Influx

It’s clear the real time communication is becoming the thing and the faster this moves the sleepier and sleepier the ad world starts to look.

With each component part of communication development taking so long, what with focus groups, quant testing, pre-prod, production, post production and the like, by the time we have something to say, it’s either a generality or the conversation has moved on.

The speed of the Christian Bale remix and mash-up movement last week was astonishing. High quality, imaginative and hugely viral material was created just hours after TMZ released the audio track.

Christian Bale’s unfortunate antics became common shared currency around the world and proved itself to be the antidote to all the doom and depression in the news. It made people laugh, just at the moment when they most needed to.

While the initial news was crazy enough and warranted sharing, the arrival of the remixers and mash-up artists added more interest and creativity to the story.

Brands in this environment have to create “A Bale” and/or “A Bale Remix”.

What I mean by “A Bale” is not that they suddenly develop an appetite for foul language, but instead create massively powerful ideas that cause ripples around the conversational web. I am not suggesting the Christian Bale news in an example of an amazing idea, but it is an example of breakthrough. Given that brands can’t push the controversial button too far, they must and can only resort to wonderful, brash, imaginative and highly original ideas to get that breakthrough and force people to stand up, take notice and talk.

Alternatively, there’s a “Bale Remix”, where you at light speed latch onto someone else’s idea or conversation and remix it, twist it and change it into something that gets people talking.

For either of these things to happen it’s imperative that brands and their agencies do two things.

1. They become remarkably adept at understanding the cultural conversation in real-time

2. They change their process so they can respond to appropriately to the conversation. This means shrinking the planning process from weeks down to hours.

Many may argue that the best agencies and brands can handle point 1 because they are loaded with insightful individuals who are masters of human emotion and storytelling and that if they get this right, who cares about the real-time conversation?

The reality is that context and the wrapping around those emotions is critical, get it right and you’re a phenom, get it very slightly wrong and no one will notice you or care.

It’s on point 2, agencies are particularly vulnerable with their fixed and lengthy processes. They are dangerously exposed to new entrants who can exploit this. One could easily imagine a media entity like YouTube setting up a creative dept using its best mash-up artists and re-mixers and being retained by clients for viral assignments. Client risk aversion and lawyers might be holding this back for the moment, but that will change.

The demands in this new world are two-fold; light-speed and cultural aptitude.

it might just be time to blow things up.

Posted by Ed Cotton