Ideas that do
So it's good that it's in the vernacular, although what makes a good guerrilla idea is not always well understood. The biggest change in the last five years is that the platforms for sharing are way more democratic. And that's the coolest bit. There's almost a voting mechanism bu...
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| Published in: | Creative Review 2011-10, p.46 |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | So it's good that it's in the vernacular, although what makes a good guerrilla idea is not always well understood. The biggest change in the last five years is that the platforms for sharing are way more democratic. And that's the coolest bit. There's almost a voting mechanism built into the way we share content and that I think has actually upped the game in terms of what type of creative and strategic thinking you have to do. The really great ideas in here [the book] are the ones where you can sense that it was not just the core idea that was important, but it was the empathetic understanding of why it could be amplified, why it would be shareable in the mediums that now exist - platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. So you could be, I guess, a bit gimmicky or give something a PR spin five years ago, but now you have to think much more about that whole second layer which is 'where are my first second and third 'halos' of people sharing this and why?' The other thing is that guerrilla ads also made what the agencies were doing look quite interesting - there was almost a vanity aspect to it. It's an easy thing to do, a media buy, but nobody really wants to look at a report saying 'bought a billboard at Oxford Circus'. So the attitude a few years ago was 'let's throw this thing in and even though it's a little gimmicky it may just add some more value to the wider campaign. It may not, but we've got this money left over so let's spend it.' With Saatchi & Saatchi's Dance campaign, T-Mobile took a massive punt, massive bravery from the brand manager. It was filmed and put on air within 48 hours so it was an incredible feat from a production point of view. But what I really love is what happened later on. You know you're creating a guerrilla environment (even if the original ad may not be 'guerrilla' in the true sense of the word) when people start connecting tangentially with the idea in a guerrilla way. So there's a YouTube video of a wedding couple who replicated the dance moves for their first dance. That had nothing to do with us. Then, which was perhaps not in the interests of T-Mobile, a Facebook event was organised that ended up shutting down Liverpool 2 3 Street when about 70,000 people showed up to create a flash mob... What I love is that there's a tangential moment that's insightful about how people want to touch an idea, how they share stuff and that's what's compelling. We don't mind now if it's rough around the edges - because that creates |
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| ISSN: | 0262-1037 2515-4621 |