I enjoyed a good chat with Steve King, CEO of Zenith Optimediaon the flight over to Venice. Discussing the future of the media industry perhaps? Not exactly. He let me know about a funky little mobile service called Any Question Answered, where you ask a question and it will text you back with the answer. Seems to have a high rate of success in getting the answers right, though at €1.40 a go, it should do!
Steve gave us a wonderful quote at the Venice Festival of Media.
Marketing is no longer the chassis of the car, it is now the sunroof. Lovely one Steve. However, not sure whether many boardrooms would agree that marketing has ever been the chassis.
In his speech, Steve warned the industry that a focus on executional creativity would be a dangerous path to tread. Just showing a nice stunt does not hit long term business targets for brands. He is absolutely right.
The Venice Festival of Media is a great opportunity for the media industry to provide a forward thinking alternative to Cannes Lions. Rather than a celebration of mere creative executional excellence, in itself not a bad thing, Venice has the chance to celebrate the media industry's growing contribution to business and marketing planning and success. If the industry runs down the route of celebrating mere tactics, the opportunity to take up the reins of lead agency will pass it by. My fear is that what we often try to pass off as intense insight and the bold Big Idea turns out to be just shiny window dressing.
I saw too few examples of great strategic insight and creative flair at the conference. I saw a fair few stunts and a number of poor case studies that left me numb. I am still trying to work out why Alfonso Rodes Vila, CEO of Havas Media, would show such poor examples of Havas creativity, when clearly the agency delivers some great work for their clients.
Mind you, Steve King did also show the monstrous Toyota Aygo with it's DJ booth (Paul Oakenfold involved no less), so Zenith Optimedia are not immune to a little window dressing too...
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