What is your definition of good innovation?
Innovation is probably the least expendable part of human nature. It drives humanity forward in quantum leaps. That's no different really for our business or our clients.
You have to define it. We frame it as "Resist the Usual." Then you have to live it. We're creating an agency environment that is open and non-linear, so ideas can come from anywhere and anyone around the world. We've all been at agencies where ideas get squashed because they came from the wrong person. That doesn't happen here.
The fear of failure - it's absolutely paralysing. I always tell people that they have to embrace failure. It's okay to fail because so often there's just a hairline between something brilliant and something that's a disaster. You have to take creative risks. You have to experiment. In the context of innovation, you don't make those quantum leaps if you are just jumping the small puddles.
It's hard to pick favourites, of course. But here are three very different kinds of content that don't fit into any neat boxes. Young & Rubicam New York conceived, created and produced a 12-part documentary series about regional football rivalries for a regional telecoms company that broadcast to 85 million homes.
Our Tel Aviv agency put together a rock band, produced a single, promoted the hell out of it and had a #1 hit that spread across Europe virally. Which was the point - as it was a metaphor for the AIDS virus.
RKCR/Y&R London open-sourced a piece of digital art to promote the V&A Museum's first digital exhibition that encouraged people to recode the digital code, making new art from it, and that was a huge success.
The beauty of each of these is that they are spectacularly suited to the brand and brand challenge. And they are charting new territory.
We've all been living through this huge financial meltdown - who hasn't it touched? We've had to be extremely diligent about our numbers. This isn't a time for wildly profligate spending, but it's been the perfect moment to reinvent. Innovation isn't about throwing money against a problem. It's about thinking about things differently.
You have to think about the target, not the tools. That said, we are living in unbelievably exciting times. We've got so many channels to reach consumers. We talk to our customers in real time. The metrics are precise and incredibly informative.
Every day seems to bring a new technological innovation, but don't assume that print, TV and radio are things of the past. They are completely relevant and powerful and reinvigorated by the other channels. It's all good - you just have to figure out what's right for reaching the right consumer.
Goodby, of course. They are masters of reinvention and always do good work. Wieden is right up there, and Crispin clearly changed the US marketing landscape.
The lesson from them is pretty clear. Even the gold standard agencies need to constantly innovate. The moment you're predictable, you start heading south. Innovation is continuous. It's not what you do today, but what you do tomorrow.
No idea. They haven't been invented yet - and that's the beauty of our business today. The rate of innovation is breathtakingly fast, a wonderful wild ride towards the unknown and exciting. For people who are naturally inquisitive, who have a wide-eyed enthusiasm about possibility, this is a golden era.
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