for you, it’s going to be true for years.”

It’s the ascendency of personality over product, or rather, personality as product, opening up a land of opportunity that, for Gardner, eclipses the old models of engagement. “The way brands use celebrities, that’s not really my world,” he says.

“To me, that feels like a pretty stale way of working with celebrity. You can trace that back to TV ads going back decades, whereas I’m thinking more of the opportunities for culturally influential people to create more culturally influential content.”

Gardner describes that new cultural space as “a Wild West, where you can do it really haphazardly and still make a killing, just because that space is growing. But at the same time, you’re going to start seeing the bubble burst, eventually. The people like Jessica Alba [whose startup The Honest Company has been valued at $1.7 billion] or Dwayne Johnson, who have managed to really find something solid to stand for, that’s crystal clear, and a way to monetise that and make that into a real business – those are the kinds of people who are going to come out of it looking super, super smart.” S

“It’s knowing about the emerging culture and knowing who knows who is emerging… knowing the most influential networks in the audience is just as important as knowing the most famous and the most talented person on stage.” the planet, which doesn’t sound like a heavy problem that would require an advertising agency. But they knew they could build and capitalise on that success, and he needed the next step to build on that. So we went through a process that we always do with brands, to figure out what his brand should be about, what is his brand purpose.”

They also needed to shift the demographic. “He’s been around a while, and a lot of his fans are older, and they really wanted to capture an idea that was relevant to a millennial target audience, so we gave him this idea of Project

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OPEN FOR ENTRIES

31 March 2016

Awards night: 9 November 2016 The Brewery, London 13:21

20 52 US Places Content | los angeles 2015 | Diane McArter

Furlined founder and advertising veteran Diane McArter talks to Simon Wakelin about what she believes LA has to offer, revealing what it takes to succeed in a male dominated industry and how true success nowadays is a genderless equation

the Future is FeMALe W

hen Diane McArter arrived on the West Coast 14 years ago, culture shock ensued. What she discovered was a provocative city of shifting identities and endless surprises – a far cry from the hustle of life on the East Coast. “At first the experience was isolating,” recalls McArter of the Angelino lifestyle. “I was living in a canyon surrounded by nature and just couldn’t identify with my surroundings.”

It’s an understandable response from a New Yorker arriving in La La Land. Nowhere in the world are two cities defined in such polarising fashion as New York and Los Angles. They are the dynamic and the static, the masculine and the feminine. New York exists as a vertical metropolis, an architecturally intriguing city of upwardly rising structures that support and frame a masculine-minded identity. Los Angeles, however, sprawls outward, not upward. No matter how tall its skyline, no matter how high its mountains, Los Angeles is generally thought of as a horizontal city.

“What Los Angeles did allow me was a time of introspection and an opportunity to grow,” continues McArter. “What was once rigid, hierarchical and opaque in my life became more adaptable, collaborative and transparent.”

PhotograPhs: ryan schude

LA-dy state of mind McArter soon found herself opening up to her new locale, discovering a city of breezy structures and open spaces with an expanse of female traits that mirrored her own nurturing, feminine state of mind. As she grew accustomed to her new environment, so her confidence and drive started to really blossom.

McArter realised how she’d often wrestle with feelings of inadequacy back in New York. “There was no time to reflect,” she remembers of her former life on the East Coast. “The business was

predominantly male and led by so many charismatic guys that I thought I had to have a more masculine identity. But then I died in Los Angeles and came alive again. All this expansiveness out here allowed that to happen.”

As a new life and challenging career unfurled, so did more creative opportunities, leading to the launch of Furlined in 2005. “Furlined has been an authentic constant for me,” she says. “I always take the long view – invest in talent and ideas, envision their creative potential and see the true essence of their abilities come to life. Furlined is in a constant state of growth and evolution, aiming to fulfill the utmost potential for the directors and the work, and that’s an exciting proposition for me.”

McArter believes that plugging into culture in an honest and direct way is the only way forward. To that end she proactively brings in anthropologists, mythologists and other thought leaders on various projects to enrich people’s experiences and to inform and enlighten all. For McArter it’s about digging deeper and mining for meaning in the best possible way.

“It’s about depth,” she explains. “Our best results come when agencies allow us higher up the information ladder. Instead of resorting to handing out superficial, fragmented pieces of information, the best agencies allow us in. They allow us to dig deep and understand insight and strategy. It’s then that we become strategic, creative partners – not just vendors. It also takes bravery on the part of agencies, but we’ve seen incredibly positive results working with the likes of Droga5 and Pereira & O’Dell in this fashion.”

McArter also admits that successful business practice also requires more than a singular vision, and so she has welcomed ex-Stink partner Robert Herman to the Furlined fold as its managing director. “Collaboration is essential in this new era,” she says on teaming up with Herman. “In

“The business was predominantly male and led by so many charismatic guys that I thought I had to have a more masculine identity.

But then I died in Los Angeles and came alive again. All this expansiveness out here allowed that to happen.” order to expand the business I realised that I needed to give up some control. Robert helps me to see beyond the boundaries of my own vision. Two cultures are better than one and Robert’s vast international perspective and numerous relationships bring immense value to the company.”

Making it up as we go along Discussing the Furlined roster, McArter explains that she only does business with like-minded directors who share her company’s values. She beams when discussing the talent and their recent work, genuinely honoured to have them all. “Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin [directing duo who won an Oscar in 2012 for their documentary feature

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“The LA River – a 48-mile concrete artery flowing through hundreds of cities within this city. Symbolically for me, the river connects the feminine and the masculine, the vertical and horizontal. In this next year the LA River will undergo an ambitious revitalisation project to reclaim its natural beauty and redefine how we move through and experience Los Angeles. The revitalisation project promises to transform the river into LA’s Central Park.”

LA Story “the story i told myself when i first moved to la 14 years ago was that navigating this massive, concrete sprawl was a necessary sacrifice for the growth of my business. it wasn’t love at first sight. la can be so isolating. however, with isolation can come the opportunity for introspection and ultimately expansion. la was not here to coddle me; little did i know she would become the crucible in which i would transform my life and my business. in contrast to the more masculine business systems that i grew up in, i was entering a new landscape. What was once rigid, hierarchical, and opaque was becoming adaptable, collaborative, and transparent. it wasn’t until i looked beyond the glitz and the glamour, the concrete and congestion, that i was able to discover the history, the light and shadow percolating through los angeles. like all great cities, la is in a constant state of becoming… much like me, i discovered. Built and sustained on a currency of dreams, this city embodies the cycle of creation, destruction and regeneration.

We’re currently collaborating with urban and media historian norman Klein on a cultural project entitled, Cities. los angeles is our first city. norman writes about la, “around 2000, the glamour of 90s globalism simply ended; flattened. the new vertical is thoroughly horizontal, either because of digital media or something a hundred times more powerful. We’re in the midst of the next stage beyond globalism.”

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“The desert – expansive, magical, naked, bone-dry. Evoking cinematic memories from thousands of films.”

Undefeated] just created a spot for Facebook, Karaoke, that was viewed 5.5 million times in the first week of its release. Björn Rühmann is also working consistently in both the US and London markets, while Nick Ball is a new voice in comedy and a new signing to Furlined.”

A spirit of digging deeper, making connections and mining for meaning is also evident in Jefferson, a new production company launched under the Furlined banner by McArter last year.

Jefferson brings added value, combining different teams in a more nimble, less hierarchical way than is usually seen in regular advertising protocol.

McArter reveals that the work coming out of Jefferson feels remarkably open and honest, and she believes that people respond to honesty and truthfulness like nothing else. “Jefferson is a creative hub that is more than just advertising.

It’s a humble company that opens up new possibilities, a platform for collaborations between directors, writers, journalists, musicians and more.

More and more work is being produced by agencies and clients at the crossroads of culture, commerce and community. We curate teams to collaborate on specific projects. There’s a modesty to it, formed with the desire to expand our reach into a new, evolving era of brand communication.”

McArter believes that advertising is changing in such a dramatic fashion that something outside the box needs to be invented – before it’s too late.

“I started talking to heads of production at various agencies to ask them how much of their work is traditional broadcast,” she explains. “Big agencies openly informed me that only 30 per cent of their work is now traditional, so to expand into a new era we need to find new ways of working. That’s why Jefferson is here – to invent, create and make it all up as we go along. I think it’s the right spirit because it gives us the kind of reach that we wouldn’t normally have.”

The era of connectivity Who has been a mentor to McArter over the years? “Ridley Scott is an inspiring, collaborative leader,” she answers. “A visionary who saw something in me and gave me an enormous opportunity at a very young age to launch RSA USA. Tony Scott for his passion, Paul Gay for teaching me all about good ad ideas, Dougal Wilson for his values and his expansive, imaginative mind and Will Speck and Josh Gordon for being there on the journey with me, revealing truth through humour and their never-ending quest to champion the underdog in the stories they tell – and in doing so making us all feel a little more human.”

Discussing her success on a number of fronts over the last few years, and how the inherent qualities of an ideal leader seem to be more feminine today than ever before, McArter looks

back again at her arrival in Los Angeles in 2000, an event that turned out to be a creative catalyst, starting her on her journey to who she is today.

“I often think back to that time of awakening,” she muses. “It was reinforced by the good fortune of having been in the business all this time.

“There is a sense of expansiveness and endless possibility in Los Angeles, and in our digital era of connectivity, that matches my own feelings as a woman in the industry.

“It’s the increasing popularity and importance of female attributes that a new generation is now responding to,” she adds. “Millennials have that mindset today, and here we are in this digital, horizontal era, where connectivity is the hallmark.”

In a reflective mood, remembering how she used to feel all those years ago in the industry in New York, she adds “I no longer feel inadequate.

Over recent years there has been the continued wakening of so much possibility within me. I feel that using female attributes allows for an authentic leadership style that is better suited for the future of advertising. Coming to Los Angeles has taught me that women no longer have to possess male attributes to be successful.

“I embrace my womanhood. I believe that my vulnerability, empathy, cooperativeness, loyalty, creativity, originality and articulateness are vital to better understand the talent, the brief, the world and the road ahead.” S

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24 US Content 2015 | steve stone

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED Steve Stone started his first agency

deciding that the world didn’t need another ad agency, just better ideas.

Iain Blair finds that 20 years later he’s still coming up with those, leading the second incarnation of his shop, Heat, a home for great creatives, great clients and great work, all aiming to do one thing – surprise

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an Francisco has long exerted a powerful – and often underestimated – influence in the advertising world, not just on the West Coast, but throughout the US and internationally. A central contributor to that hub of creativity is Steve Stone, chairman and ECD of agency Heat. An industry veteran with more than 30 years in the business, Stoney, as his colleagues dub him, has the final say on all creative decisions for such A-list clients as Electronic Arts, Dolby, The NFL Network, Kendall-Jackson, Teva and Bank of the West.

Stone sums up his company’s mission and philosophy as: “We make commercials, films, tweets, posts, print ads, digital ads, outdoor ads, radio commercials, experiential pop-ups, deep digital experiences – and shallow ones, too. Before we make any of that, we make sure we have a strong strategy based on real consumer insights.

And along the way we constantly remind ourselves what gets people to remember advertising – surprise. We use the filter of surprise to judge the work. We believe in the power of surprise to build brands, solve problems and turn ordinary customers into raving fans. We’ve studied this quite a bit and found that people feel most comfortable when they hear or see something they’re used to. But they feel most alive when they’re surprised. And we believe people who feel more alive are more likely to be loyal to a brand and spend more money.”

But Stone doesn’t define ‘surprise’ as doing “something crazy or unexpected like shooting gerbils out of a cannon”. For him, it’s about “being relevant in new and unexpected ways. It’s about a brand reacting to something in real time. It’s about a brand being somewhere it’s not normally seen but blending in effortlessly. It’s about taking your entire Super Bowl budget and putting it all on one celebrity tweet. Our definition of surprise changes

from client to client but the results are all the same. This is something that works.”

Stone’s original vision for Heat was to create a different kind of ad agency. “Yeah, everyone says that,” he admits, “but few really do it. We wanted to start not just a business, but a home for great talent and great clients to do the best work of their lives.

We wanted to create a place that brings high concept, great storytelling and craft to digital.

Mostly we wanted to create an agency that didn’t force clients to choose between great work and great people to work with. We’re 75 like-minded people who want to make stuff and make a difference. We believe ideas can come from anywhere. We attract talent and keep them.

I hoped to make a great place for people to work when I started Heat 10 years ago, but I never dreamed we’d be named by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the best places to work in the Bay Area. We’re doing something right. And the best part is it feels right. Over the years we’ve developed into a truly strategic creative agency with outsized digital chops.”

Sounds like a great idea Current and future projects at Heat include breaking two new campaigns for iconic brand Dolby, a new client. “They have a saying – ‘Sound matters’ – and that’s something I’ve believed for years,” says Stone. “Sound and music have always played a strong part in our work. And will continue to.” While one campaign is “top secret”, Stone can talk about the other, for Dolby’s new Atmos system, which he terms “surround sound on steroids. It allows directors, sound designers and mixers to place sound physically in 3D space. We’ve got outdoor, print, digital video and social media running throughout the summer. We also have some experiential events that will demonstrate the power of Atmos. Fantastic sound design combined with the ability to place it anywhere can tell a better story. We even have ideas where sound alone can tell a better story than sound with pictures.”

Heat is also currently working on EA’s soon-to-be-announced largest mobile game launch, as well as several of their biggest console franchises, including Madden NFL. “We also have work breaking in a month for Hotwire, another new client,” he reports. “We’ll be creating commercials and programmatic/real time digital ads that will change the online travel category.

I can’t give you much detail on that yet.”

The company is also in the final stages of perfecting three proprietary tools for clients, geared to winning new business. “All three prove data and creativity can work together to build brands and help them build business faster,” Stone says. “The Heat Index is a measurement of advertising’s contribution to business results. The Heat Radeator [sic] is an approach to creative and media that uses small bets in earned media to guide big bets in paid media. And the Heat Reactor is a programmatic content engine that generates real-time personalised content.”

Growing up in Ohio, Stone had a “really intuitive and honest art teacher” in high school to thank for his initial interest in advertising. “She said, ‘Look, you’re not very good at painting or fine art, but maybe you should think about commercial art or advertising,’” he recalls. “She helped me get a scholarship to the Columbus College of Art & Design. Four and a half years later, I had two portfolios – one for design and one for art direction. I loved the conceptual part and liked to write as well, so advertising sounded better to me.”

Stone interviewed at design firms and ad agencies and landed a job at Ketchum Advertising in 1983. “I met Rich Silverstein’s girlfriend at the time who said ‘Call him, he just started an agency – I think he’d like your work. Back then, San Francisco had these double-decker billboards where one ad would be stacked on another. As luck would have it, an ad that I designed for the California Egg Commission was posted under one that Rich had designed for KGO, a local radio station. So I went out with my camera, took a picture of our billboards, printed it and made a poster which said something like ‘Steve Stone is already working under Rich Silverstein.’ Pretty lame,” he laughs. But that inspired idea, combined with his portfolio, got him hired at Goodby, Berlin & Silverstein as their 16th employee.

“I worked there for three years, then went on to New York to work for Ammirati & Puris where I had the chance to work on bigger brands,” he says. “I came back to Goodby a couple of years later, for another three years, before I went out on my own. I had my own thing for a year called The Stone Group – there was no group, just me.”

He then took a CD job at Hal Riney & Partners for a year before a drunken night out changed everything. In October 1995, Stone was on a shoot for Eddie Bauer, “and the client, the account guy and I got drunk on Halloween and went to a party

“People feel most comfortable when they see something they’re used to. But they feel most alive when they’re surprised. And we believe people who feel more alive are more likely to be loyal to a brand and spend more money.”

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the photographer was hosting,” he recalls. When the client suddenly suggested that they start an agency – and said that she’d give them her business, Stone didn’t hesitate. “John Yost, the account guy, called Mark Barden, a planner who worked on Eddie Bauer, and asked him if he was into it,” he says. “And I called Bob Kerstetter, a writer I worked with at my second stint at Goodby, and asked him. They both said, ‘Let’s do it.’ But first we asked ourselves, ‘Does the world need another ad agency?’ No. We believed the world just needed better ideas.”

Black Rocket started in January 1996 with Eddie Bauer as its founding client. “We pitched and won Yahoo! a few weeks later,” adds Stone.

“After four successful years during the dot-com boom, Yahoo! wanted to run our work worldwide, so we needed to team up with an international network.” After meeting some holding companies, they decided to go with Euro RSCG/Havas. “We worked under Havas for a few more years, building the company to about 45 people, until one day Yahoo! switched CEOs and decided to make a

change. A year later my partners decided to move on too, and I had the crazy idea of buying the company back and renaming it Heat. That was 10 years ago and we’re approaching 80 people now – and not stopping anytime soon.”

Heat was forged in November of 2004 and 10 months later Stone brought in John Elder as partner and president. “John was a terrific account guy from Goodby who started the digital department there. We both shared the same optimism in this crazy, ever-changing business.”

Advertising? That’s entertainment!

So what does Stone think of the changes over his 30 years in the industry? “In a way it’s better,” he states. “It’s still all about the work here in SF, but obviously it’s a whole new ball game these days. Gone are the days of crafting type on print ads until the cows come home. Gone are the days of TV being king. But an interesting thing is that the high concept/low budget scrappy stuff that helped put SF on the map for creativity would make for great viral content today. It has come

full circle. It’s still about content and storytelling.

Only now there are many more channels for it.

Entertaining our consumers has never been more relevant and now there are more opportunities to do so. One thing I have noticed and I’ve been talking about for years is a lack of craft in digital. Yes, a lot of it’s disposable but there’s still room for craft.

“There’s never been a better time to be in this business. There are more opportunities than ever.

There are more places than ever to experiment.

I also think advertising is going to become more explicitly entertaining, as brands realise that they can’t just pay for attention any more, they have to earn it from consumers. We’re not in the information age any more – we’re in the entertainment age. Entertainment is driving behaviour. If you look at how people make decisions, entertainment is integrated at every stage of the purchase process. Combine those thoughts and you get brands producing a huge volume of entertaining, relevant content, tailored to virtually every aspect of the consumer’s life.” S

28 US Content 2015 | Susan Hoffman

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“Dan and David understood my craziness and freedom. With them it’s always been an attitude of wanting to do and I love that attitude.”

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to discuss her long tenure at Wieden+Kennedy, what it takes to keep Nike relevant for over three decades, her experiences as a woman in adland – and why the agency almost jettisoned Just Do It as a slogan. She talked to Simon Wakelin

S

began 31 years ago, and in that time she’s seen an endless array of hit campaigns come and go. with Dan Wieden and David Kennedy stretches back even further than her time at W+K. “I first met Dan and David when they hired me to work at the William Cain agency,” she recalls.

She rejoined the pair at Wieden+Kennedy a few years later. “Dan and David understood my craziness and freedom. With them it’s always been an attitude of wanting to do things

director Neal Arthur find creative leaders (Jaime Robinson and David Kolbusz) to replace Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal, dynamo talent that

and equally enjoys time in the agency’s network Amsterdam, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Delhi and she says. “To be successful globally you really have to understand what each city is about.”

56 30 People US Content | ad icon 2015 | Susan Hoffman Arguably the most recognised and successful independent advertising agency in the world, W+K has fostered a desire to be unique right from its inception. After three decades the shop still holds legendary brand Nike – its founding client.

Highly visible, global and influential, Nike’s commercials have garnered worldwide acclaim over the years. There’s the Emmy award-winning The Morning After, an unforgettable spot directed

by Spike Jonze featuring a runner on New Year’s Day 2000 ignoring every dire Y2K prediction that has come to pass on his morning jog; and Move,

mother telling you to clean up your room,” she explains. “But it made sense as an identity because it put in place a broad communication platform where we could talk to almost everybody.

We all have to exercise – young or old, we all need to work out. I think Nike has an understanding of self because its core identity is the audience itself.”

Quizzed on the agency’s approach to branding the swoosh over the years, Hoffman answers that their approach has never changed. “Advertising should be like a magazine,” she says. “You open it up and see ads and editorial.

“We wanted to show the truth and reality of travel and ignore any glorified version of what it’s like.

It’s a provocative ad for Delta because it’s saying the brand knows the reality out there.” an eloquent Emmy winner helmed by Jake Scott that seamlessly edits dozens of athletes moving from one sport to the next.

Few agencies manage to instill a brand with the level of awareness that Nike possesses, told through a lineage of thought-provoking ad campaigns. It began when Nike turned the sneaker industry on its head by introducing the Air Jordan 1 in 1984, a red-and-black colourway that violated NBA uniform policies by being “non-regulation color”.

Jordan – a superbrand himself at the time – was fined $5000 each time he stepped onto the basketball court, a fee paid by Nike while W+K capitalised on commercials that touted the rebellious nature of the brand’s shoes. “Since its early years Nike has always wanted to push out provocative advertising, and in doing so they set the industry standard,” says Hoffman on those early years. “We discovered that Nike was, and is, a living brand with a personality, so we knew it was okay to make mistakes along the way.”

Hoffman references work including the infamous I Am Not A Role Model ad featuring basketball celebrity Charles Barkley. The work sparked great public debate at the time about the obligation of sports figures to set an example.

The commercial played it straight, rolling with the banter of the 6ft 6in offensive-style player who claims: “I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.”

“We should all be prepared to entertain and never be afraid of polarising the audience in the way that spot did,” Hoffman says. “Mistakes are part of the game. It’s down to finding a brand’s truth, then discovering an appropriate way to tell that truth. I think controversy is a good thing for a brand like Nike if it shows that it has an opinion.”

Speaking of opinion, Hoffman reveals that Nike’s ‘Just Do It’ slogan almost didn’t see the light of day. “Some were worried it felt like a

I think W+K’s advertising is the editorial content, ads that make people feel and allow them to learn something. It’s always been about discovering ways to pique people’s interest.”

Hoffman is particularly proud of new work for Delta. On The Road, the most recent instalment in Delta’s Keep Climbing campaign, salutes frequent flyers around the world. Directed by Martin de Thurah through Epoch Films, with voice-over by Donald Sutherland, On The Road features a weary business traveller experiencing the anxieties and travails of international business travel, before arriving back to Delta on his return flight home, sinking back into his seat with a sense of relief.

“You know what? It’s not always fun travelling,” Hoffman insists. “We wanted to show the truth and reality of travel and ignore any glorified version of what it’s like. It’s a provocative ad for Delta because it’s saying the brand knows the reality out there. Clients need to be brave enough to put out intriguing and provocative work like

clothing brand. O Pioneers, a spot featuring the poetry of Walt Whitman, exemplified the campaign’s emotional centre. The spot unleashed a stunning flow of rapid-stream images of people from across America, recalling those distant American pioneers who paved the way for the majority to follow. Go Forth successfully tied denim to the spirit of America, and in doing so won back the brand’s appeal.

The Go Forth campaign created a mythology of the brand’s own past, placing Levi’s at the very heart of the American Dream. “Levi’s had lost their way but we found their core truth which was to be a pioneer,” says Hoffman. “That idea naturally led to the Go Forth work. They were a great client to work with.”

Smart humour has also been an important facet of W+K’s success, recently evidenced in a series of wry spots for Southern Comfort. Beach and Karate from the Whatever’s Comfortable campaign stand out as compelling work, each celebrating the self-affirming attitude of characters that display an attitude of complete comfort with themselves.

Directed by Biscuit’s Tim Godsall, Beach strikes a warmly funny and ironically hip tone.

The spot celebrates the boldness of an oiled-up, beer-bellied chap in Speedos and sunglasses strutting along a beach, somehow wrangling a Southern Comfort along the way. The saga continues in Karate, where a scrawny cowboy type, anachronistically getting some highlights done, impresses the ladies at a local hair salon with his karate moves – perfectly matched to I’m A Fool To Care by Les Paul and Mary Ford.

Hoffman sounds a cautionary note when it comes to the humour in W+K’s campaigns, however. “We try not to do sophomoric humour on the whole and attempt to create comedy that has a little more thinking to it. With Southern Comfort, the humour is very close to being over the top, but there is still a sophistication to the work that makes it very attractive.”

“I will say that advertising is a very hard field. You have to log in the time and pay the price. I have two kids and at times haven’t see them for many months while travelling and working.” this. It can often be very scary for them.”

The challenge inherent in recovering a brand’s identity is ground Hoffman has also covered.

Levi’s springs to mind – an account that W+K oversaw for five successful years, reviving a brand that had been founded in San Francisco over a century before.

W+K immediately hit a homer, creating the immensely popular Go Forth campaign that celebrated America’s pioneering spirit. In doing so W+K tagged Levi’s as an iconic American

Apart from a delicate touch with the funny stuff, what other magic does W+K possess that keeps its success afloat? According to Hoffman it’s about accessing our feelings: “Years ago somebody said that W+K aren’t a great agency because they really don’t have a point of view,” she says. “I thought that was a really interesting comment because it’s about the client’s point of view, not ours. There’s also enough diversity in the work to access all kinds of human emotions.

I think that’s another reason for the success.”

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And what about diversity when it comes to gender at the agency? For Hoffman it’s more about attitude.

“It has never come down to guys and girls per se because you always hire the talent first,” she answers. “I’ve never felt, or was even aware of the lack of women around me when I started out because it felt so normal working alongside Dan and David.

“Now there is more dialogue about the issue,” she continues. “I will say that advertising is a very hard field. You have to log in the time and pay the price. I have two kids and at times haven’t see them for many months while travelling and working. Thankfully I have a partner who wasn’t on the road as much as I was, so it helped a great deal.

You really have to figure out what works for you.”

She’s excited about embarking on a new era in advertising with a need to craft content for multiple channels. An iconic commercial for Nike featuring Ronaldinho hitting the crossbar of a

goal several times without the ball touching the ground became the first YouTube video to reach one million views in 2005.

A smart new Gap campaign helmed by duo Daniels of Prettybird is a recent signifier of opportunities afoot for brands in new and unexplored regions. The 12-part Instagram-based micro-series, Spring Is Weird, stars SNL alum Jenny Slate and actor Paul Dano. Each 15-second episode features the pair, clad in the retailer’s spring fashion line, in a surreal adventure where their real and virtual Instagram lives merge.

“You can be so adventurous on so many fronts today,” Hoffman enthuses. “It’s a new world, and with Gap it’s an opportunity to find new ways of having a conversation. I love the idea of putting a lot of work out there in this fashion.”

If there are any caveats offered by Hoffman, it’s that deadlines and costs become the main inhibitors of successful creative work: “It’s been the same problem since the dawn of advertising,”

“Campaigns need to discuss issues that people care about. You need to sit down and ask yourself what it is that moves people. This is probably the most important element of the game.”

she says. “How do you make it great regardless of the confines of budget and time? We all know that a lot of money doesn’t necessarily make something great. Sure, it helps a bad idea look average, but you also need time to craft things.

The industry needs to be more aware of this.

“I think that everything you put out there today must be, by and large, provocative and creative.

Campaigns need to discuss issues that people care about. You need to sit down and ask yourself what it is that moves people. This is probably the most important element of the game.”

Meanwhile, thought provoking and inspirational work continues to be the heartbeat of the agency, a spirit aptly summed up in Find Your Greatness for Nike. The campaign’s most memorable spot features an overweight kid slowly running toward us, determined to keep going. It’s work that highlights how greatness is not down to some rare DNA strand. It’s something we’re all capable of achieving. S

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favourite kit

MarioN LaNGe freelance producer, New York

favourite kit 1 Vintage dress

7

I bought this in made in Berlin on my last visit to Berlin.

7 Pixel necklace another day. another necklace. this time it’s a pixel necklace. tech? Well, one might say so…

2 Pom-pom necklace It’s actually supposed to be a belt, but I wear it as a necklace. I bought it at salbazaar in Berlin.

8 Hat

3 Old Dutch bike

my friend said the other day that it looks as if I am wearing a gopro, so I guess it could be considered a tech accessory. It does nothing other than look good though (that’s subjective, I know)…

1

It’s heavy, with a full chain cover, partial wheel cover and just three gears.

I need an adaptor to get air in these non-Us-wheels. there is no way one can ride a bike like this fast, which means it’s perfect for new York and the clothes and shoes I am wearing while riding it. I refuse to dress practically, which means I don’t ride in the rain or in winter.

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4 Gucci clogs I picked these up at Jeffrey new York a few years ago and I can’t stop wearing them.

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5

9 MacBook Air and iPhone 5 In regards to real tech accessories, I’ve got a macBook air and an iphone 5, and that’s it. I don’t have a laptop bag – any designer or vintage bag that can host the macBook air, fits in my bike basket and goes with the day’s outfit does the trick.

Fashion Apps and Sites

photographs: verena mIchelItsch, JessIca marak

5 Knitting I love to knit – that’s my kind of tech accessory! I have several projects going on at the same time. there is always a complicated one, and one that travels light and can be taken on the plane and to editing sessions.

6 Camera Yes, it’s a camera necklace, and while it looks homemade, it isn’t. I found it at [gallery/cafe/clothes store] american two shot in soho, new York.

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9

en.colette.fr and 10corsocomo.com colette and 10 corso como are the ultimate concept stores with impeccable selections. openingceremony.us their buyers have incredible taste and seem to have fun: they don’t shy away from difficult pieces. It’s not mainstream fashion – and I like that. wmagazine.com I love W Magazine for the runway show coverage and street style pictures.

34 Content 2015 | NY Overview 62 US Places | NEW YORK

Bold, brash and back Two years ago, some were saying that the city that never sleeps appeared to be in a bit of a snooze while LA’s industry romped ahead exploiting new forms and media. But now, by adopting a wiser approach to tech, New York agencies – both Madison Avenue massives and smaller, independent shops – are once again leading creative innovation

“I’

ve lived and worked in Europe,” says DDB New York’s recently installed chief creative officer, Icaro Doria. “I’ve lived and worked in South America. I’ve lived and worked on the West Coast of America. But there is this thing about New York where, at times, it makes no sense to be here; it’s too hot, or too cold, or too small, or too expensive.

But there is also this feeling that you get addicted to when you live here. A feeling that everywhere else is just less important.”

And you can understand his point. New York lives in the world’s consciousness as one of the greatest cities on Earth. It has a number of iconic nicknames (none of which you should use, according to Tony Granger on page 81) and its

1

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architecture and skyline is probably the most recognisable of any city. But, from a creative advertising point of view, is New York living on past glories? When shots last did a New York special, in 2013, there was much talk of the competition it faced from its West Coast rival, Los Angeles. LA’s creative output was, many said, more forward-thinking and in tune with the needs of today’s consumers than New York’s. The desire for longer-form, story-led content, people said, perfectly played to LA’s Hollywood-focussed, storytelling strengths.

One bad tweet and you’re twatted Two years on though and the general consensus is that New York has got its mojo back – if it ever really lost it. “It feels like there is a lot of [good] New York work coming through these days, in the way that there used to be a lot of stuff from LA,” says Y&R New York’s chief creative officer, Leslie Sims. “And I think we’re seeing more interesting work too. I say interesting, because it’s not just one thing; it’s not just comedy, it’s not just emotive, it’s not just digital, it’s multi-dimensional work coming out of big agencies, and that’s fantastic to see.”

Another consensus from our last visit to New York was that the city’s agencies, and to some degree clients, had not navigated the broad world of technology very well. They were too eager to jump on every platform and the old adage, ‘just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’, was roundly ignored. Now though a more, if not cautious, maybe thoughtful approach holds sway.

“I think,” says Saatchi & Saatchi New York’s chief creative officer, Jay Benjamin, “we now understand those social media channels. And that’s what they are: channels. They’re media vehicles, not an idea in and of themselves.” However, says Benjamin, that’s not to say that agencies shouldn’t experiment. New technology, such as virtual

1/2 Wieden + Kennedy New York’s posters for the CooperHewitt Design Museum

reality, is coming to the fore and agencies need to be able to see how they can use new opportunities to their advantage. “With something like virtual reality,” says Benjamin, “you want to be able to play with it but not necessarily on a live project because you need to figure things out before you jump straight into them. Look at how some athletes use Twitter for example, it’s laden with mistakes. I’d like to make those mistakes on our own time so that when we’re doing work for our clients, it’s brilliant.”

Technology, believes Jacqueline Bosnjak, partner at music and sound design company Q Department, is what’s fuelling New York’s creative resurgence. “It [creativity] is out of this world,” she says, “and Oculus Rift’s virtual reality and the ‘cinematic reality’ of Magic Leap [Googlebacked augmented reality start-up] are directly responsible.” But as exciting as new gizmos like Oculus and similar inventions are, the advance of that technology can also cause a problem for the advertising industry with many creatives eschewing the advertising arena for the world of Big Tech. Facebook, Google and other similar businesses are exciting and attractive opportunities for young creative talent. Those businesses are often at the more experimental end of the spectrum, willing to put faith in new ideas and explore different avenues of creativity which is appealing to this generation of maker-doer creatives. And while that’s not a concern specific to New York, it’s one that agency leaders in the city know they must face. Y&R’s Sims is well aware of the problem and believes it’s down to her and her contemporaries to confront it and that starts with building trust with their brands. “We want to make sure we’re doing something that’s actually going to progress [a brand’s] interests,” she states.

“We have to ask ourselves how we pull ourselves out of taking eight months to curate a TV

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commercial. Those things need to be made, but we also need to do other stuff in a way that we feel really confident and the only way of doing that is to try some things out and build trust.”

One of the problems with implementing that, though, is also one of the positives of New York: its scale. Everything in the city is big, including the brands that reside there. “New York is probably, pound for pound, more dense with those [big] sort of clients,” continues Sims. “And they are fantastic clients, but they have a lot at stake.

Globally, a lot at stake. So when you’re talking about brands that are in almost every household in America, the opportunity for epic fail is immense. It just takes one bad tweet… so that sort of explains why it’s not their fault [for being cautious], but the biggest danger is not to move with this new methodology of being out there and doing stuff, and not being paralysed by fear.”

Reinventing the new Experimentation and innovation are, agrees Ed Brojerdi, chief executive officer of KBS+, the lifeblood of New York and something it is at the forefront of, despite the potential pitfalls. And that, in turn, encourages new talent to the sector.

“What New York always seems to have,” he says, “is an edge on the invention of the new; new capabilities, new concepts. And that’s how the city drives the landscape forward a little bit. Silicon Valley has tech innovation and I think New York has creative innovation. And I think progressive

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“What New York always seems to have is an edge on the invention of the new; new capabilities, new concepts. And that’s how the city drives the landscape forward a little bit. ” agencies are providing career paths for those that have inventive, creative skills that don’t naturally apply to other industries.”

Currently, there’s no shortage of creative ideas and execution emanating from New York. Work for brands as diverse as Beats by Dr Dre, Dell, Newcastle Brown Ale, AT&T, DirecTV, Johnnie Walker and GE has pushed the creative envelope and, interestingly, that work has also come from a diverse range of agencies. “It’s been evolving for the past few years, maybe most notably since the turn of the decade” explains David Kolbusz, Wieden+Kennedy New York’s executive creative director, whose agency is behind recent work for Delta Airlines, Gap and the brilliant CooperHewitt Design Museum posters. “Smaller shops have grown up and risen to prominence, becoming as defining a voice for the New York landscape as the larger, heritage-rich Madison Avenue shops. For ages this market’s voice was defined by your BBDOs, JWTs and TBWAs but now, when people think of New York, it’s as much about us, Droga5, Mother or BFG9000. Big and small, old and new now coexist peacefully.”

So, while there are some issues and dilemmas to address, as there are in all industries in all cities, it seems as though the perceived malaise of New York’s ad scene of two years ago is long gone and that the city now is focussed on what it’s doing, rather than what is being done by those around it. “We can be a bit of a ‘grass is greener’ industry,” states Droga5’s chief creative officer, Ted Royer. “We often think everybody else is wonderful. But New Yorkers don’t talk about what it’s like in other places as much. I adore Sydney but a lot of Australian creatives think about moving somewhere else and I’ve noticed a lot of people in London talk about coming to New York, but New York creatives, maybe because we have our heads so tightly to the grindstone, or because there’s so much shit going on here all the time, think less about going somewhere else.”

“New York is never going to give you a hug and whisper sweet nothings into your ear,” concludes Michael Feder, managing director of production company Hornet, “but if you take full advantage of what it offers, it can be an inspiring place in a way that’s infectious.” S

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36 Content 2015 | M ss ng p eces 76 US Places | NEW YORK

Virtual reality will fill the gaps Finding its offices in darkest Brooklyn may be a journey into the unknown for New York’s finest cabbies, but once there you’ll find ‘production and entertainment company’ m ss ng p eces is enjoying blazing trails into the future of platformneutral storytelling and exploring a model of curiosity and change

PHOTOGRAPH: BLAINE DAVIS

“H

ow do you go?”

“Pardon me?”

“How do you go?”

“I’m sorry, but that sentence seems to make no real sense.”

“How do you get there?”

Ah, yes, of course, the motto of all New York taxi drivers. Seemingly not knowing the whereabouts of Brooklyn is, admittedly, a high water mark in cab-driving ineffectiveness but, map in hand and a few casual stops to ask passers-by for directions, and I’m only 30 minutes late meeting the team at Brooklyn-based (It’s just there! Over the water, to the east. You can see it!) production and entertainment company m ss ng p eces (the gaps are theirs).

If New York’s yellow taxis are an example of an institution which is ill-prepared and directionless, m ss ng p eces exists in stark contrast. It was set up in 2005 at the advent of the online video boom,

by Ari Kuschnir (and a former business partner), who saw the potential of platforms like YouTube and technology such as the then-new iPod with video capability.

Though Kuschnir attended film school in his youth, he says he never felt like a traditional producer or a director, but when the idea to concentrate on short form and branded content hit, he remembers “very clearly selling my car in Miami to buy a laptop and camera. We were like, ‘OK, this is going to be the thing.’”

The company’s first real project put them firmly on the map. Cool Hunting, an online magazine covering design, technology, art and culture, had also seen the potential for online video and joined up with m ss ng p eces to create a weekly show, Cool Hunting Video, in 2006, which was a huge success with audiences.

That led to conference trailblazers TED asking the company to document what it was like to be

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part of the TED community, giving m ss ng p eces access to some amazing people. “That’s sort of where this idea of making meaningful stuff came from,” says Kuschnir. “It was like, we’ve got to do something with this. It’s really something and we’d better use it for good to propel things. It gave us a sense of the futuregazing thing that’s always been in the company, the wanting to be a little bit ahead.”

Despite the huge amount of content the company produced almost from the get-go, m ss ng p eces was, for around five years from inception, still only two people. It worked with a number of directors on a regular basis, including Josh Nussbaum, but in a freelance capacity.

Nussbaum became a partner in the company in 2011, along with executive producer (formerly of Ogilvy) Kate Oppenheim.

What do you do again?

Why did it take so long for more people to join the company? “By 2010 it was clear that we had to figure out who we were,” explains Kuschnir.

“We were so ahead that you couldn’t pinpoint us and that can backfire. I remember coming out of a meeting or two feeling like people didn’t know what we did. If you step into a meeting and people ask, ‘What do you again?’ then you’ve fucked up.

And so [bringing Kate and Josh in] sort of de-mystified parts of our process.”

“Between 2005 and 2010 there still wasn’t an established way of working when it came to content,” says Oppenheim. “As a very young company, and a very small company, we weren’t necessarily prepared to put a stake in the ground and say, ‘This is how the business model is going to work.’ But between 2010 and 2012 it started to become really clear that the way that agencies in particular were going to want to make content was not dissimilar to the way they were making

“VR is going to grow and mature, and it’s really exciting to see what those opportunities will be. I think that everything [with VR] is wrapped up to the point where change is now going to happen a lot quicker and technologicallybased storytelling will open up.”

1 From left: Ari Kuschnir, executive producer/founder; Josh Nussbaum, director/ partner; Brian Latt, executive producer/partner; and Kate Oppenheim, executive producer/partner

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commercials.” The company now has 12 full-time employees in New York and has recently opened an office in LA, headed by former Tool of North America MD, Brian Latt.

Like their early work for Cool Hunting and TED, much of m ss ng p eces’ work has broken new ground. Last year they helped create the first global campaign for Starbucks, which encompassed the not insignificant task of producing a TV spot, an interactive film and eight short documentaries shot in 59 different stores in 28 countries using 39 local filmmakers and 10 local photographers.

Explorers of curiosity and change The Red Bull Music Academy project in 2013 gave the company the task of creating and releasing content every day for 30 days, including lectures, concert recordings, animations and behind the scenes footage.

Then last year saw the release of their interactive film for Pepsi, Now is What You Make It, which allowed viewers to change the direction of the story through a simple mouse click.

The eclectic nature of m ss ng p eces’ output means they cannot be pigeon-holed. The company’s site defines them as ‘a production and entertainment company inspired by storytelling, technology and the limitless potential of the web’ and it’s that potential that excited Brian Latt when he joined the team. “There are a whole bunch of very successful [traditional] production companies,” says Latt. “They have something that works for them, they have a steady flow and run a steady ship, but what’s the drive for them to move and change? m ss ng p eces started with that model of change and curiosity and we want to use that to tell great stories, regardless of the platform.”

One of the platforms to which Kuschnir and his team are applying their storytelling skill is virtual

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reality. Last year they worked on the hugely successful Dos Equis VR campaign with Havas Worldwide, called Masquerade, which featured the brand’s character, The Most Interesting Man, as he held a fancy masquerade party at which the viewer is a guest. The live-action film allows the viewer – or should that be participant? – to interact with other guests, choosing various paths through the story which impact on the final outcome. As Kuschnir correctly predicted the huge impact of online video ten years ago, does he see VR as the next step in video’s evolution?

“You know, 3D was the thing for a while and [that technology] comes in and out in waves,” says Kuschnir, “[but] at the end of the day the storytelling doesn’t change whether it’s 3D or not.

When you’re getting into VR the story is entirely different and that’s the wonderful challenge, that suddenly you’re tasked with creating a story that’s a full 360-degrees, with no edit points, and where you’re a participant in that story. It’s so exciting from a creative, writing and directing standpoint.”

“VR is going to grow and mature,” adds Nussbaum, “and it’s really exciting to see what those opportunities will be, but I think that everything [with VR] is wrapped up to the point where change is going to happen a lot more quickly and technologically-based storytelling will open up. [We have] a wonderful range of opportunities where we’re explorers in this model of curiosity and change. And it’s not only discovering how we tell a story in VR, but how we do that in a 60- or 30-second commercial that’s super-fresh and hasn’t been done before.”

Bigger, better and more exciting Exploring what hasn’t been done before seems to be one of m ss ng p eces’ fortes. Kuschnir started the company on the basis of exploring the potential of online video and that ethos of

“And it’s not only discovering how we tell a story in VR, but how we do that in a 60or 30-second commercial that’s super-fresh and hasn’t been done before.”

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exploration and discovery is still at the heart of the company. Whether it’s using new technology or simply looking at new ways of working, he and his team are constantly pushing boundaries and are excited about the direction in which the company is headed.

“We’re attracting incredible talent,” concludes Kuschnir. “Some amazing directors – and the very definition of ‘director’ is expanding as we speak – and we have some announcements about directors, and beyond-directors, to come. Plus we’re venturing more into original content, and solidifying our relationships with agencies and clients. We just want to do bigger, better and more exciting stuff.” S

22/05/2015 13:50

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Going native: New York

There are unwritten rules about New York, e.g. never look a native in the eye or walk on the left. Tony Granger, global CCO, Y&R, shares the decrees and delights of the place you mustn’t call New York What is the best thing about working in advertising in New York?

The scale. This city is one of the only places on earth where agencies can pitch for US$10, 15, 20m-plus in revenue.

And the worst thing?

The scale. There’s a lot at stake. Clients spend a lot so they tend to be cautious (rightfully so).

What advice would you give to a visitor?

Firstly, don’t call it NYC, the Big Apple, Manhattan or New York. It’s ‘The City’.

The best way of getting around is by subway. It’s easy; it runs uptown (north) or downtown (south). None of that crazy, spider-web underground that confused the hell out of me in London.

Wait until the train has stopped at your stop before you get up, and let the passengers off the before you enter. Never make eye contact – it creeps us out.

Walk to the right on sidewalks and stairs.

Tourists look up and amble

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down the street. We look down, so please stand to the right. We’re in a hurry.

Don’t expect us to walk around you when you’re taking a shot of your buddy on Wall Street. We’ll walk straight through your shot.

Please don’t ride the horse carriages in Times Square. We think they are cruel and you’ll get shouted at. Walk, it’s good for you.

You may think we’re rude. We’re not. If you’re lost, we’ll help you find your way, it’s our pleasure. If you’re struggling up the subway stairs with some heavy luggage, we’ll help you, no need to ask, and if the door is closing on you as you rush into a train, we’ll hold it open for you.

Who do you/would you love to work with in the industry?

John Hunt for his magic.

Lee Clow for his cool, LA surfer thing. Bob Isherwood for his drive. Eric Vervoegen for his craft. Kerry Keenan for her fighting spirit. Menno Kluin for his ambition. I could go on and on and on.

What is the best US ad you have seen in the last year?

The Game Before the Game for Beats by Dre. Great insight and great production. From ‘digital’ (isn’t that word so old school?) agency R/GA.

If you’re booking a hotel in New York, where would you stay?

Different strokes… If you like to party and are a bit of an exhibitionist, The Standard, High Line in the Meatpacking District is the place for you. Floor to ceiling windows gives everyone views of your room. If you’re a little shy don’t forget to close the blinds. If you like classic, old school luxury, The Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue: an iconic Upper East Side hotel. Be prepared to dig into your wallet. And, for the hipster crowd, Wythe Hotel.

Ok, so it’s in Brooklyn and not technically in ‘The City’, but it’s on the East River with crazy-good views.

One table, four places.

You and who?

My dad, I’d love to have one more conversation with him.

Nelson Mandela, I’d ask him a million questions. John Lennon, I’d ask him how such a young songwriter had so much knowledge.

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What do you miss when you are out of the city?

My family.

If it were a product, what would New York be?

An adrenalin shot.

What’s your one-line life philosophy?

To infinity and beyond (thanks, Buzz Lightyear).

What’s New York’s favourite pastime?

Lying in Central Park in the summer. It’s our beach.

If you could have one question answered, what would it be?

What are the Powerball numbers for a US$400 million jackpot win next week? S

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Where’s the best place to eat in New York?

I love Da Claudio in the financial district. His place was taken out by Hurricane Sandy and re-opened six months ago. Best Italian food in the city. Period.

The best place to drink?

The newly restored Pier A Harbour Bar in Battery Park. The perfect place to drink a Belvedere martini while watching the sun set over the Statue of Liberty.

What’s your favourite memory of New York?

My first trip here for a shoot. I stayed at the Plaza and was driven around in a black stretch. I thought, ‘I could get used to this’.

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1 Nelson Mandela 2 Sunbathing in Central Park 3 Subway travelling 4 Belvedere martini at Pier A 5 John Lennon 6 Always walk to the right 7 Pier A restored waterfront

“Firstly, don’t call it NYC, the Big Apple, Manhattan or New York... It’s ‘The City’.”

22/05/2015 13:47

96 40 US Cannes Content Special 2015 | C|anneS David Lubars lionS branded Content & entertainment preSident

Seems these days our language adopts new words and phrases faster than you can ROFL, or look up ‘askhole’.

Finding himself in a lexical loop-theloop about the actual meaning of the term ‘branded content’, Danny Edwards asked David Lubars, president of this year’s Cannes Lions Branded Content jury, to share his definition of this most industrydefining erm... thingummy

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hat is branded content? This is both an actual, and rhetorical question because while it seems everyone has an answer, no one really has the answer. Content is a word that is thrown around by pretty much everyone these days. It’s the Holy Grail of contemporary advertising and the elusive thing that every brand would like to successfully create. But the definition of ‘content’ changes depending on who you talk to and can be confusing: “So, what are you working on?”

“A great piece of content for Brand X.” “Fantastic. What is it exactly?”

“It’s actually a music video but you never see the product and only get a ‘sponsored by Brand X’ caption at the end’.”

“Right. Sort of like an ad.” “<silent, hateful look>” It’s tempting to revert to journalistic cliché and quote the dictionary definition of the word ‘content’, but I don’t think we need to. Content is basically everything, and everything with a brand attached is, therefore, branded content. Right?

A 60-second commercial is branded content. A short animated film sponsored by a fast food chain is branded content. A tweet sent from the Academy Awards by Ellen DeGeneres on a Samsung phone is, it seems, branded content.

But then, what do I know? Because according to this year’s president of the Cannes Lions Branded Content and Entertainment jury, chief creative officer of BBDO Worldwide and chairman of BBDO North America, David Lubars, that explanation is not strictly true. “Branded content, to me,” he says, “is where [an idea] couldn’t exist without the product.”

If anyone can fathom the definition of branded content it would be Lubars.

A veteran of Cannes juries (he headed the Titanium jury in 2006, and both the Film and Press juries in 2009), Lubars is no stranger to a darkened room, a set of guidelines and a whole heap of creative ideas, but even he admits that there can be various interpretations of what branded content is. Most importantly, the Lions festival defines the category thus; “The definition of Branded Content and Entertainment… is the creation of, or natural integration into, original content by a brand. Entrants will show how a brand has successfully worked independently or in association with a content producer or publisher to develop and create or co-create entertaining and engaging content for their audience. This could be either by creating original content or programming for a brand or by naturally integrating a brand into existing formats by partnering with a publisher or media partner.”

And who are we to argue? [Though we could. A TV spot is also ‘original content’. Usually, anyway]. “I loved judging all those other categories,”

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“the definition of Branded Content and entertainment… is the creation of, or natural integration into, original content by a brand.”

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“All kinds of video is what a campaign really consists of now; different lengths, different channels. everything’s blurring into entertainment because first of all [people have] got to want to look at it, to send it on, and that’s how it’s going now. to me, this [category] is where the future is.”

explains Lubars of his previous jury stints, “but this is the category for right now. What a campaign is has changed so much. It’s funny because everyone predicted the death of regular television but that’s still going strong. And all kinds of video is what a campaign really consists of now; different lengths, different channels. But everything’s blurring into entertainment because first of all [people have] got to want to look at it, to send it on, and that’s how it’s going now. To me, this [category] is where the future is.”

Modern Family’s quintessentially modern content Lubars states that a piece of work which has caught his eye over the past year is the Daniel Wolfe-directed spot for Honda’s Type R, The Other Side, created

by Wieden+Kennedy London. An interactive film featuring a ‘dark’ and ‘light’ storyline that sit cleverly side-by-side with a press of the ‘R’ key, it has already picked up a slew of advertising awards. A good example of branded content then? “I think a lot of [deciding what is branded content] is just gut instinct,” Lubars says. “But Honda is great content that is highly entertaining, interactive, fun and cool, a great product demo and it’s different [and] it really is entertainment. And I assume they’ll enter it into this category.”

Another, more unusual and possibly purer example of branded content that Lubars admires is a February episode of US comedy show, Modern Family – which ironically was not actually paid for by the brand. The episode in question, Connection Lost, was shot using, and takes place entirely on, Apple products – utilising laptops, iPhones and iPads for the characters to interact with each other. “It’s fantastic,” he states. “I mean, I don’t know if they’ll enter it, and at the start you might immediately roll your eyes because it does feel a bit product placement-ey but it’s so well done you’re just like, ok, I’ll go with it. And it’s really, really funny.” Picking him up on the product placement point, asking whether this is branded content or, indeed, pure product placement, Lubars returns again to the salient point he made before, that to be branded content it needs for the content to only be able to exist because of the brand, and that this is a perfect case in point. “Product placement is when you see a movie or a TV show and they suddenly pull out some branded crackers or something, it’s when a product’s just stuck in there,” he says. “Take our spot for GE with Jeff Goldblum [Enhance Your Lighting]. He actually talks about and shows the product the whole time, talking about lighting and how light works, but the whole thing couldn’t exist without that product and it’s super-entertaining rather than being entertaining and then a product is just randomly dropped in.”

Lubars is perfectly placed to head this particular category, not just because of his experience at leading a jury in general but due to his very early adoption of branded content as a form of advertising. Back in 2001, when he

was at Fallon Minneapolis, Lubars was the driving force behind BMW’s series of films called The Hire. Starring a then relatively unknown Clive Owen, the shorts were directed by luminaries such as Wong Kar-Wai, John Woo, John Frankenheimer and Ang Lee. The car was front and centre but the content was clever, interesting and rich enough that people sought it out. The films were also released on DVD because download and streaming speeds at the turn of the century aren’t quite what they are today, and The Hire heralded a new era of both content-rich and non-TV commercial centric campaigns.

The Hire was hugely successful and was actually a big factor in Cannes Lions introducing the Titanium Lions, to celebrate ideas that defied categorisation and which broke the mould, and Lubars states that it was the limitations of the time which actually helped them in the end. “They were long-form films but at the time there was really no place to put them,” he says.

“You didn’t have YouTube or anything like that so you had to download them over a period of hours. It was actually supposed to be an hour-long film but you’d never have been able [to download it] so we chopped it into six minute [segments] and then thought, why make it continuous? Each one could be it’s own film, and we actually had several directors [lined up] so the idea actually became better because of those limitations.”

As for contemporary branded content campaigns, Lubars believes that it’s now much more difficult to create such financially expensive work as The Hire. Though there’s still a place for big productions, he says, it’s now more about the constant flow of smaller ones. About quantity as well as quality.

Citing the old adage of being able to choose two from ‘cheap, fast and good’, Lubars states that nowadays you need all three and the only way to do that is to create content in-house, as BBDO New York did with its Vine-based Fix in Six campaign for DIY chain Lowe’s.

Conversations about the categorisation of content As for the festival, a discussion with the Cannes hierarchy could be on the cards, he says, over the whole definition of this category. “Maybe they should just call it branded entertainment,” he muses. “I’d get that. But then that’s the good thing about those guys; Phil [Thomas, Cannes Lions CEO] and Terry [Savage, Cannes Lions chairman], they’re happy to have those conversations.” Mostly though, Lubars is once again looking forward to being locked in a room at the tail end of June with a selection of his peers for the best part of a week – “it is a long time to be in a dark room, looking at everybody else on the outside, but it’s always great to be there” – and to examining the best of what the industry has to offer in terms of Branded Content and Entertainment. Even if none of us still quite know exactly what that term means. S

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Bridge architecture, transport hubs, roads and a doughnut to die for are top New York City sights for Jeff Robins, VFX supervisor/senior compositor at The Mill New York 3

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1 On the roof deck of The Mill New York 2 George Washington Bridge Bus Station 3 The Staten Island Ferry’s Whitehall Terminal building 4 Williamsburg Bridge 5 Columbia University Medical Center 6 Road signs at the top of Manhattan

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7 A cable car at the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge 8 A New York City bike lane 9 Walking the dog, Williamsburg Bridge 10 The best doughnut in the city – from Doughnut Plant 11 The view on my bike commute to The Mill

12 Portrait on the Williamsburg Bridge 13 Coliseum, Fort Washington Park 14 Gates to the Riverbank State Park 15 The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, aka 59th St Bridge 16 Watching the traffic jam at John Finley Walk

18/05/2015 11:05

2015 Highlights from the U.S