Best Practices: Going Beyond “Advertising Ideas” in a Digital World

We recently spoke with Brian Cooper, the creative director of UK digital agency Dare. Here’s a snippet from the full interview, in which Cooper chats about Dare’s approach to marketing in a digital age, and the agency’s recent work for Vodafone.

eMarketer: Dare is a key player here in the UK, and has a growing international portfolio. From your vantage point, how would you describe the current UK market?

Brian Cooper: There’s been a big shift away from what I call “advertising ideas.” When media was very limited—very broadcast—you would come up with an idea that would be executed on TV or in press, maybe on radio, and that would be it. Now media are fragmented—there are so many channels and touchpoints with consumers, and ideas need to reach people at all those touchpoints.

One of the things we talk about here is not advertising ideas, but ideas that can be advertised. We ask, “How can we tell people about that idea in any medium?” All media can be used to point in that one direction, which means that you can also use traditional media in a different way.

eMarketer: So the actual idea you work with is very different from what it would have been in the era of traditional media?

Mr. Cooper: Yes. I come from an above-the-line background, so I understand how TV and all of that works. The ideas we create here are much more about engagement and driving participation. If you can get participation, you can build a relationship, and from that you can create advocates for your brand. And those people will tell other people, and they’ll become engaged. You create a virtuous circle, which you can speed up and drive with other advertising channels. You can use any medium to drive that circle—whether it’s online, TV, press, PR or direct mail, for example.

At one US agency, Crispin Porter, they take the view that every idea is interactive. And I believe that is the modern way to think. That’s at the heart of what we do at Dare. Instead of being a digital marketing agency—which is what we were set up to be—we are now a marketing agency for a digital world. We think, “How can we engage with people, get them to participate?” That’s the philosophy we work on.

Traditionally, you would be sent a brief and your job as a creative would be to fill that media gap. That’s been completely turned on its head now. You’re no longer trying to fill media space, you’re trying to create media space with social network sites or PR, for example.
An excellent example was the marketing behind “The Best Job in the World.” Instead of filling the media space, they created it. They took the premise logically through all its possible eventualities, which gave it longevity. And you had lovely virtuous feedback loops that you could capitalize on.

eMarketer: Also, isn’t earned media so much more important now than it used to be?

Mr. Cooper: Yes. Many clients now come to us with their social media agenda. We’ll say to them, “Here’s how the idea will work in those media—your Facebook page, your Twitter page and so on. And this is how it will work in earned media.” We might do a viral link to drive that a little. It will also work in paid media. So we might do a TV commercial or a press ad. But we’re always asking, “How do we drive that whole cycle of engagement?”

There are a lot of agencies and clients that still aren’t coming along with the shift to a digital world. I would have hoped that a recession, when you have to start cutting your budgets and looking hard at your money, would have helped accelerate that process.

Ten or 15 years ago, agencies used to tell the client what the future was and where they should be going. Now clients are telling agencies. Many of those clients have a better understanding of where they need to be than the agencies do. And that’s not very healthy for our industry.

eMarketer: As a marketer in a digital world, what are your views on the convergence of channels, devices and so on?

Mr. Cooper: Everything now converges on digital technology. It’s as simple as that.

In the future, the critical thing will be about coming up with the best idea that uses all the different media available to you, pushing everything together and then letting that fly. The agencies that will run the future, to my mind, will be the agencies that do convergence in that sense.

The full version of this interview is available here, to eMarketer Total Access subscribers only. Every day they have access to new interviews with digital marketing leaders and trendsetting entrepreneurs.

Click here to learn more about how an eMarketer Total Access subscription can help strengthen your business.