"Transition of power" -- iMedia Brighton 2011

On June 15, Paul Baverstock, Anil Pillai and I created an opening event for the iMedia conference in Brighton.  Our theme was the transfer of power to people on one hand, and a concentration of power "in the cloud" on the other. Inspiration and outright plagiarism is due to Eben Moglen, Richard Heinberg, and the anonymous creator of "Paradigm Tales" radio podcasts).

We know you all want to talk about creativity and technology, about lead generation, Twitter identity, demand-side platforms, implementing the EU's privacy directive
But we're going to start this morning with what actually matters.
You saw it last Christmas, and this Spring.

The power of thousands of people who had never met one another to bring down Amazon, because they disagreed with Amazon's policy towards Julian Assange.
The power of thousands of people who had never met one another to bring the world's attention to the freedom they wanted, in Tunesia, in Egypt, in Libya. This is what really matters.

Noam Chomsky says there are two superpowers in this world. The second is public opinion.

What is our role as we see the growing power of the public voice? The answer is: it is bigger. And so are the responsibilities.
We are part of "the creative class". We catalyze and inspire the aspirations, the hopes, of people. We have the power to effect society. But we also have responsibilities... They are not just to our clients, our agencies, our people. They are to the people we are trying to inspire.

The beginning of our meeting is a chance to open our minds. To ask ourselves, why are we here? Not just here in Brighton, but here in this industry, this time, this period, with this context.
This screen is a metaphor. What matters NOT is the presenter. What matters is the conversation, the conversation inside your heads, the conversation among us, the hope we create.

We look forward to a good conversation.

The loss of aspiration

So, you know the real reason we are in Brighton at iMedia, don't you?

That's right. The same concerns that keep us up at night.
....change, the speed of that change and the unease that follows from not knowing what comes next.
We live in an age of uncertainty. Our most basic assumptions - the truths by which we live - are being torn apart by the times in which we live. So of course we hold on to those elements of consistency we hold dear - people, places, methodologies and, of course, brands
At their best brands are able to resolve uncertainty. They reconcile paradox, give meaning, hope and create affinity.

Brands are able to provide the guardrails and guidelines that stabilise us when they appeal successfully to our aspirations, to our deeper desires.

When brands become the object of our desire, when they access completely our emotional and cultural core, they become religion, for better, often for worse

Some brands are iconic in this way, pervasive in this way - and everyone here knows the brands we are talking about.

For a generation, marketers, the society we market to and the brands for whom we market have been responding to and motivated by the aspiration of economic and resource growth... because tomorrow was always going to be better than today. We had a better life than our parents, and we were sure our kids were going to have a better life than we did.

Now some of us are not so sure. Old certainties no longer hold.

The kids who work for us -- our kids -- inhabit a no-growth world and will have to get by. These are uncharted waters....we have never had to make our way in a no-growth world. Most of the young people that work for us will struggle to afford to buy a house.

They will carry the burden of funding the interest on our "buy now pay later" approach to resources, this the result of a period of cheap energy.
And in consequence they will experience energy insecurity, climate change and food shortages.
They will be forced to create and lead governments that have taken on the debt of one generation, to be repaid by the next.
We bequeath them an insufficiently planned for future.

We have to ask ourselves, have we robbed them of the ability to aspire?

And if we have, what does this mean for the marketing world? Can marketing succeed in a no growth world? Isn't growth the seed corn of aspiration?

What does marketing do in a no-growth world?... do we fill the role of bread and circuses? Do we entertain ourselves while Rome burns?

Or is there something more? Can we find this together?

The internet was supposed to bring the meaning of people. It was peer to peer...remember?

But somewhere along the line it moved from peer to peer, to client-server... where "the client" is subservient to the server. The server is the master. We consolidated our power, around Google, Facebook, Microsoft.

And as of last Monday, Apple.

Apple has gone from being the insurgent, the young woman hurling the hammer at Big Brother -- to being Big Brother.

In return for providing free services, you could say that the media owners get to spy on people all the time. Analysing our every move, exploiting us. The free cappuchino from "checking in" on Facebook isn't free, is it?

And yet we, in the creative class, see the value in powerful media companies -- to reach people, to help them, to distribute our ideas.

So we have an obligation. We have to help keep the media owners honest, and help them do the right things for the real people for whom we create ideas.

Redemption

(Mr L) We are not here to sell. We're not here to satisfy clients. We're not here to entertain.

(Mr P) All of those things come if we make meaning.And meaning is needed now more than ever.

(Mr B) What makes a difference is an idea about the future. What makes a different is meaning.

(Mr P) The future is a challenge to transform. Our energy and food systems. Our way of life.
(Mr B) This could be the most exciting time to be alive. Mankind is addressing challenges we've not prepared for.
(Mr L) It's our job in the creative class to help keep hope alive.
During the next two days, you will be hearing from inspirational marketers with inspirational opportunities and ideas. Everyone has something to contribute. Don't be shy. Get involved. Make a difference to the conversation.

(The program was interspersed with clips from "Things gonna change" (John Lee Hooker and Carlos Santana), "Wooden Ships" (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), "Little Boxes" (Malvina Reynolds), "Fight for your mind" (Ben Harper), and "Maybe Tomorrow (Stereophonics)

Point of view on New Egypt

Creating a global diaspora for the transition to democracy

Mark Linder (Bell-Pottinger Sans Frontieres)
Dana Eyre(Bell-Pottinger Special Projects)


What on earth could a couple of “old hands” from the private sector in the US and UK possibly contribute to the formation of New Egypt?

One of us is from the world of marketing -- big brands and their competitive relationship with users. The other is from the world of peace-making -- conflicted states and their relationship with citizens.

Between us we see the potential and the threat. New Egypt is a promise. Old Egypt has been partially destroyed, but incumbent forces could put substantial “drag” on the progress forward.

Put this another way -- the spirit of freedom has succeeded in partially disabling the old system, but the challenges are greater than any existing system to solve them. These challenges will require New Egypt to invent new systems to address them. That is the journey you are on.

Our key advice is, involve the whole world in your journey.

Don’t let the west tune out of this great drama. Invite countries, brands (especially), people, to witness, to participate, make contributions, to engage. Solicit sponsorship of your magazine itself! Create involvement. Because it’s going to take the pulling power and creative energies of the world to help New Egypt become a reality. We have listed practical steps at the end of this article.

Remember, man is a small-group animal. We can feel for each other, but we have not developed sufficient capacity for large-scale empathy. Large scale empathy is only possible through the accumulation of small stories that win our emotional attention.

And you have a lot of competition for attention, and not just in the region. There are three other global dramas playing out. Climate change is a source of deep anxiety. The end of cheap oil is limiting growth and accentuating national interest. The world’s finances are a vulnerability, as we see states start to go bankrupt.

New Egypt is at the center of the fourth great drama -- global social realignment.

Social realignment is aided by technology, both the mass media of television and the connectivity of the internet. Most colleagues in our industry would say technology has had an accelerating factor.

What the streets of Cairo show is that a much more fundamental change has taken place, from people who want their voices heard now, who want change now, who are willing to give up personal life now to pursue this kind of change. This is painful, but enormously charismatic and aspirational. You will succeed to the degree that you can maintain the participation of those who are working with you now, and to the degree you can extend, strengthen, and enhance the coalition for change you’re building.

Here’s what we recommend:

1. Recruit brands. Make a list of the world’s top brands that have self-determination as part of their brand character. For example, in the tech space we would identify both Apple and RIM/Blackberry as standing up for the freedom and security of their users. Make your own list. Write to these brands, ask them how they can become involved. Offer them ideas, but listen to their suggestions.
2. Put together a team of 100 “ambassadors”, your most articulate and engaging representatives. Offer sponsorships to enable them to be hosted to tell the story.
3. Make films.... not just for your own people, but for the extended diaspora. Your target audience is “us” -- the part of all of us that is anxious about excessive concentration of power.
4. Get academic “brands” involved. You need premiere brands from the UK and the USA. Approach Stanford University and University of Cambridge looking to build a joint transition culture programme. As mentioned, you are going to invent new systems to deal with new problems. You should have an academic partner to help capture this work and spread the word.
5. Tap into the global leadership and change community. What kind of leadership skills are required for New Egypt to succeed? Who will lead New Egypt? How can you continue to work together, incorporating new allies, with differences, into a common project?
6. Finally, treat New Egypt like a brand. It’s not too early to form a national brand committee. You don’t need to pay for consultants to help. You’ve already got a powerful start – a brand that, in our view, symbolizes energy, positive change, peaceful change, and the importance of the individual. But it’s not about our view: it’s much more about deciding what you want the rest of us to feel about Egypt, living that, and creating engagements like the above to bring this to life.
7. Last, practice radical openness. This process will be imperfect, subject to personality disorder, confusion, ignorance, polarization -- in other words it will be a very human process! Acknowledge the imperfections, acknowledge that this is an invention – a new way of doing – open up the discussion, commit to a way ahead that engages the positive energies of the world.

Dana and I look forward to hearing more, and if there’s a way we can help, we will.

mlinder@bell-pottinger.co.uk
dana@bellpottinger.net

Bell Pottinger Special Projects and Bell Pottinger Sans-Frontières focus on strategic communications for conflict transformation. Their clients are entities, industry sectors, governments and societies.