Idea = Emotion x Function

For All Ad Agencies Professional of India

I reproduce for you excerpts from a wonderful article by Rei Inamoto is chief creative officer at AKQA on Fast Company’s website on June 2011 named Why Ad Agencies Should Act More Like Tech Startups. This is more like a post face to one of my previous posts but better articulated on advertising fraternity. Here it goes -

• Agencies need to look beyond storytelling and take their cues from software developers "In order for agencies to stay relevant, they must embrace the Culture of Code.” Some said replace “code” with “technical know-how” and another rather defensively tweeted back “code without ideas is just ones and zeros.” To which, someone else responded “Ideas without executions are just dreams.”

• Not only are technological advances making a massive and fundamental impact on how we as human beings live, but also how those of us in this small industry of advertising work. To the point where the world’s biggest advertising festival dropped the word "advertising" from its name this year. This week, thousands of "advertising" professionals converge on the French Riviera to recognize and celebrate the world’s best work and ideas. As the new name now directly claims, it is celebrating the Culture of Creativity. I’m looking for the ideas that rewrite the formula. The work that validates a festival without the word "advertising" in its name.

• Coincidentally, the work that is likely to win big is called "Write the Future." It ironically validated the old way of advertising: come up with the Big Idea, create a great commercial, and a bunch of executions around it. And I say this with the greatest level of respect because the work made me jealous and it’s absolutely brilliant.  At Cannes as well as other award shows, judges debate about "ideas." What’s the Big Idea? What’s the story (i.e. "Write the Future")? How does it come to life? Are the executions great? Etc, etc.

• Ideas in the context of advertising have been about a communication platform to tell stories about a brand. Stories are a useful way of evoking emotions. When consumers have an emotional reaction, they buy into those stories and are more likely to, well, buy your stuff. The problem is that everyone is telling stories nowadays. Even if you have a good story to tell about your brand, chances are that it’ll get lost. That’s where I believe that the very definition of the "idea" needs to evolve. Telling stories is an important aspect of what we do but that alone is not going to get you much. We have to figure out how to enable stories. Put another way: In the 20th century, copywriters had film scripts hidden in their drawers. In this century, creatives should have product ideas ready to go.

• Creativity no longer belongs to those who have the word "creative" in their title. In fact, many of the creative ideas of the past few years have been coming out of non-creative people. Well, they were always creative -- it’s just that "creatives" thought they weren’t.
  

• A recent example of the "idea" that is both emotional and functional is Heineken Star Player: (full disclosure - it’s AKQA’s work).  What’s important is that it wasn’t the regular copywriter + art director duo who came up with the Idea. It was a combination of a Storyteller and a Software Developer who conceived it.

• The big part of this industry is still relegating technology just as an execution, a production task, and not as a strategic point of view. If we take any cues from thee startups of the last decade, leveraging technology in a simple and creative way will get us closer to capturing the hearts and minds of consumers of the 21st century.

• Thus, the next phase in the Evolution of the Idea in this century is: Idea = Emotion x Function.