Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

Not really news to most of us, but don’t y’all love to say “I told you so”: On his recent Ad Age Post Garrick Schmitt goes into the theory that User Experience Professional (and some other smartypants) have been preaching for the last 15 years or so: experiences, not messages are what brands should focus on.

For example, 65% of U.S. consumers report a digital experience changing their perception about a brand (either positively or negatively) and 97% of that group report that the same experience ultimately influenced whether or not they went on to purchase a product from that brand. In a nutshell, experience matters. A lot.

Schmitt mentions Red Bull, Virgin America, Uniqlo and Guinness as great examples of brands that spend their money in creating a qualitative difference in people’s lives that ultimately make a bigger impact than expensive advertising messages.

I can’t help feel like having to say “Duh,” but then again, anyone who so convincingly preaches to marketers is a brother-in-arms to me.

Ultimately, it comes down to creating acts (not ads) that are based on people and their behavior, defining a human purpose for the brand, allows people to participate, and in so doing, makes the brand popular (at Leo, we love alliterations). Being able to plan and create for experiences (functional and emotional ones alike) is the key business to be in.

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In the last Adage, Garfield (the writer, not the cartoon cat) decries and riles against Cannes, it’s relevance and the fact that the best ideas (based on Leo’s Cannes Predictions) have nothing to do with advertising at all.

Yes, the best ideas are those which aren’t really advertising. It’s logical, really, as I would say that it’s generally a good idea to try to have ideas about something people actually care about, and advertising really isn’t one of those things.

Festivals are in a transitional phase because of this, and some are in fact they are reevaluating what it is that is celebration-worthy: ideas that truly make a qualitative difference in people’s lives, big or small. Stuff that ends up as true product or marketing innovation, not mass media messaging everyone is trying to avoid.

Some new forms of festivals already go this way. As far as Cannes (and the other big ones)is concerned, it’s just a question of how fast they can change the image and their definition of which ideas are worth celebrating. It might be harder for Cannes than others as they epitomize the old-school advertising world, regardless of adding new categories and trying to jump on the band wagon.

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