THINKING LATERALLY
Dino Burbidge
Director of Innovation and Technology , WCRS
“The Look at me campaign won a bunch of awards and I was hooked on the world of Out-of-Home . It ’ s sort of like the internet back in 2000 – anything seems possible if you ’ re smart enough to join the dots .”
Yes , I ’ m one of those creative agency types – only slightly weirder . I grew up around farms , know how to hotwire cars , trained as a designer , love to code , worked with Hollywood movie studios , created kids ’ cartoons , ran digital marketing agencies , founded start-ups , and am now Director of Innovation and Technology at WCRS , one of the UK ’ s top five advertising agencies .
One of the first projects I got my teeth into at WCRS was an interactive Out-of-Home ( OOH ) campaign for Women ’ s Aid , a charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children . It was a good one .
Digital billboards featured an image of a woman who ’ d been beaten and bruised . As long as passers-by ignored her , the image remained the same . But when facial recognition technology detected people looking at the screen , the woman ’ s bruises would fade until she was completely healed .
The Look at me campaign ( p . 124 – 125 ) won a bunch of awards and I was hooked on the world of OOH . It ’ s sort of like the internet back in 2000 – anything seems possible if you ’ re smart enough to join the dots . You want infrared cameras ? Sure . You need a snow machine ? Cool . Special build on the moon ? I ’ ll call the media owner .
In practice , it ’ s not always like that . I ’ d split the OOH world into three buckets : the special builds ; the collars and cuffs ; and the missed opportunities .
The special builds are fun . Excitable creative teams at the agency regularly swing by my desk and ask , “ Is this possible ?” while offering up a series of ever-more bonkers ideas . Unfortunately , many are not physically possible , but they always lead to something better down the line . Charities and arts companies tend to be more adventurous than advertising clients and it ’ s this freedom that makes work for them more likely to win awards .
When it comes to ‘ second bucket ’ work , the creatives don ’ t even bother asking what ’ s possible . The brief is prescriptive ; they ’ re simply expected to make all formats sort of match – like collars and cuffs . Just take the key art or the 10-second TV cut-down and re-jig it until the media plan has a bunch of ticks in the delivery column . It ’ s about as exciting as sitting in a bath of cold baked beans .
Then there are the missed opportunities . You have a pretty groovy media plan but only the basic dimensions are stated in the specifications . Rarely are there the magic details needed to deliver something that plays to the strengths of the format . How were you to know that the digital 6 sheet also had Wi-Fi and a speaker ? So it gets filled with a version of the print 6 sheet but with a snazzy swoosh animation across the logo . If only you knew the secret sauce .
Too often the client , the agency , the media buyer and the media owner are circles in a Venn diagram that never quite overlap . The client briefs the agency and the media buyer separately . The agency comes up with the big idea and a bunch of ways it will work in everything from OOH to social media . Meanwhile , in a room three miles away , the media buyer expertly plans the media and books it based on the media owner ’ s capability to deliver to the media plan . This is then confirmed with the client and sent to the creative agency to deliver the correct formats . The media plan is a surprise to the creative agency whose ideas are based on interactive screens near train stations but have been given a long list of online banner sizes . Lots of unhappy campers .
I ’ ve seen this too many times for it to be an accident ; yet the solution is relatively simple – an old fashioned cliché : communication . Creative agencies , talk to the media buyers and suggest formats that will work with the creative concept . Media owners , talk to creative agencies regularly about what your formats can offer , how to get the most from them , and why you ’ re different from the competition . And media buyers , talk to the agency after the campaign and share the stats . What worked ? What didn ’ t ? And why ? Only then can we make the next one better .
Unrealistic ? Not in my experience . At WCRS we actively make time to nurture genuinely fruitful relationships with media owners . I know their first names . They tell us about exciting new formats . I host innovation sessions . Technology providers pop in for a coffee . We brainstorm with media buyers to identify the exciting , effective formats to focus on . And amazingly , they often get bought . This gives us a competitive advantage .
If you do one thing , have a monthly coffee with your counterpart in that Venn diagram . Swap telephone numbers . Ask , “ Is this possible ?” Share what excites you . Seriously , do it . I dare you .
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