DDB Chairman Bob Scarpelli and CEO Chuck Brymer

ADVERTISING&MARKETING
talk creativity and the ad business with FinWeek’s
Tony Koenderman in Cannes, June 2009.
Reproduced with permission from Finweek.
TONY KOENDERMAN
global trends

Hit the reset button!

…and start swarming, as ad industry starts over

tonyk@finweek.co.za
Stings
Seeing is believing
SAMSUNG HAS VIRTUALLY
taken ownership of FHM’s
“100 Sexiest Women in the
World” supplement this
year, thanks to smart media
creativity by Starcom. In one
example the agency booked
the inside front cover and
showed a Samsung LED TV
THE ADVERTISING WORLD
has “hit the reset button on every-
thing we do,” says DDB chairman
Bob Scarpelli, using online jar-
gon for the structural shifts taking
place in marketing communica-
tions. “We’ve started afresh on
everything. None of the old cate-
gories apply any more. There’s an
increasing fuzziness of definition.
The way advertising is going we
could end up with a single award
for the best idea.”
But everything is still judged
Global agency
invests in sa
in categories at awards shows
such as Cannes. “So you don’t get
a sense of the totality. Two years
ago TV commercials were seen as
something different from Internet
and mobile. Today, we’re working
at least four screens. We won an
Emmy for a TV commercial only
ever seen on the Internet.”
Scarpelli, the creative head,
and president/CEO Chuck
Brymer, are the force behind DDB
Worldwide, the world’s most suc-
cessful award-winning agency in
recent years. As two of the best
thinkers in world advertising they
make a formidable team. They
talked to Finweek in Cannes.
Under Scarpelli’s creative
leadership, DDB has won almost
every advertising award there
is. In 32 years at DDB he’s cre-
ated some of the world’s most
talked-about and awarded crea-
tive work, including Budweiser’s
“Whassup” campaign.
But consumer motivation has
changed in ways that are difficult

DDB WORLDWIDE has bought a majority stake in DDB South Afri-

with a die-cut screen, so read-
ers saw the model’s body on
the underlying page as if it
were on the screen. The visual
is captioned: “Seeing is believ-
ing” – facing on the reverse
page: “The Samsung LED TV
has revolutionised the way we
look at colour: Experience Real
Life-Like Images.”
At a loose end?
BEEN RETRENCHED, down-
sized or, frankly, sacked? The
AAA School of Advertising will
let former ACA-member staff
attend lectures in Joburg free
of charge. n
ca from the former Jupiter Drawing Room Partners. The SA agency,
a non-equity affiliate of the Omnicom-owned global network, was
named Agency of the Year at the AdReview Awards in April.
Then known as Framptons International, it became a DDB asso-
ciate in 1998. The Jupiter Drawing Room acquired a 53% stake
two years ago but after selling 49% of its own equity to WPP, an
Omnicom rival, it had to sever the link.
Currently managed and part-owned by CEO Glen Lomas and
MD Emmet O’Hanlon, the agency has quadrupled in size over four
years and won a rare Cannes Grand Prix for Energizer last year. Cli-
ents include Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s and Knorr.
The global network, the world’s largest, is also acknowl-
edged as probably the world’s top creative agency over the
last five to 10 years.
Patrick Ehringer, regional Middle East/Africa president,
says the agency will serve as a regional hub. “We’re count-
ing on DDB SA to make its creativity resonate across the con-
tinent under the exceptional leadership of Lomas, O’Hanlon and
CEO Gareth Lessing.”
DDB chairman Bob Scarpelli says the management team had
raised the agency’s creative ranking in less than three years and
“firmly established the agency within our network. It’s now a major
part of DDB Worldwide”. n
PATRICK EHRINGER Counts on quality.

54  FI NWEE K 16 J ULY 2 009


to fathom, says Brymer, who
outlined his “swarm theory” of
consumer activation in a recent
book, The Nature of Marketing.
Thanks to the Internet,
Brymer says, human beings act
like swarms of ants or bees. A
colony of a million will form
complex and efficient super high-
ways, prompted by a mysterious
collective intelligence to flock to
resources or flee from danger.
Humans, who once socialised
in small groups and watched TV
for product information, are
becoming a human swarm linked
by digital social networks, fol-
lowing similar behavioural rules.
Like their insect counterparts,
highly connected human swarms
move with lightning speed and
flock to the same brands. Seeking
best value, they check consumer
ratings online or tap into favour-
ite blogs and social networks,
sharing information with per-
haps 200 people a day. Marketing
will never be the same again.
So no surprise that DDB is
investing heavily in new tech-
nologies. “But integration of
old and new channels is crucial.
Look how important TV was to
achieve reach and impact for the
Obama presidential campaign
and convey the heroic nature of
the product. A two-minute TV
commercial was the campaign
highlight.”
Technology has a long reach,
notes Scarpelli. “The mobile
phone will become the prima-
ry medium of communication
and online access in the emerg-
ing world. In South Africa, as
in India, slow broadband con-
nections stimulate the advance-
ment of mobile technologies. The
world is opening up, borders
coming down. There’s no stop-
ping it.” n
visit our website for daily updates,
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SPONSORSHIP
Cricket, tea
and biscuits
IT WAS AN INSPIRED decision. In the
dark days of apartheid, cricket supremo
Ali Bacher – recognising the need to
develop a love of cricket in South Afri-
ca’s black community – asked Bakers
Biscuits to sponsor “mini cricket” in the
townships. Bakers jumped at the idea,
setting in motion a programme that’s
been enjoyed by 2,5m primary school-
children countrywide for 26 years,
WAYNE PARNELL with a Bakers schoolchild.
spawning such talents as Mark Boucher,
JP Duminy, Makhaya Ntini and Justin
Ontong. “Without it, I would have been
out stealing cars,” says Ntini.
It’s also done an enormous amount
for the Bakers brand, though Snack-
works category director Heather Part-
ner is quick to emphasise it wasn’t
treated as a marketing tool. “It was
never intended as a CSI project,” she
says. “We never quantified it. We don’t
do it to sell more biscuits. It’s part of
our DNA. Our challenge now is how to
make it bigger and better, more current
and now-focused.”
The programme is no longer limited
LEARNING the skill of running between the wickets.
to underprivileged communities but
operates across the socio-economic spec-
trum, from St Stithians to the poorest rural Govern- environment. It’s not run on a competitive basis, so
ment schools. “In many areas it’s the only sport they there’s no winner.
play,” says Partner. “They have nothing else. Bakers “It promotes leadership, sports mastery, cama-
Mini Cricket has become as iconic as our biscuits.” raderie, good health. We don’t apologise for our
However, she agrees there’s a “tremendous feel- products but we promote a healthy balance. We don’t
ing of goodwill towards the brand. Bakers has 97% want them watching TV and stuffing biscuits into
spontaneous awareness, though it doesn’t give us a their mouths.”
logo on a TV screen.” The programme has been copied in England,
The programme has also expanded in other ways. New Zealand and Australia. “It works because it’s
There’s a cricket coach training academy whose 30 000 well structured, with a specific programme, rules and
graduates include current Protea coach Mickey Arthur guidelines and has the continuity of a single sponsor.
and Vincent Barnes. There’s also a schools road show, And we don’t just write cheques – we’re physically
a feeding scheme and a new initiative – Bakers Bis- involved. We provide the kit, scoring mechanisms –
cuits for Charity. everything.
Both boys and girls participate and, says Partner, At a cost of R8m to R10m/year,” says Partner, “it’s
“they just love it. They learn to play cricket in a fun money well spent.” n
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