AdAsia 2011: Ideas can be the prism of hope

At AdAsia 2011, Robert Senior, CEO, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Group spoke about how the word 'new' has given way to the word 'now'.

Creativity is about creating ideas. However, this job is no longer limited to a certain set of professionals - rather, it now starts and ends with consumers. The last day of AdAsia 2011 saw Robert Senior, chief executive officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Group talk about how the word 'new' has lost value to the word 'now', and how 'present' is the only reality, because it brings hope, which further generates ideas.

Senior started the session by saying that the world has witnessed a revolution in terms of language, which has changed 'new' to 'now' -- which is the only reality in current times. He said, "Nothing called new launches exist in today's world as the shelf life of a brand from the time it is launched is almost zero - it's only about now. Now is about the time of people power, for example the Arab Spring, Lok Pal, and many more such initiatives where democracy is coming together."

According to him, today, ideas do not only come from a set of professionals - rather the youth is the creative bunch, which is multi-tasking round the clock. The young brigade is creating new content through music, videos and posts. At the same time, they continue transforming the content created. He added, "In today's world, action is the most important part of marketing, as opposed to strategy. For example, Google launched Instant to make things move even faster."

Senior further elaborated, "The 'era of new' was about attention, enforcement, interruption and return-on-investment, and pumping markets with concepts and ideas. The 'era of now' is about participation of consumers in a brand's life, inspiration, interaction between brands and consumers and return on 'involvement' (as this proves how much attention is being paid by a customer to a brand), going global and creating movements - mainly mobilising audiences to get ideas."

Terming the globe as the 'VUCA World', he emphasised that changing consumer behaviour has changed the relationships between brands and them.

Senior explained, "VUCA stands for a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, a world where we were living. However, this situation helped in finding solutions to our problems, which in turn has further helped in creating a vibrant world with endless opportunities. The new world is crazy and astonishing at the same time, and has a prism of hope and optimism."

Lastly, he said that ideas are generated from this very prism of optimism and it is pertinent that the new world does not lose hope.