On 4th September 2015, the IPA gathered Byron Sharp, Russell Davies, Les Binet, Paul Feldwick and more for a day of intense marketing "Unlearning". This presentation condenses each speaker’s main points into a one-slider, then attempts to make sense of the whole thing. I might be naive, but for all the heated debate that happened on the day, I thought everyone was actually in violent agreement (basically, I agree with Les Binet and Jim Carroll, which feels like a pretty good place to be). So here’s what I've taken out of the event: > The debate between people who see brand building as an art, and those who see it as a science, has gone on for years. It’s been exacerbated in the recent years by the parallel rise of Big Data and Behavioural Science, all powered by the digital transformation of certain categories - but it’s not new. > All the evidence points to the fact that it’s actually a mix of both emotional and rational, long-term and short-term, brand building and sales driving strategies that drives the best results. > So, to grow your brand, think about to a) removing barriers to usage or purchase by ensuring your product/ service works very well and is widely available, then b) making your product or service really sticky by creating memorable assets/ features that are distinctive and salient. Voila.

1. REPORTING FROM IPA UNLEARN
SEPTEMBER 2015

3. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

4. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

5. BYRON SHARP
AS…
THE MAN OF
SCIENCE

6. Differentiation in product, values and customer segments doesn’t make for effective
marketing. Penetration trumps loyalty, every time.
The most effective strategy to grow is to increase your customer base through physical and
mental availability.
Invest in memorable, interesting and distinctive brand assets in the long term.
IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

7. WORKS PARTICULARLY
WELL FOR…
LARGE FMCG BRANDS
IN MATURE
CATEGORIES.

8. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

9. CLAIRE VALOTI
AS…
THE
BROADCASTER

10. Facebook’s reach is now similar to that of TV, so forget about “social media” and activating
your fans and treat it as a broadcast channel… With all of the added data-based insight
and potential for personalisation at scale, a digital platform gives you.
IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

11. WORKS PARTICULARLY
WELL FOR…
CLOSING THE SALE
THANKS TO RELEVANCE,
SPEED, RECENCY, AND
MESSAGING
PERSONALISATION.

12. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

13. RUSSELL
DAVIES AS…
THE DIGITAL
REVOLUTIONARY

14. We’re going to see an increasing shift to product and services vs. marketing and
communications as the centre of gravity of big organisations, which means we need to
unlearn persuasion and learn usability – stop trying to persuade people to do things, and
instead make things really really easy to do.
Brands (the fluffy emotional narrative around products and services) will become obsolete
as users increasingly judge you on your usability, so:
- Don’t innovate until you’ve fixed the basics;
- Do the hard work to make things simpler;
- Make things open, it makes them better;
- Think about what other job you might want to do.
IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

15. ALL KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS IN THE WORLD,
EVER, FOLLOW THE SAME STRUCTURE:
1. BOASTING
2. PHILOSOPHICAL MEANDERING
3. ACTUALLY USEFUL BITS

17. WORKS PARTICULARLY
WELL FOR…
ALL BIG SERVICE-
BASED ORGANISATIONS
THAT HAVEN’T BEEN
DISRUPTED BY DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION YET:
BANKS, RETAILERS,
AIRLINES, ETC.

18. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

19. JOHN KEARON
AS…
THE PREACHER

20. Seduction trumps persuasion. System 1 (automatic, reptilian) is much more powerful than
System 2 (considered, active thinking), so it’s always more effective to tap into people’s
emotions than it is to try and convince them rationally.
The 3 Fs of effectiveness according to Brainjuicer:
1. Fame: top of mind awareness, reach and scale (cf. mental availability)
2. Feeling: intensity of emotional engagement
3. Fluency: how recognisable your brand assets are (cf. mental availability again)
IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

21. WORKS PARTICULARLY
WELL IN…
ARGUMENTS WITH BIG
FMCG CLIENTS OVER
THEIR CREATIVE PRE-
TESTING
METHODOLOGIES.

22. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

23. MARK EARLS
AS…
THE
BEHAVIOURALIST

24. Humans are social animals, and we have evolved through history by constantly adapting
and improving on each other’s ideas. “Originality is for people with short
memories” (Grayson Perry), so let’s embrace the copycat within and start using other
people’s ideas to make our own better.
Rules for good copying:
- Copy loosely, not tightly
- Love the errors
- Copy from afar: define your problem as a lens to browse the world for solutions to copy
IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

25. WORKS PARTICULARLY
WELL FOR…
KICKING OFF THE
CREATIVE PROCESS
THROUGH CULTURAL
REFERENCING.

26. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

27. PAUL FELDWICK
AS…
THE WISE MAN

28. There are lots of different competing theories to explain how advertising works, and they’re
all the result of trends and cultural backdrop, rather than science.
The main dialectic opposes salesmanship and seduction. Whilst ‘salesmanship’ (eg. The
rational theory of the USP and the Reason Why) dominated the early history of advertising,
recently ‘seduction’ (eg. The emotional theory of the subconscious-led, System 1 ruling
over System 2) has made a come back.
Other theories are:
- Mere Publicity (Sharp) and the Meaningless Distinctive vs. Meaningful difference
- Communications = Content + Relationship (Be entertaining, clever and interesting)
- Showmanship
IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

29. WORKS PARTICULARLY
WELL FOR…
EVERYTHING.
THINK OF THE DIFFERENT
APPROACHES AS
DIFFERENT RESOURCES
OR WAYS OF THINKING
ABOUT A SPECIFIC
PROBLEM.

30. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

31. LES BINET
AS…
THE
CONCILIATOR

32. There are different ways in which marketing can be effective, and often they are
complimentary.
Emotional campaigns perform better than rational campaigns or those that combine
rational and emotional. The most effective approach to marketing is to combine long and
short term strategies (building the brand/ closing the sale) to a ratio of roughly 60/40.
Creativity is the most important factor to determine budget efficiency, closely followed by
size of media budget.
IF YOU REMEMBER ONE THING…

33. WORKS PARTICULARLY
WELL FOR…
CONVINCING CLIENTS TO
INVEST IN BRAND
BUILDING, EMOTIONAL
WORK OVER OR
ALONGSIDE SHORT TERM,
SALES-DRIVING,
PRODUCT-FOCUSED
ACTIVITY.

34. BYRON SHARP
CLAIRE VALOTI
RUSSELL DAVIES
JOHN KEARON
MARK EARLS
PAUL FELDWICK
LES BINET
WTF

35. to be,
or not
to be

36. BRAND BUILDING
LONGTERM
EMOTION
WANT
ART
HIGH ENGAGEMENT
LUXURY
SELLING
SHORTTERM
FUNCTION
NEED
SCIENCE
LOW ENGAGEMENT
COMMODITY

37. fluffy dull

38. JIM CARROLL
AS…
THE LEGEND

39. COMMON SENSE AND A SENSE OF
HUMOUR ARE THE SAME THING,
MOVING AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS.A
SENSE OF HUMOUR IS JUST COMMON
SENSE, DANCING.”
“
Clive James, Writer and Broadcaster

40. clash
of
titans

41. BUT IN FACT, QUITE A LOT OF CONSENSUS
REMOVE BARRIERS
INCREASE STICKINESS
Ease of access
Distribution
Ease of usage
(Physical availability)
Fame
Meaningless distinctive
Emotional familiarity
(Mental availability)
FOR BEST RESULTS
+

42. SOURCE: Sean McGinnis, IT Specialist, State of New Jersey, OGIS
IN OTHER WORDS, EVERYTHING WE DO BOILS DOWN TO
Useful
Useless
Ugly
Beautiful
AVOID THIS AREA
AVOID THIS AREA
AVOID THIS AREA
AIM HERE