My two cents on the credit crunch and the role for creative companies

At this year's Olympics, Usain Bolt blew away the competition and became the fastest man on earth. Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympian of all time. Apart from being the quickest in their disciplines, what do these two athletes have in common? They're different, they're extraordinary, Usain Bolt is 6ft 5ins, dwarfing most stocky powerhouse sprinters. Michael Phelps has size 14 feet, his arm span is disproportionately large. In short, they're completely adapted to what they're doing. That's all well and good, but how does this relate to marketing....?

In the wake of the announcement by Martin Sorrell I read yesterday saying that there are planned redundancies for WPP in the UK and US in 2009. It's often been said that in recessions, the more creative advertising ideas get relegated for more solid proven money drivers. But I've been thinking that this time, it's going to be the agencies that are nimble, reactive and quick on their feet and the ones that can prove that they can lead the field in terms of innovation that will succeed.

When massive Comms groups like WPP announce that there are recruitment freezes, that restricts the extent to which the operating companies can manouevre themselves. When client budget belts are tightening and when they need to grab market share with quick, headline grabbing, innovative campaigns, I reckon small, independent agencies are better placed to do this. These are the companies that don't have to abide by recruitment freezes and can make audacious pitches for client business against larger agencies, in the knowledge that those larger agencies may be struggling for resource. With the staff turnover in some large media and creative agencies so high and their lack of ability to hire new people to replace those leaving, surely it won't be long before large clients start to notice a drop in service levels?

Along with this uncertainty comes the possibility that talent, trained in the big agencies, will go with these clients to smaller agencies, looking for more creative roles and higher salaries.

A company like Ideo, while not being a media or ad agency, by being renowned for it's innovation capabilities is gaining media coverage and paper headlines. In the Guardian recently, Mat Hunter, partner at Ideo is quoted as saying that in sluggish times "you have to respond to rapidly changing consumer sentiment and this should prompt rapid innovation". It's this innovation that will make brands stand out and steal a march on their competition.

Brands like Innocent, have taken this to heart, launching new products when traditional thinking would dictate that high end, premium products like theirs would suffer in a recession. It's their guess that people still think good, healthy food is worth paying that bit extra for. So they've launched Veg Pots, find more here - they look pretty tasty!

It's these companies, the Usains and Michaels of their field, that will break records and post their personal bests over the next few years.

A Little Bit of Beijing

Images courtesy of Dan Eckstein.

Dan Eckstein has gone on a photographic journey of China, covering 10,000km in eight weeks and creating a document of China as it is from the high rises of Beijing to the Tibetan Plateau and the Yangzi river. In Beijing, Eckstein visited the 798 space art district, aburgeoning arts district in the northwest of Beijing. For a number of years, Beijing based artists and designers have made this area their home and the work being produced there is at the forefront of Chinese contemporary art. The studios and galleries are housed in old munitions and metals factories which in themselves are quite striking spaces.

Dan's Picture China photoblog can be seen here

The digital building Beijing:

TBWA's Amnesty China Adverts

Omnicom ad agency TBWA has got itself in a bit of hot water pre-Olympics. The agency has been working on two briefs according to the Wall Street Journal. One, for Adidas (see below), shows Chinese sports icons held up by legions of adoring fans. The other, for Amnesty International (see above), shows Chinese athletes being tortured under the strapline "After the Olympic Games, the fight for human rights must go on"



Chinese netizens are all over this story, proposing a boycott of all TBWA ads. The agency has tried to distance itself from the Amnesty ad, claiming that it was the work of a lone creative working on a pro bono account.

TBWA won't be the first foreign company to feel the wrath of the Chinese internet population, an increasingly potent and active community. Earlier this year, Carrefour was boycotted by many Chinese and as the WSJ points out, luxury retailer LVMH dumped Sharon Stone from it's Chinese mainland marketing campaign after she commented that the Sichuan earthquake which killed around 87,000 people and left 5 million homeless might have been karma for China's role in Tibet.

Li Wei - Dangerous

No- they're not photoshopped. Li Wei creates these "performance art photos" using props and extremely strong wires. His photos show him in precarious situations where for the viewer, the only possible outcome is disaster. These situations range from the above, to falling from the sky to having already landed, head first into various objects (cars, the ground, lakes).

His work evokes strong reactions from passers by: "The first reaction is astonishment. Some people think they are full of sense of humour. They are curious about how I did this".

It's this sense of humour, albeit slightly dark, that makes these images so striking. It's something that I mentioned in a previous post and I'm glad I've been able to find an example so quickly to illustrate my point.

Find more of Li Wei's photos here

China's Creative Imperative - Kunal Sinha

"I've learnt from my experience in China to never under-estimate the Chinese. Kunal's insight creates a compelling case that they have what it takes to move beyond the world's factory to become a force in creativity. "
— Colin Giles, President, Nokia China



Burying your head in the sand...
....if you think that China is not going to become a creative force in the future. This follows on from my last post, creativity in China is booming at the moment, especially in the fields of music and illustration/design. It's timely that a Strategy Director at Ogilvy Greater China has just published a book on the subject.

China' s in a unique position to absorb the best of all the creative talent and ideas arriving on it's shores, and to build a strong visual/design community and identity of its own. I think the next ten to twenty years will be a hugely exciting time to be involved with this kind of work in China. As the above image illustrates, the Chinese have a unique sense of humour and it will be this, combined with striking visual imagery which will hopefully provide some very inspiring work.