Tribal Fusion

Friday, 14 July 2006 - Costa Rica

Presentation Summary

A presentation held at Universidad Latina de Costa Rica: Costa Rica is the supernova of Central America. Beauty and brains!! Young and part of the future. The challenge is to get to that future first.

It’s fantastic to be in Costa Rica. My thanks to Jorge Oller and Tribu for inviting me to your beautiful country.

Costa Rica is the supernova of Central America. Beauty and brains!! You are young. You are part of the future. Your challenge is to get to that future first.

Over the last decade life has accelerated. Everything and everyone is coming together.

Technology, competition and choice are reshaping business. Consumers are saying: “You’ve got three seconds to change my life or I’m gone.”

From Information Economy, Knowledge Economy, Interruption Marketing (aka the Mass Market), Permission Marketing, the Experience Economy, the Attention Economy… to the ATTRACTION ECONOMY.

The Attraction Economy

Attraction is about moving from irreplaceable to irresistible.

SEVEN ACTIONS IN ATTRACTION

1: Drip with Emotion

Brands were about rational ideas with emotion clipped on by the ad department.

Now brands look and feel the same. Google “brand” and you get 830 million hits!! You have to go beyond attribute, benefit, performance, function, range. You need emotion through the core.

Emotion rules us. Emotion, intuition, long-term memories and unconscious motivations, they make up as much as 85% of our decision-making process. That leaves just 15% for logic to battle over.

Neurologist Donald Calne makes it simple. “Reason leads to conclusions, emotion leads to action.”

2: Look Beyond Brands

The challenge that has gripped me for the nine years I’ve been CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi is – what comes next? What comes after brands?

We’re on a journey. From products to trademarks, from trademarks to brands. And now from brands to Lovemarks. Lovemarks are the future beyond brands.

• Lovemarks are built on Love and Respect.
• Lovemarks inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason.
• Lovemarks are owned by the people who love them, consumers not companies.
• Lovemarks read ROI as return on involvement.
• Lovemarks can be everything that people care deeply about. Visit www.lovemarks.com for thousands of examples. Flags, shoes, magazines, breakfast cereals and beer.
• Lovemarks transform how to connect with consumers. They aren’t just irreplaceable. They are Irresistible.

The classic beer bottle is Irreplaceable. The original Coke bottle is Irresistible. The classic T-shirt is Irreplaceable. In black – Irresistible. Kung Fu guys are Irreplaceable. Bruce Lee is still Irresistible – 32 years on from his death.

You know a Lovemark immediately:

• Harley / Suzuki
• The iPod / the rest
• Costa Rica / Other destinations

3: Get Above Respect

Is it better to be respected, or loved and respected? No contest. Everyone wants both. Here it is…

The Love / Respect Axis

Low Respect. Low Love. Commodities, utilities, raw materials. No names, no claims. Discounts, price wars, crushing competition.

Low Respect. High Love. Hero today zero tomorrow. Fads and infatuations, promotions and competitions. Paris Hilton. Reality shows and J Lo jeans.

High Respect. Low Love. Brandland. Where the “er” words rule: faster, bigger, brighter, cheaper.

High Respect and High Love. Lovemarks. Hot innovation. Irresistible appeal. Passion to win.

4: Use the Three Secrets

Brands have performance, trust and reputation. Lovemarks add Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy, the most powerful human attractors.

Mystery – Metaphors and dreams. Symbols and stories. The timeless flow of past, present and future. Costa Rica is dripping with mystery. Ancient tribes. Heroes like Juan Santamaria. Fiery volcanoes, emerald forests and sunken treasures. Intel inside and Starbucks beneath. Remember, it is what we don’t know that attracts.

EXAMPLE: Pirate of the Caribbean JOHNNY DEPP has worked hardest at not being a Hollywood movie star. Will Smith, Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise don’t surprise us. Johnny – the anti-Tom Cruise – is never the same. Nobody is sick of Johnny Depp. He is becoming a Lovemark.

When we know everything, there is nothing left to surprise us.

Sensuality – Sight, sound, smell, touch and taste are portals to the emotions. To inspire life long love you need to excite at least four!! Think Apple ipod: beautiful sight, crisp sound, gorgeous touch – and you want to lick it!!! Natural foods, places, people and experiences are opening markets. Consumers want more Pura Vida. Smart companies – like Wal-Mart – are waking up to it. Sensuality is a huge opportunity in retail. Five years ago every retailer was testing price and size formats. Now everyone is testing experience-based design. Up to 80% of purchase decisions and 50% of brand switching occurs in store. If she doesn’t touch it, she won’t want it. In 85% of purchases only the chosen product is handled.

Intimacy is knowing the consumer better than she knows herself. For a tourist paradise, it’s the difference between a one-time and life time visits. Intimacy is the small touch, the perfect gesture. A smile, a look, a laugh, a kiss. Connections that win undying loyalty. Intimacy is commitment, passion, empathy.

5: Join the Family of Screens

The TV screen has got bigger and smaller. TV is not dead. 2.3 billion households have one. Everyone knows how to use one. People love to watch.

TV is becoming part of a bigger faster picture. The screen is stepping out of the living room. Into our offices, cars, stores, streets, hands. Telenovelas on your mobile phone. 24 on your iPod. MTV on your laptop. Giant screens on buildings. Pirates of the Caribbean in the supermarket!

PREDICTION: One model projects that the worldwide market for mobile television will be $27 billion by 2010.

The digital revolution is transforming marketing, entertainment and technology. As people lean forward to work, shop and play, screens are morphing.

TV is becoming more game-like, mobile phones more TV-like, in-store screens more movie-like – even computer screens are likable.

The challenge is to work across the family of screens, connect them, dive into them and bring them to life.

We call this “sisomo”.

6: Sizzle with sisomo

The mass market model we know is broken. What do people want on their screens? How will it be paid for? Most marketers have no idea. They still think in terms of ‘TV’ or ‘Print’ or ‘Outdoor’.

Sight, sound and motion have broken free from the TV.

The energy field now is sight, sound and motion. Saatchi & Saatchi invented sisomo for the “everywhere world” beyond TV – to capture and explode the possibilities

• sisomo is on-demand, on-the-go, ideas on screen – created by an Oscar-winning director or a kid after school.
• sisomo brings technology, marketing and creativity together. It’s where art meets science. This intersection is the future of advertising.
• sisomo puts ideas and potent connections ahead of technology. It brings screens to life in emotional and compelling ways.
• sisomo accelerates Lovemarks. Mystery, sensuality and intimacy pulsing with sight, sound and motion,
• sisomo attracts consumers with engaging, compelling stories. The story is an ancient, mysterious, timeless art.

Marketers are caught up in technology and methodology. An engaging story well told is priceless. sisomo lays fertile ground for brands to innovate and excite consumers.

7: Embrace Inspirational Consumers

Traditional marketers call them Influencers, Brand Converts, Evangelists, Fans. Lovemarks know them as Inspirational Consumers.

• Inspirational Consumers are trendsetters and advocates. When they are with you, you are Irresistible.
• Inspirational Consumers deliver ROI. Return On Involvement, not Return On Investment.
• Inspirational Consumers want a piece of the making, marketing and media action.
• Inspirational Consumers are genuine viral marketers.

FACTS: US teenage numbers online are up 24% in the past four years (Pew). Internet ad spend over the next five years will double globally to $51.6 billion (PwC).

The planet is online. Tourists want an internet connection, coffee and cloud forests – in that order! Professional tools are in the hands of consumers. And they know what to do.

8: Lovemarks make the World a better place for Everyone

Business is the big game – so if you want to change the world, you’re studying the right cause. We improve life with innovation. We create jobs, choices and challenges. We build self-esteem and drive human progress.

The role of business is to make the world a better place. Five years ago this idea seemed radical. Like Love in business. Now consumers expect nothing less.

In the Attraction Economy the challenges to brands are coming in from all directions. It’s all out in the open.

Lovemarks show brands how to meet the higher aspirations of consumers. They reflect that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

While governments blow hot air, kisses and bullets at each other, business can jump shift humanity.

It’s down to us. It’s down to business to improve life.

You must think with your heart and feel with your brain.

Don’t drown yourself in theories, research, algorithms and analysis. Really all you need are the “Is” and “Es”.

“I” for Ideas, Imagination, Intuition, Insight and Inspiration.

“E” for Emotion, Empathy, Energy, Exploration, Enchantment, Edge.

Philosopher Dan Dennett said: the secret of happiness is to find something bigger than yourself and then devote your life to it.

Let’s “Just do it” like Nike – before it’s too late.