Let’s face it, EVERY single book on advertising refers to Bernbach and his work at DDB for the Beetle back in errr… 1959! Fact is the “Think Small” ad remains the best advertising campaign ever, certainly the one that marked the beginnings of the Golden Age of Advertising, 50 years ago…. Wait, 50!

I think it’s time to wonder who the new Bernbach is today?  Our industry is going through a revolution and I’m looking for this guy/gal because I’d love to be on board with him! In my search to trace this person down,  I’m looking at the ingredients that made “Think small” THE ad, and what would that mean if we were to reproduce such an impact in 2012.

Here are some of the major innovations this ad offered back then:

• Strategy: instead of the usual USP the angle here is to position the car as SMALL in days where everything was about being BIG. The game plan was to disrupt the category by promoting the new entrant as a completely new way of doing cars.
• Art direction: from painting, handwritten fonts to B&W picture and Futura as well as major innovations in the layout (the car isn’t centered for example).
• Message: the line “think small” combined with the visual assumes that the audience is smart and is part of the message resolution. There is a moment when you get it. The magic happens just here.

I think there is room today to recreate an ad that will change the face of advertising for the next 50 years. In the late 50s, the revolution was mostly contained in the message ; the 2012 revolutionary piece will come by challenging the concept of “media”, hence “ad”, itself.

The Anomaly, Naked, Sid Lee, Frog, WK… One of these might host the next Bernbach, here are some interesting similarities they share:

• The need to disrupt. By being independent. By embracing chaos in the way ideas are born and produced. By being media agnostic, not being attached to a media company as most networked agencies are. By being product agnostic, they don’t necessarily answer with a TV campaign, they are ready to answer without a campaign.
• The focus on GREAT story telling. Inspired from the world of video games and cinema, their ideas are stories. Not a one-line for a spot but stories that are easy to understand, to remember and to share (in any form of media from social to TV and retail).
• The need for change. They know advertising is changing and they want to lead the pack. They are very entrepreneurial and they want to master this change as soon as possible. So they don’t fear doing it, and experiencing new things with conviction. They select clients willing to embrace innovation as well as risk taking.

Who knows where the new Bernbach is… Names to share anyone?

Credits: BretBernhoft @ FlickR

I believe that branded utility is required to move to the next level and to move outside of being just utile. Every brand in a category could potentially bring the same utility to the market as an extension to its product. So the question is how could you express your brand positioning through a new utile experience that aligns with your brand DNA.

This very one thing you create is now also unique – and this might be strong enough to become your very own digital communication platform. Something strong enough to gather the attention of your own community of consumers-users (ie: Burberry – Art of the Trench). It becomes a value added to your brand – a social capital – something that creates a connection above the product itself. (ie iTunes for iPod back in the days).

How does this apply?
Facebook and social media: to turn your facebook fans into a truly engaged group of people, you need to offer them some branded utility platform that has a true meaning to them. As seen in the previous posts, this could be brought by technology through data collection and analysis for example.

In a nutshell:
A brand should insert itself meaningfully into people’s lives by enabling and enriching their existing behaviors, not by requiring new ones. This is the next generation of branded utility something that ties back to a brand DNA instead of being true to a product category.

I’m really happy by reading marketing pioneers like Bogusky or Michael Porter for HBR coming with this notion that capitalism needs to be reinvented. All this inspires me in the concept I’m trying to foster about “connection marketing”.

Behaviors changed fast in the last 10 years and relationships between brands and people have evolved to this point that we all ask ourselves what’s next? Web 2.0 and CSR were just starters of a bigger phenomenon that I feel see rising. Social media have opened a new relationship with brands that blurs the line with businesses. People don’t believe in a communication message anymore, their trust in companies diminishes. The economic crisis in 2009 didn’t help – it highlighted how big the disconnect was between people and companies.

How can a brand achieve the reconciliation between society + people + corporate performance?

Question of value is central in here – and finding ways to create a value that means something to people and corporations is certainly a good start. Marketing isn’t being done at the end of the process but instead as a starter of the process. People aren’t at the end but at the early stages – much closer to innovation departments.

Why brands are being disconnected to the business?

Today’s brands are made to benefit only to the company – they are created in isolation to the business and the money that paid for it. There is room to invent a new type of branding where the brand is a new way of doing business – with no in-between process that turns a business to a multi-brands. People have read through that filter – they don’t ask Nestle questions about KitKat they ask about Nestle. They don’t come to the Prius page if there is something wrong – they go the Toyota page.

What is a Unique Business Proposition?

This is the value that your business brings back to its people. Value can be perceived from different POVs: money, time saving, education, entertaining…

The perceived value of the product manufactured can’t be expected to be (re) created by advertising outside of the core business process. Brands are a capital that is shrinking by not being acknowledged by consumers as they used to – so companies are loosing value on paper.

A value that needs to be compensated by rethinking what capital means for a business. Because maybe having more customers by innovating in the way you do business and paying less for advertising is a bigger capital for your company compared to the “old” fashion (eg. Paying for creating brands and brands and finance their promotion to people through advertising). The long-term success is something that more shareholders should look at and question.

What if your brand was your business?

You could invent a business that meets society’s broader challenges. Markets are shifting: local-international scales keep being mixed in our communication strategies. If you don’t elevate the game soon and stop doing business based on short-term result, some new countries will emerge and provide your consumers with better solutions. There is room for making a difference now. Why not trying to go outside of the boundaries we are told to fit in?

When business = brand = advertising

If your story is aligned from A to Z then you give people a story to tell and they can support your business growth. What is the difference with buying media? At the end of the day, your business creates value monetary and for the society, isn’t this better? People know why they give you their money instead of giving it to their competitor and you become a no-brainer, and then you can grow your business or start a new one.

Defining tomorrow’s brand it’s about defining tomorrow’s businesses,  have a look at what the new “agency” could look like IDEO or COMMON.

Thanks for reading! Ideas, comments are welcomed