Jean Lin, Global CEO of digital agency Isobar, believes that creativity in the digital age cannot continue to “follow the screen”. The majority trend in the last 50 years, she says, has been to design ads for a TV /computer /mobile screen but today, communication need not even be an ad, but a solution to a problem. cat.a.lyst interviewed Lin at Goafest 2016 last week, where she said the new role for ad agencies was to solve a challenge. Edited excerpts:
We have heard marketers talk about how data is imperative for them to be convinced of the success of an advertising campaign or strategy. Is some kind of belief also necessary when it comes to doing something new, like a digital campaign?
Data always needs to be an important part of all advertising and marketing processes, even in the past. It is interesting that when it comes to measuring advertising there were ways of measuring invented in the last 50 years, and how that worked is as a proxy of data rather than real data … that there is a higher propensity to be successful if you do things a certain way. Clients are pretty comfortable with this kind of proxy. When it comes to the digital world, they become another person. They want absolute hard facts to support the investment.
Technology has changed our lives. That’s a fundamental fact already. Why are you giving uneven evaluation given to digital in digital vs traditional channels? I think they have to look at it as a whole. We can actually measure a lot more in the digital world.
Why is there so much reluctance then, to invest in digital?
It differs from market to market, but the initial resistance comes from not knowing the effectiveness. In the early days, change in consumer behaviour was not prevailing. It was seen segment by segment, how things change. Take e-commerce as an example. People were suspicious of it two years ago. In China, for instance, the tipping point for e-commerce was the mobile, the use of smartphones, and the reduction in the cost of data. In India, which has a similar history, 4G will be the key factor in reinventing the entire market. It will change how content is consumed. At that point digital will already be dominant and the client will have to rethink how they restructure. They have to start today. Organisations need time to adapt.
How is creativity in the digital age different?
This is not across the board, many creative people have no limits or boundaries, but the majority trend for creative teams in ad agencies in the last 50 years has been to follow the screen, TV, computer, mobile. It’s almost as if the format is decided and people think of the best idea that fits the container. In the digital age, you don’t know what the container is. It needn’t be something you watch, it could be something you feel and experience. That’s the fundamental difference with which you approach creativity and ideas. It could be something where innovation plays a role in making things better. The industry was thinking of the best idea that could be compelling to give awareness and preference. Now it is the best idea that creatively solves the problem. So it doesn’t even have to be an ad. A lot of times, something needs to come before the ad to make things happen.
You still will need ads. Forever. You always need to tell the brand story in a way that has meaningful content and emotion. But the step before that, that’s where digital can contribute the most. Helping to reinvent your product, service, industry, your offering to consumers and customers – that needs to come before the digitalisation of advertising.
Which social network or medium will be the next big thing?
I think it really differs hugely from market to market. Any medium that can be very popular today can be outdated tomorrow. That’s the world we are in. But there are a few principles that will actually shed some light on the future. One is machine learning. There is a massive amount of data coming in. It’s no longer possible for the human brain to analyse and interpret it. How machines can learn to collect data in a different way and therefore come up with recommendations for the segment and simplify it – that will be the thing to fundamentally change the advertising and media industry. Whoever wins in machine learning to come up with meaningful products will be the next winner.
The other thing is how a consumer connects with the brand. Facial recognition and virtual reality (VR) are two key factors that change how consumers can experience the brand. It’s already ready to be scaled. I think Facebook is picking on the right cues, like its acquisition of Oculus. VR will change TV viewing very soon. I think last year, there was this NBA game in the US in a pre-game season that some people watched through VR, and they came away saying they don’t know how they can go back to watching it on screen after having been inside the game! That’s the sort of thing that will put a lot of pressure on the content industry and device to follow up in making sure scalability is possible.
Do you think digital is there to catalyse the activity on traditional media or is it an entirely independent medium?
Digital is a mindset of all mediums. All mediums can be digital. Digital is like the DNA that passes through all human interaction rather than being a silo that stand besides traditional media. A TV station can be digital if it can offer VR programming. Print can be digital if you can scan something in a magazine that takes you to a video. Packaging is so physical but can be digitalised because of all the tools consumers are using. It is dangerous to think of digital as a separate thing.
Where do advertising and marketing go from here?
I truly believe the next evolution is brand commerce. It is when you use technology to bring inspiration and points of transaction ever closer, a seamless experience for the consumer. That’s the only way it will work in the future, rather than separating them as separate disciplines.
How tough is it to convince clients that they have to go digital?
We design digital experiences, not just digital ads. Three years ago, it needed a lot of convincing. Now it’s much easier because consumer behaviour has changed. Witnessing our growth in India – Isobar has gone from 75 people in two years to 200 people – that growth is phenomenal. Although the digital spend is still a small part of advertising clients are thinking of digital and in a much broader way in how they are solving business problems. And that’s why we are now competing more and more with consultancies rather than just ad agencies, in areas of strategic design, experiences … I think it’s really important to see the broader definition of digital payback.
Product and service designs are the first battleground that require investment for reinvention. After that you want to make great ads. These are the two steps that actually change the industry. And it’s very, very exciting.