The theme of brand-building was continued by Jonathan Mildenhall, vice-president of global advertising and creative excellence at Coca-Cola, who used Coke’s ‘Happiness factory’ and Burger King’s ‘King’ as examples of great “brand mythologising”.
Another client, Alexandra Vegas, marketing director for haircare at Procter & Gamble, explained how P&G approached the fragmented communications market and focused on how brands can find a point of difference a “consumer-dominated reality”.
Going green can be good for business, according to Standard Chartered Bank’s head of corporate affairs Cindy Tang. She noted that while “noble” reasons for improving environmental standards are valid, SCB can both generate revenue - from “green” financial products such as carbon credits - and attract and maintain talent through positioning itself as an environmentally conscious company.
Ironically talking at cross-purposes during the session about improving communications between clients and agencies, it became clear that while DHL marketing director Joy Lee questioned the intrinsic value of long-term relationships, agencies and media owners emphasised the importance of the right talent and open communication lines. “What does long-term even mean? If I doesn’t deliver results, I might not even have a job next year,” Lee said, only half in jest.
The agency of the future will be unbundled and silo-free, said Laura Desmond, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, in the closing session. While she argued that the holding company structure was in some ways ideally suited to this future thanks to the synergies between the different companies, she admitted that in order to achieve the necessary levels of creativity, holding companies have to review their incentivisation policies and ease inter-company working.
