On the 25th of March 2015, Creativepool met up with Annette King, CEO at Ogilvy & Mather Group UK, after we all watched the hilarity between comedian Jimmy Carr and Ogilvy & Mather Group's Vice Chairman, Rory Sutherland when they took to the stage at Advertising Week Europe.
The seminar at the ITV-Princess Anne stage, It's The Way You Tell 'Em, touched upon key topics relating Advertising, Comedy and Evolutionary Psychology.
As attention spans get shorter and we are overloaded with content, humour remains a visceral and effective means of communication for brands to make a connection. The very nature of humour – the ability for it to be instantaneous, shareable and hyper-relevant, is perhaps more important than ever. Approximately 50% of adverts use humour, whether it’s an out and out joke or a light-hearted take on life. North America and Europe are more likely to use humour in their adverts than the rest of the world but wherever you go, humour plays an important role in brand communications. If we laugh we feel good, if we feel good, we feel engaged.
Jimmy and Rory used this current theme to debate how there is no universal sense of humour, why global brands lack personality and how agencies must jump through so many hoops to get a comedic advert to market.
"Climbing Mount Silly to get to the top." - Rory Sutherland
We sat down with Annette King, the host of the seminar, to hear her reactions to what was clearly one of the most influential talks of the week.
CP: What was your favourite seminar of the week?
AK: I attended a few of the Brand You events, and the one I enjoyed particularly was on Building Your Own Brand with Katie Price, Sally Eyden, Kathleen Saxton, and Robin Wight. It was interesting to have a look into the methodology behind how Katie Price dissects the two brands that she is. It was how absolutely clear she is about what each of the brands are, what the goal of each separate brand is, and how maniacally she has followed these strategies. The analogy between what we do and what she does was surprisingly refreshing. This is something I think a lot of brands and agencies can learn from.
The panel by Campaign, Adland 2020: Shaping the Future, was also particularly insightful. It featured people from different parts of advertising, and what is charging ahead in the future. They just gave really different perspectives, analogies, agendas and manifestos.
"The creative director is dead because creativity lives throughout the organisation." - Nils Leonard, Grey
And of course Rory and Jimmy - They were able to bring humour, comedy and advertising together, and to life on stage, where they had people roaring with laughter. The very funny and yet very intelligent things they had to say worked better than we could have hoped for. As our first sponsored event, we could not be happier with our contribution to Advertising Week Europe. We will definitely be doing this again.
CP: So with how many global brands there are now, how does humour differ across these different cultures?
AK: It's difficult to bring humour into any campaign that will run across more than one country. Doesn't mean that other cultures don't have a sense of humour, there are definitely a lot of great comedians out there, possibly it is quite hard to appeal to multiple tastes in one campaign/ad that will be both funny and successful. It is a bit of a challenge.
"Definitely going to take Jimmy up on his offer"
Which is why I am definitely going to take Jimmy up on his offer! We use musicians, so why wouldn't we use comedians? Not just for one-liners, but as we approach what we do collaboratively, which was a theme this year, we need to bring all different aspects together, not just for technology. There is definitely a seat for Comedians to take part whether it be from an overall theme, to witty one-liners, or even a sketch that comes off the back. And that is one big action I will definitely take away from this.
CP: It's great to see the events of this week impact the industry on a greater scale. Are there any other ways AWE has brought about change?
AK: The challenges that we face, we do not just face these alone, and its great to see this shared across the industry. We are all trying to overcome 'what does the new agency model look like?', how we plan, create and implement all forms of content, and these are big challenges and opportunities. It is reassuring to see different versions of the same thoughts around what we need to do, yet not sure if anyone has cracked it yet! It's good to get out and being a part of these industry events like IPA and WACL, helps you come back with better insights.
"We are all trying to overcome 'what does the new agency model looks like?'"
CP: What do you think has triggered this trend of collaboration?
AK: The possibilities have exploded! There are so many different things that are now possible and that people have not done yet. There are so many ideas to develop and ways to get them to market. There is no agency in the world that can be an expert in all of them. You can't be an expert because you need to be good at the core motive, which is looking after your brand. We have given up a lot of control over the past few years and this has made us more appealing to clients.
We want to give a big congratulations to Annette for winning one of Cosmopolitan's Female Icons of The Year.
Annette also shared with us the plans to embark on a landmark move for Ogilvy & Mather Group UK, which will bring together its 10 agencies into one integrated environment later this year, at Sea Containers on London’s Southbank - the Capital’s new creative and cultural mile.
Ogilvy & Mather Group UK’s full-line up at Adweek Europe 2015
It's The Way You Tell 'Em
Weds 25th March, 12:00pm, ITV Stage at Princess Anne BAFTA
Featuring Rory Sutherland, Vice Present, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK & Jimmy Carr
Image: Getty Images, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK Twitter
