HELLO #DIGIWORK THE BRIEF IN
THE POST-DIGITAL AGE Gareth Kay Director of Brand Strategy August 9, 2010

This isn’t really about the
brief or digital... It’s about the long, slow stuff of culture, not the tech du jour It’s about digital as a type of idea, not a channel It’s about ideas and planning, not just briefs All that being said....

1992

All very similar A problem
to be solved by advertising ‘Consumers’ to ‘target’ A message to say at them Reasons to believe Tone of voice Maybe, if lucky, what space you’re filling

New technology

New technology, different culture

“This stuff is as mainstream
as it can be. Google, the iPhone - these move the culture more than The Beatles did in the ’60’s. It’s shaping the human race.” - Andy Hertzfeld

“Nobody comes out of a
movie saying, “that was a really good movie. I really enjoyed it. It was really clear.” - Russell Davies

$77 million $220 million $310
million

Technology has driven dramatic, and
continuous, change More participatory More social and communal (arguably amplifying who human beings are) More fragmented More transparent More playful ‘Always on’ Location increasingly important

So, obviously, the brief remains
the same...

“I’m just surprised that no-one’s
thought of a better idea yet” - Stephen King

This isn’t about the digital
brief. It’s about a better brief for the post-digital world.

It’s not simply about the
brief. It’s about asking having a better map of the world to ask better questions.

It’s what we do, not
what we say, that matters

We’ve only ever noticed peacocks.

Changing our behavior changes how
we think.

We need to be like
bowerbirds.

We now live in age
of ideas that do.

Stop communicating products and start
making communication products. Useful entertaining or memorable, not interruptive, experiences. Create, don’t fill, media space.

Ideas that can be advertised,
not advertising ideas

It’s not what we do;
it’s what people do to what we do that matters

We tend to design finite,
complete products. We’re not very good at designing for gaps.

From a downloading culture to
an uploading culture.

Customers don’t own brands but
they do want to participate. - Charles Vallance

Slippy > sticky.

Generous ideas are better than
big ideas

Have a social mission, not
just a commercial proposition.

Understand what people are interested
in and work back from there.

Idea as bridge

Be media positive

Radiohead went out to where
people are and built experiences there with partnerships like: - iTunes for remixes - aniBoom for an animation contest - Google for 3-D video

“Media is less and less
often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals, and more and often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups.”

Small is the new big

“The bigger a brand gets,
the smaller it should act, because no one likes big.”

“Any idea is dangerous if
it’s a person only idea” A culture full of depth and complexity The rule of 5% requires lots of matches to start a fire Why not when the economics have changed and the cost of failure is near zero?

Roulette isn’t responsible

“The mistake of science is
to pretend everything is a clock when the world is a cloud.” -Jonah Lehrer, referencing the work of Karl Popper

Coherency, not consistency specials eg
language, frappucino eg ‘skinny’ habits formation ‘my sister’ book range and options book barista Provide an culture reading uplifting experience ordering that enriches system akelah and used grounds people’s lives the bee for gardeners in store starbucks sofas and performance company social ambience and art starbucks responsibility salon africa 05 hearmusic fair trade Xm coffee music cd cause burn your own publicity cd in store Source: John Grant, ‘The Brand Innovation Manifesto’

It’s about understanding distributed identity
Google Books Blogspot Youtube Google Google Google Scholar 411 Search Google Docs Organize the world’s information Google and make it Shopping universally accessible and Google useful. labs Chrome Browser Google Maps Google.Org Google sketch Fossil fuel Challenge

High frequency. Low value. Semi-predictable
rewards.

So what does all this
mean for the brief?

Pre-digital Post-digital Interruption Participation Image
manipulation Value creation Saying things at people Doing things for people Intangible value Tangible value Perception Behavior

From saying things at people
to doing things with and for people

From why and what to
what and how.

Better questions What’s the real
problem? Who is this among? How might we best approach solving this? Why might they talk about this idea? How do they get involved? What keeps the conversation going?

There are no great briefs,
only great ads. There are no great briefs, but there are a lot of bad ones. A good brief is probably about as good as a brief gets.

The piece of paper is
less important than the journey.

Communication R&D

In conclusion

It’s less about the brief
and digital; more about how we think about modern communication ideas

From ‘high concept’ to rich,
generous multi-platform ideas

Modern communication ideas are different
They are more about what they do and how they feel, not what they say They come from culture, not commerce, first (it’s about how you can make a positive contribution to culture; be interested in what people are interested in, not yourself) They are participatory and need to be designed with gaps They are always on They are liquid or linked They might not be ‘ads as we know them’ They create, don’t fill, media space; media positive not media neutral

But at their heart, there
is simplicity GET the audience TO do, feel or think something BY the power of an idea

And if all else fails....

#digiworkwinsor

Thank you.
http://www.garethkay.com
@garethk