SPIKES: Ogilvy & Mather on 'the big ideal'

Speaking on the increasingly fragmented and busy lifestyles that consumers lead these days, he gave examples of how it is getting increasingly difficult for brands to get on to people’s radar and to get them to notice advertisements. Garbutt listed four growing trends that advetising is moving toward to counter this.

Firstly, brands should be developing “ads that don’t seem like ads anymore” and to make ads that seem more like entertainment. Secondly, he talked about “brands pulling bigger stunts” – creating viral and contagious content that will travel and would generate its own free media and hype.

Thirdly, he stressed that brands are creating “richer deeper stories”, where he advised brands to turn the various channels and media online or offline to their advantage by building more meaningful and engaging productions.

Lastly, he underlines how brands need to develop not just “the big idea”, which he claims almost every creative agency is already using as their mantra.

More importantly, he urged brands to find their “big ideal” - a combination of “what their brands stand for” combined with a “current socio-cultural tension or trend” to address how the brand can “make this world a better place”. This ideal, said Garbutt, would give brands a personality and character to draw on consumers to act.

“Why sell somebody something, when you can get them to buy into something. Iconic brands do this intuitively, Apple, adidas, Coca-Cola, for example. ‘The Big Ideal’ elevates the brand in its category because they have a point-of-view,” concludes Garbutt.

Spikes Asia is organised in conjunction with Haymarket Media.

Follow all the action from Spikes Asia at www.media.asia and on Twitter using hashtag #spikes09.

If you’re at the event, email your photos for inclusion in Media’s online Spikes gallery to [email protected]