15
AFTER 28 YEARS, 7 MONTHS AND 3 DAYS
Today, BBH employs about 1,000 people across the globe with offices in Singapore, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai, Mumbai and London. 51% is still owned by BBH people with Publicis holding the other 49%.
And we do more than create great advertising: we’ve created a game show for Axe, set up a TV channel for Audi and a pub quiz for a soft drink, J2O, that is possibly being commissioned as a TV programme. We’ve made music videos for Myspace and are working with Google on a growing number of projects.
We’ve also created a new product division within BBH called Zag, which invents product ideas and takes them to the market. So far, Zag have launched two products: a vegetarian food range called Pick Me, which is available through Tesco, the UK supermarket chain, and a personal alarm for teenagers, which is named after the Hindu goddess of protection, Ila, and is available through another mainstay of British retailing, Marks & Spencer. As well as Zag’s physical products, our digital skills are expanding too as we take on assignments for Burberry, Google and clients such as Axe. And we still work with Audi, one of our founding clients.
Client: Axe, 2006 Art director: John Randazzo Copywriters: Amir Farhang/Matt Ian/Kash Sree/William Gelner
So what are we at BBH? Are we still an advertising agency with some extra bits bolted on? Or are we a truly revolutionary communications company that puts its money where its mouth is?
Client: Johnnie Walker, 2002 Art directors: Ross Ventress/Alex Lim Copywriter: Steve Elrick
You don’t have to be smart to realize that I consider BBH to be the latter. Time, of course, will prove that point.
The real lesson here is to think of ways in which creative companies can evolve into multi-disciplinary organizations.
It’s an obvious point to make, but I believe that if creativity is at the heart of your company and your company is not constantly evolving and expanding, then it is dying.
And I believe that applies to more than just communications companies: look at any dynamic company and you will see how they have evolved from their original positioning into very different organizations and continue to evolve today. Apple have evolved from a computer manufacturer to a supplier of entertainment via the iPhone and iPad. Another example is LG, a BBH client, which is expanding from being just being a consumer electronics company to becoming an entertainment provider as well.
How we define a brand is limited only by our imagination.
There are no facts you can consult about the future, but what is available are unlimited opportunities for a brand, but only if you stop viewing what you do in a narrow constrained way – do that and you’ll open up all kinds of possibilities. Through its mantra, ‘Keep walking’, Johnnie Walker, another BBH client, is more than just a whisky celebrating success – it is expressing a philosophy: never give up. Keep dreaming. Success isn’t a destination, it’s a constant journey. With that brand philosophy, hopefully we’re inspiring people to live more fulfilling lives. Whatever brand you may be working on, if that brand is not enhancing and expanding the experiences of its audience, then it is missing out on the future.
The evolution of the BBH logo, from top to bottom: 1982, 1997 and 2010
Branding and the need to promote those brands will continue to grow and be fundamentally important to the future of our economies and the creation of wealth. Always remember: a brand is the most valuable piece of real estate in the world; a corner of someone’s mind.
It is also important to remember that part of advertising’s role is to convert people. Brands have to get up onto that rock and preach to the masses. If a brand isn’t constantly seeking new markets, broadening its appeal and building its fame, then it will slowly die. The secret of brand success is a constant restlessness.
The phrase ‘brand leader’ consists of only two words.
It’s not hard to get this. The latter is leader.
Being a leader means you have to employ daring, vision and innovation. If you are not then you are a follower. And if you think being a follower is your future then good luck. It will also probably mean goodbye – you won’t be around for too long.
One of the most exciting things about our world today is the number of ways to reach an audience, the ways we can continue a dialogue and how that can influence the market. Those who say advertising is dead are wrong. Advertising is far from dead: it is thriving in a thousand different forms.
Working out how we connect this new media landscape to potential audiences is the next big challenge. This is why we are building and thinking beyond the conventional agency structure. Creating ‘big brand ideas’, ideas that can help transform the bottom line for our clients, is at the heart of what we do. How we deliver those ideas will evolve and change. And while nobody can predict how, one thing is for sure: creativity will be at the heart of it.
So, we’re building up and evolving what BBH does, but will we go beyond six offices? We could go to Russia, perhaps we could add another office in China – Hong Kong would be interesting. And what about the Middle East? Beirut is a creative centre for that region and is growing fast. However, at the time I write this, the answer to going beyond six offices is ‘no’. We’re now based in all the major continents and centres of excellence in terms of business and creativity. But that’s now. The one thing I have learned is: ‘never say never’.
What we don’t want is to be like other global advertising groups with dozens of offices around the world. To my mind, that is just a delivery system. Fine if you want to be in that business, but it has never turned BBH on. We’re continually driven by creative opportunity and focusing on the quality of our output.
At BBH, we want to ‘grow different’, not similar. Of course, human nature forces similarity. You have to fight that supposed inevitability to ensure that your company follows its founding principles as it grows. At BBH one founding principle is that we turn intelligence into magic. You can’t be all things to all people, so you have to make choices guided by a founding philosophy.
So how are BBH’s six offices getting on? Our office in Singapore was voted the 2010 Asian Agency of the Year and has more work in that year’s prestigious D&AD Annual than any other Asian agency. It proves again that you don’t have to do scam work to succeed in awards shows. I think the Singapore office’s kids’ Levi Strauss’s campaign is one of the highlights.
Client: Levi Strauss, 2002 Art director: Scott McClelland Copywriter: Parag Tembulkar Photographer: John Clang
Client: Levi Strauss, 2009 Art director: Eirma Webster Copywriter: Angie Featherstone Illustrator: Tye Sok Kuan
BBH, Singapore Red is lucky in China
NeoGama/BBH, São Paulo, Brazil The interior and exterior of the joint venture with Alexandre Gama. On the exterior is a picture of everyone who works there
BBH, London The reception area is also used for meetings
BBH, New York The photographs behind the desk are of everyone who works there
BBH, Mumbai You can see the letters B, B and H in Hindi hanging on the wall
BBH, Shanghai The meeting rooms have been designed like rooms in a home, i.e., a kitchen, a living room and so on
The Shanghai office has just been voted China Agency of the Year by Ad Age magazine. I bet that gets up some corporate multinational noses. BBH New York has just been voted US Mid-size Agency of the Year, also by Ad Age.
Client: WWF, 2009 Art directors: Yinbo Ma/Carol Ong Copywriters: Carol Ong/Leo Zhang Illustrator: Pan Jian Feng
The São Paulo office, which is a joint venture with Alexandre Gama’s agency NeoGama, constantly amazes me. I think that Brazil is one of the most exciting countries on the planet. The energy, dynamism and possibility that exist in that part of the world have to be experienced to be believed. It is unusual for BBH to go into a joint venture – we like to do our own thing – but Alexandre’s agency was so like BBH, and Alexandre, who everyone knows as Ale, is so good, we thought it worth the risk. Anyone who doubts the value of that decision should take a look at São Paulo’s creative work. I think NeoGama/BBH is one of the coolest agencies on the planet.
Our Mumbai office has just moved into their own offices and are pitching like mad for business. The partners in Mumbai are refusing to do speculative creative pitches and are winning business – it’s like BBH London in 1982 all over again. I describe Mumbai as madness and mayhem, out of which comes, of course, great creativity. Watch out for India as it’s going to be doing exciting work. Cricket isn’t the only thing they are good at.
And BBH London continues to evolve in the way I’ve already described. In 2010 we were beaten to Campaign magazine’s award for the UK’s Best Agency of the Decade by Mother, which I think was a fair decision – Mother have made an indelible mark on the London advertising scene and I think it right it was noted. I salute them.
As an agency you know you’re doing brilliantly because of the quality of work your agency creates and, ironically, by the fact that your people keep getting lured away by other agencies. That is the price you pay for having such great people throughout the agency. Not everyone can be executive creative director and managing director. We’ve always been a great training ground for future stars and I’m very proud of that.
Client: Bank of the Planet, 2007 Art directors: Marcio Ribas/Claudia Issa Copywriter: Alexandre Gama Photographer: Paulo Vainer
Client: ADESF, 2007 Art director: Marcio Ribas Copywriter: Isabela Paulelli Photographer: Robert Polidori
Client: Umbro, 2000 Title: Grass Art director: Marcio Ribas Copywriter: Drauzio Gragnani Photographer: Rogerio Miranda
Our simple belief has always been to invest in better people. Those same people will produce better creativity against an expanding media landscape, so you will be investing in a better future. If you remain focused on that – invest in the best people for a better future for your company – you will always eat at the top table. Always remember that creativity is a business tool – never be ashamed of that. A creative vision will ensure your future as much as anything can.
The shape and size of that future will be determined by your enthusiasm, daring, vision and luck (so, get lucky). Technology will continue to impact on our business, but worrying about it is pointless. Technology won’t be the defining difference, and eventually in the advertising busi- ness we’ll all have access to the same technology. What will prove to be perennial is the quality of your thinking. BBH’s future is built on the quality of our ideas – the better those ideas, the more certain our future. We never forget our ‘Black sheep’ logo, which is an embodiment of one of our agency’s guiding principles from that very first work for Levi Strauss: ‘When the world zigs, zag’.
For me, this is the most exciting time to be in advertising. There is everything to play for. As technology changes so much around us, our task is still to find ways to unite people. And the way you unite them is with ideas that capture their imagination: that’s as it is, as it’s always been and as it always will be.