Too many brands are just "pushing repeat" on their current marketing activities instead of driving forward, which is holding back the industry says Droga5 founder David Droga. Instead, he says, brands should be consistent, creative and believe in what they’re selling if they want to have continued success.
Droga was speaking at Cannes with client Kevin Plank, founder of Under Armour, about one of their core similarities; both were underdogs in competitive markets and became leaders in their fields - and neither is ready to stop.
“The [issue] that the biggest marketers in the world are now facing is that they have success so they think they can just push 'repeat' and they’re going to have it again. That’s one of the things that is holding our industry back,” Droga says.
The same holds true for agencies, he rekcons, adding that “we spend too much time as an industry justifying being average”.
“It takes the same amount of energy to try to do something great as it does to justify doing something average,” he says.
Plank spoke about some of the boundaries Under Armour has pushed in marketing, including gearing the brand further towards women, but says the key is to nail it all back to the brand.
He claims Under Armour doesn’t monitor what its sports brand competitors do, but instead looks at the creative market as a whole to push the boundaries
“The message of the brand is everything. Brand can’t just be a campaign that you write, it has to be in everything you do. [When it comes to ideas and innovation] whether we did it, or whether we didn’t do it, I don’t care one way or another. I just want to know it was considered,” says Plank.
“The purpose of brand is to have a point of view, you're not a brand unless you have a point of view in my opinion,” Plank says. “The purpose of brands are to give you things you never knew you needed and once you have it, wonder how you ever lived without them.”
The pair have worked together on award-winning campaigns, including ‘I Will What I Want’, but Droga says the agency relationship wasn’t official until 2014 after the duo “sniffed each other’s behind”, metaphorically speaking.
Droga5 had been working with Puma as its agency of record, but gave up the account to work on a smaller brief with Under Armour because it was a business he admired as it “really stood for something”.
“We resigned that other account to work on a smaller opportunity because we knew if we proved to Under Armour that we could do something distinctive then we would earn the right to do more,” Droga says.
“That’s the thing I’d say to everyone: choose the brand, choose the person, choose the mission, choose the mandate, because your agency will grow. I want to build [Under Armour] because I know it’s going to build my company.”
Despite the successes so far, neither party is happy to rest on its laurels and buy into the "bullshit" that they're "on top".
“[Success] is fleeting and we have to constantly earn that,” he said.
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