Creative and technology are increasingly the key to unlocking future value for brands, but how do they come together? AdNews marketing editor Rosie Baker sat down with Google and three creative technologists to find out just that. M&C Saatchi's head of technology Roger Chapman, Digital Arts Network's creative technologist Ben X. Tan and Isobar's head of mobile and innovation Erik Hallander and Google's head of creative agency outreach Roberta MacDonald talk about the future of tech and creative.
Meanwhile, DDB's new boss Kieren Cooney and Andrew Little give editor-in-chief Paul McIntyre the low down on the agency's new approach to customer experience – not just advertising - meaning the agency deals with business leaders way beyond the marketing department.
"Clients are realising we live in a real world now where marketing can't solve all the problems,” said Little.
In this issue, out today in print or on iPad, we asked creatives if the words still matter in advertising or can we read between the lines? Ogilvy Sydney's Boris Garelja declares he's been writing for years without really knowing what he's doing.
GPY&R's Ben Coulson, Ralph Barnett from SapientNitro, DDB Canada's Kevin Drew Davis, Droga5's Steve Coll and Nitin Mistry at Orchard all give their views.
We explore experiential marketing in our special report, looking at how brands are investing big budgets in live marketing and it's becoming more mainstream as creative agencies move into the turf of niche experiential agencies.
“A huge amount of work is poorly executed and brands are doing it for experiential's sake,” said Arno Lenior, Samsung's marketing director, but elsewhere it's becoming a more strategic aspect of brand marketing and for some, like Pepsi its the heart of the big idea.
Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard are opening up virtual reality as an actual reality for brands looking to create immersive brand experiences.
“It's great for when you need to take someone to a space you couldn't with traditional experiential marketing,” said Ben Moir director of interactive developer Snepo.
Sampling is getting sexier, apparently, as the trend of subscription boxes like Bella Box and RedPawPaw grows, consumers fall over themselves to get them, and brands get hold of data and insight like never before.
Festivals are a focal point for activations and we look at how Diageo's Smirnoff, Kopparberg, Lush cosmetics and Spotify take on the festival scene and turn it into a branded haven.
Event promoters are starting to turn to brands to deliver on-site services first “because they can do it better” than the organisers, according to Alice Kimberley, at Splendour in the Grass' commercial arm SCC.
Gems of wisdom come from Adam Ballesty, Diageo's marketing and innovation director, Mondelez International's general manager of marketing Ben Wicks, Ensemble's Matt Cameron, Play Communications founder Simon Horauf and head of strategy Tom Sanders and Sprout Network's Peter Littleboy.
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Nine Entertainment thinks its getting advertising right for its clients, but has a bit of an image problem with its own brands. Former head of its in-house creative division powered, Michael Branagh was appointed as group marketing director last month to tackle it. He told Rosie Baker what's on his agenda. “Powered has been so successful for our clients, and now we need to do it a bit better for ourselves,” he said of the challenge, just days into his new role.
Elsewhere, we go from ding dong to dot com as AdNews journalist Sarah Homewood sat down with Anthony Dene, Avon's vice president of marketing and head of digital Carl Mogridge to talk about how the 120 year old direct selling business is changing its tune with the launch of its first e-commerce business in Australia after 50 years of selling door to door here.
In the news pages we look more closely at Seven's new deal to broadcast the Olympic Games for the next decade, Nestle's foray into beacons in supermarket aisles and how brands can break into China.
Mike Wilson debates the art of debate in his Smart Arse column and Frank Chung's last column for AdNews feels a bit like the end of the world.
The back pages see Trip Advisor and Supercheap taken to task on their imitation of Dorotos' Crash the Super Bowl crowdsourcing campaign, Watchdog challenges Garnier's cosmetic claims and OTR lets few secrets out of the bag.
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We also launched a new jobs service last month with all the bells and whistles you'll ever need so if you're in the market for a new job – or just want to see what's out there, check it out here.
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