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)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment