Hasta La Creative!

Well, it’s over; the XXX Olympics have come and gone. Two weeks of non-stop athletic competition led to Sunday’s Closing Ceremony. After watching the Opening Ceremony with its stunning visual and historical festivities, I was not sure what to expect. Would the Queen do another stunt? Would David Beckham fly a helicopter into the stadium with all of the Spice Girls on board? Would Sir Elton John sing with Bono, U2, and Mick Jagger? Would the Olympic flame be disassembled and taken away in a hot air balloon?

Wow; Britain did the Closing Ceremony right. Motor scooters traversing the stadium, singers on Rolls Royce convertibles, dancers gyrating, Eric Idle with angels, Russell Brand and Fat Boy Slim, Super Models strutting their stuff, Annie Lennox singing, and the Spice Girls – all of them. (With Victoria and David Beckham, is this the first husband, Opening Ceremony, and wife, Closing Ceremony, Olympics?) Everywhere you looked there were British flags – the Union Jack in cloth, on uniforms, in electric lights, and in human form. As you watched the Parade of Athletes, each athlete looked happy, having fun, and enjoying his or her moment in the sun. We watched the athletes, and the athletes watched us, and each other.

Back to the Olympic competitions, how did we do? If you consider Team USA and the number of Olympic medals, we did great! Counting total medals or total number of gold medals, we beat China and Russia. Our athletes won many of the big signature events in the most popular sports – soccer, basketball, beach volleyball, swimming, track and field, and gymnastics. There were real standout performances and close competitions that will prove long-lasting memories, like U.S. vs. Canada in women’s soccer, U.S. vs. China in women’s beach volleyball, Michael Phelps’ treasure trove of medal wins, and Gabby Douglas’ smile.

What about the Olympics of Advertising? This is our industry. How did we do?

The media: NBC and its related media properties, as well as its media partners did great. Though it cost a lot to secure the rights and produce this event, there were good ratings across the board; dollars were flowing; programs and channels were promoted; and NBC Sports did itself proud.

The advertisers: They got ratings and viewers, global exposure, positive association, and entertainment opportunities for themselves and their most significant customers and clients. The Olympic sponsors reinforced to the world that by being in the club, they were in a league of their own.

The agencies: The creative and media agencies were able to work on the most global of stages; the budgets expended were substantial; and agencies were able to bond with their most important clients while sharing “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”

The work: As I had said in my earlier article, it is not for me to critique the advertising. Neither the industry nor the public has the same expectation for Olympic advertising as they do for the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the fiercest competition amongst marketers and agencies to determine which agencies and advertisers can create the best advertising, win the top awards, including the USA Today poll, top the online and social media reviews and rankings, and dominate the Monday morning water fountain chatter. Advertisers and agencies see the Olympics as an event that provides substantial business opportunities, and the agencies create and produce work that executes against their clients’ strategies.

Despite the import of this global event, the industry may be missing an opportunity. On this global stage, building excitement and anticipation about not just the sports, the competition and the athletes, but about the advertising, would benefit all concerned – the media, the advertisers, the agencies, and the public. The Olympics as an event is much longer than the Super Bowl. This fundamental difference makes the challenge of creating and producing advertising that is viewed with the same level of reverence and surprise and that stimulates the same amount of anticipation and chatter, that much harder. But these challenges do not mean that we as an industry shouldn’t have lofty goals and expectations.

Here is my challenge for the next summer and winter Olympics. Advertisers and agencies should commit to making the Olympics not just the greatest stage for global athletic competition, but the greatest stage for advertising creativity. Advertisers must recognize that advertising is not a commodity, but an art form, and an agency, like an athlete, must have the necessary support, resources and budgets to compete at the highest level. Agencies must not be satisfied with singles and doubles, they should swing for the fences, and sometimes they will make the crowds roar and other times they will sigh. But this level of effort and these high standards will show the world that competition is at the highest level, and the advertising will be worthy of being associated with the Olympics and the athletes. If this happens, the media, the public, and the athletes will all be pleased. There should not be one Super Bowl; there should be two weeks of Super Bowls. Let’s all work together to make it happen.
Here’s to the next Olympics, and all of the new events and awards – the ones for the advertisers and the agencies.

This Olympics-focused editorial series is written by Ronald Urbach, Chairman of law firm Davis & Gilbert LLP and the co-chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group at the firm.

I don’t know about you, but the last time I played badminton was when I was on summer vacation with my kids. We bought the kit at the local hardware store, set it up on the grass and started playing. As we played, not only did we have fun, we got better. This stimulated me to learn a little more about the game: the little birdie thing that we were hitting was called a shuttlecock, and the game itself had been started by bored British military officers in 18th century India.

What does my summer vacation game have to do with the Olympics, advertisers, and agencies? Well, thanks to the South Korean, Indonesian, and Chinese Olympic badminton teams, I now know that badminton is an Olympic sport and has been since 1992. Eight Olympic badminton players from these countries threw their games – in other words, they intentionally tried to lose. Was this a Black Sox Scandal? No. No one was bribed and no one was betting on the matches hoping to personally profit from their actions. What happened was they wanted to lose so that they would face an easier opponent in the later rounds of the competition. Call it strategic losing. Go to YouTube and watch one of the matches – the entire stadium audience recognized what was happening and boos rained down on the athletes. It was bizarre.

The good news is that honor and sport won out over winning (or losing) at all costs. The athletes were disqualified. The WBF – World Badminton Federation – apologized. All seemed right in the land of shuttlecocks and racquets.

But that is not the only event that strained incredulity. How about the 16-year-old Chinese swimmer, Ye Shiwen, who won a gold medal in the women’s 400 meter individual medley? The Chinese swim team has great competitors so one of their swimmers winning a gold medal is not startling. But in the gold medal race, her final 50-meter swim time was faster than that of Ryan Lochte’s Olympic championship performance in the same event for men.

There are some who say – this can only be another case of doping and drugs. Others tell men to get over it, and ask why are men so smug to think that a woman cannot beat a man in swimming? Well, I do not have an answer other than history shows that there may be some reason to be concerned. There is one fact that is undisputed: there is a controversy.

What do these two seemingly unrelated events have in common? Smiles on Madison Avenue and at 30 Rock. I am not suggesting that advertisers and agencies, or NBC and Comcast, are pleased about competitors violating the rules or alleged cheating. But, there is nothing like a little gossip, a little drama, and a little intrigue. Going in to the Games, the media and the advertising industry’s worst fear was a boring Olympics. Thanks to shuttlecocks and swimming, it looks like the London Games will certainly not be boring.

Yesterday, Comcast and NBC told market analysts that it now appears that with viewership way up, the Olympics will not be a money loser. In other words, Comcast/NBC will either break even or make money. That’s a good thing for NBC all around. It even has a direct benefit on other NBC programming, like the Today Show.
More viewers means advertisers and agencies are happy. All those dollars spent on media and production costs, and all those dollars spent on sponsorships, look like they are going to pay off. CMOs around the world are breathing a sigh of relief.

There is a fine line between titillation and a scandal. No one wants the Games to be overwhelmed by a scandal that drowns out the athletes, the events, the hard work, and the true sport. In fact, we have seen plenty of that and great human interest stories from Michael Phelps to the Fab 5 to Gabby Douglas and many more.

But we live in a world of Entertainment Tonight, TMZ, and reality television. We are unfortunately focused on the next celebrity train wreck more than the important issues of the day. So for the advertising industry and NBC, a little bit of the dark side is not a bad thing; it can get (and apparently has got) the audience pumped. Let’s hope they stay tuned for Week 2.

Ronald Urbach is the Chairman of law firm Davis & Gilbert LLP and the co-chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group at the firm. His clients include numerous multinational, national, and regional advertising agencies, including those agencies that are viewed as being the top creative agencies in the world. Ron can be reached at rurbach@dglaw.com.

This Olympics-focuses editorial series is written by Ronald Urbach, Chairman of law firm Davis & Gilbert LLP and the co-chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group at the firm.

It has begun, the Olympics. Even the name sounds grand. For the athletes, it reflects years of overwhelming personal effort and training focused on a singular goal – to win gold. For each country, it’s time to fly the flag and show pride. For London, it’s the moment where they can show off to the world. For the agencies, advertisers, marketers, media, and the people and businesses that live and work in the ad ecosystem, they see the Olympics from their own unique vantage point.

But for me – a lawyer and head of the preeminent law firm in the advertising industry, and someone who has been living and breathing advertising and marketing his entire professional career, I see things through a very different prism. Over the next two weeks, I am going to give you my thoughts on what I am calling, the Olympics of Advertising.

With nearly 1 billion viewers around the world tuning into the Opening Ceremony, I found myself asking, what would Danny Boyle do? Who would have imagined James Bond and the Queen parachuting in to the stadium; David Beckham speed boating up the Thames; the industrial revolution transforming the stage; Peter Pan, William Shakespeare and JK Rowling speaking; children dancing with doctors and nurses of the British National Health Service; the forging of the first Olympic ring; the welding together of the 5 rings in mid-air; and the forming the Olympic torch from hundreds of small torches. How did Great Britain do? As my friends in London say, “Brilliant!”

Watching the commercials that night, I was educated and entertained. I began to understand why Chevy Runs Deep. I learned how Coca Cola, BP and Citi supported our athletes. I saw Olympic athletes enjoying advertiser’s products, LeBron James and McDonald’s. I listened to the Rolling Stones start it up with Omega, the Official Timekeeper of the Olympics. I was reminded how important mothers are by Kellogg’s. I saw a swimmer swim the Atlantic for AT&T. I learned about Dow, Mini, Pizza Hut, GE, Bounty and HP. The Olympics is not just about the best athletes in the world; it is also about the best marketers in the world. But what lessons can agencies and marketers learn from this truly global media and advertising event? Here is my perspective on what we had just seen.

Broadcast – Does the Olympics prove that broadcast is alive and well? Yes. Do the games show the success of multiple media platforms? Yes. Is the 2012 Olympics maximizing social and digital media? Yes. Each media form will argue that its media is the one that best supports the Olympics, as well as other large tent pole advertising events. To me, it proves the point that the most effective media strategy in not a “one” media approach; it is an “all” media approach that will rue the day.

A Marathon Event – Over 40 million people watched NBC’s Opening Ceremony coverage, making it the most watched opening ceremony ever. Many brands stood out on Friday night, but it is way too early to declare winners. Those brands who have the fortitude and budgets to make a mark will come out on top. The lesson here: advertisers who best exploit the fact that the Olympics is a marathon, and not a sprint, have the best chance to win.

Celebrities – We saw plenty of celebrities and competitors in Olympics advertising, like LeBron James and Luol Deng. But the real question is who will be the break out advertising star of the Games? Will there be another 2008 Michael Phelps? Though it is too early to make a final conclusion, it does not appear that there is any one athlete poised to assume that role.

Women – Is the London Olympics the year of the woman athlete? Team USA has 530 athletes and for the first time, the majority of them are women. Preliminary reports show that American women are likely to win more medals than their male counterparts. The hottest ticket at the Games is women’s beach volleyball. There were women athletes appearing for the first time for certain countries. Advertisers must acknowledge and leverage this reality.

Creativity – What about the creative effort reflected by the advertising during the Opening Ceremony? I learned an important lesson early in my career: never criticize the creative. [Ed. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of that for you, Ron] I respect the talent and the abilities of the women and men who work in this industry. I am constantly amazed at what they do and how they do it. The work, as it should, speaks for itself.

At the end of Opening Night, though I was tired, I was excited about the next two weeks. I could engage in my fantasies – winning the race, defeating my opponent, or having my television commercial make it on the Olympics. Pretty cool, huh?

Ronald Urbach is the Chairman of law firm Davis & Gilbert LLP and the co-chair of the Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice Group at the firm. His clients include numerous multinational, national, and regional advertising agencies, including those agencies that are viewed as being the top creative agencies in the world. Ron can be reached at rurbach@dglaw.com.

It wasn’t that long ago when we were taught the key to successful marketing was focus. Sending a clear message to a well-defined target audience was the only way to build a brand. Today’s marketers know that this is no longer the only way

Last night at Galapagos Art Space in New York, the long-awaited debut of the Cornelius Trunchpole documentary, Art & Corny, premiered.

The Thrity Rooms To Hide In Addition.

John and Tug talk with Master Jedi Luke Sullivan about his new book Thirty Rooms To Hide In, creativity and getting out of advertising. It's a great Sunday afternoon chat with almost no cursing and only minorly bothersome mouth sounds.

Give it a listen won't you?

And stay tuned. 'Coming in August 2011: The American Copywriter Reboot.

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If you are squeamish or faint of heart, you may want to reconsider viewing this nine minute video, Born Free, from M.I.A.
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A skank? A skank? How dare you skankify the lovely Kiki whose only crime was to be born hot.
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Please be original. Pretty please?
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The advertising industry has lost its nuts.