Adland_ Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet - James P. Othmer [105]
“We used to fill boxes with creative,” said Lubars, whose 2003 short films for BMW, directed by Guy Ritchie, John Woo, and others, are still looked upon as the pioneers and standard-bearers for nontraditional, product-focused, branded entertainment. “TV used to be the sun, and all other mediums were merely satellites around it. It’s still the only place where you can get seventy million eyeballs on an ad, but now if your message is engaging enough, you can get people to voluntarily spend ten, twenty, thirty minutes totally engaged with a brand.”
Soon Lubars’s co–chief creative officer, Bill Bruce, the chief architect of the Mountain Dew brand’s extreme persona, joined us and chose a non-extreme seat in the shade. Because the success of an interactive campaign depends so much, if not completely, on the confluence of creative excellence and the public’s embracing of the idea, I asked them how they could guarantee this to a major client like HBO.
“Trust,” said Lubars. “We’ve been working with HBO for a long time. And track record, which is predicated on the level of talent at a particular company. And more and more, rather than have a client commit all of its money to network upfronts [typically in May, when the major television networks showcase their new schedules to prospective advertisers], we encourage them to put money aside in a skunk-works fund, for when we hit upon something extraordinary like ‘Voyeur.’”
Later I asked Courteney Monroe, HBO’s executive vice president of consumer marketing, if, beyond the advertising bling and the online numbers, she considered the campaign a success. “Absolutely,” she said. “Everybody’s chasing after buzz. The pressure on marketers to break through is enormous. Our brief to BBDO was to create an experience for consumers to engage in a unique way across multiple platforms.”
Of course, HBO is a content provider, and the “Voyeur” campaign was essentially content itself. Monroe would not provide specific campaign or media costs, but because there was no paid network media involved, she said it was “far more cost-effective than a traditional campaign effort.” She also agreed that it helps to have your very own network (part of Time Warner, no less) as a media platform, and that selling entertaining content is easier than selling the benefits of a deodorant stick. But, she said, all marketers will eventually have to find a way to make their brand story more entertaining. “You can’t just put up an 800 number and a call to action anymore. Experiential branding is critical for everyone.”
Storytelling and engagement were clearly the most prevalent themes at the festival. I told Lubars and Bruce that earlier in the day I had heard the legendary commercial director Joe Pytka (who has won a Hank Aaron–esque 110 Cannes Lions as the shooter of everything from Pepsi’s Ray Charles “Uh-Huh!” spot, to “This Is Your Brain on Drugs,” to the Larry Bird and Michael Jordan “Nothing but Net” McDonald’s classic, and whose sailboat was docked within walking distance of the Palais), say, “No focus group in the history of advertising has ever written a good story.”
When asked if they felt as if they were creating a new kind of experiential branding that transcends advertising, if the future of advertising is all about creating moments that shape the collective culture, Lubars shrugged. Bruce sat back and folded his arms across his white T-shirt. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “We just try to come up with great ideas.”
Lubars looked at me as if I should know better. “Shape the culture? I don’t know and I don’t care. Let the academics figure that one out.”
Return on Attention
Time Warner’s Global Media Group
For many of the large pitches and meetings I’d been a part of, when it came time for the media portion of the presentation—when client and agency discussed where, how frequently, and in which media they would run their ads—people had