Joey Ong shares his thoughts on the Spikes Asia 2014 seminar R/GA on Transformation presented Barry Wacksman, EVP, Chief Growth Officer.
Seeing the name RG/A never fails to excite me. In my head I’m thinking Nike Fuel, wearable tech, and innovation. So I woke up quite early on a Wednesday in Spikes, did my planned run around Marina Bay feeling excited to learn what RG/A is up to now. The name of the talk is “Transformation,” and I take each stride with a smile.
I think the way to fully absorb a talk like this is to come in with an open mind, and to be prepared to learn something new, something we are unfamiliar with.
I’ve seen so many minor changes in how we do business: from traditional ATL where TV dictates everything, to activations, and recently digital and social. But what I’m about to share is exactly the type of creativity that excites me all over.
Barry opened his short talk by laying out how much has changed from the usual business model of brands taking consumers on a linear journey, and life stages where brands would somehow dictate what consumers would need.
This was reminiscent of my days when I was handling Personal Care. After introducing one product, we then move the consumer on to a more mature product that fits her age and lifestyle. I guess consumer behavior really affects how brands work. We knew so little then, and to think that was just 10 years ago.
Bottom-up behavior. Now that’s a relevant term to use nowadays, coming from an age when brands dictated to consumers, to consumers demanding so much from brands. This gave rise to a non-linear type of relationship between brands and consumers, but more like an ecosystem where consumers are surrounded by relevant brand offerings. It makes so much sense in this day and age when brands like Apple have already occupied our entirety –from the music device we use, to our mobile phone, to our tablet and computers, and now even wearable devices. Barry gave Apple as an example of a company that had created an ecosystem of brands around what consumers need.
A concept like this entails a solid partnership between the agency and the client to produce innovative products that are an offspring of very good market research, creativity and business. Like the Nike Fuel, a product created by both the agency and the brand, the agency is transformed from merely being an ad agency to a non-traditional model playing three important roles: Consultancy where we involve ourselves in research beyond just a campaign but deep into the business; Product Development that allows us to give inputs in the actual product or brand that the company is creating; and lastly as an Agency. I think once we become part of the first two steps, it becomes inevitable to be the main agency for the brand.
This engagement between agency and brand not only innovates what we do, but transforms our business model to something more entrepreneurial. It also excites people within the agency to be more proactive with the brands they handle. I personally cannot wait for the time to come when we start co-creating products locally. I’ve seen this happen in some instances where an agency would launch products that combine our favorite fried chicken with our favorite brand of chips.
I love what I witnessed during the talk. Somehow it gave me some hope that relationships between agency and client will transform into something more mutual rather than one-way, where products are shoved down our throats.
What RG/A has been doing is really bringing their expertise of knowing the consumers and bringing it up to brand level, coming up with mind blowing products that change peoples lives.
In the short talk, Barry also gave an overview on what they did with RG/A Accelerator. This gave me a hard-on because this is an avenue not so many agencies here have explored: using our expertise, knowledge and talent to kick start small innovations and start ups. I’ve personally been involving myself in local start-up ventures and the fact that a company like RG/A has already ventured into this gives me hope in agency transformations where we will no longer play on the usual digital, ATL and Media platforms.
We are all talking about transformation, evolution, and innovation. Now is the time to man up and accept that advertising life, as we know it, is over.
ABOUT JOEY ONG
Joey Ong is the chief creative officer of Aspac Advertising.
