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Spending the New Currency

Thoughts on Fulfilling JWT’s Mission

2005 October 3

Randy Shepard, JWT Atlanta Carla Molette-Ogden, Ph.D., JWT Technology

CONFIDENTIAL Do not distribute without permission of the authors

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A New JWT

›  Insight

Time is the new currency.

›  Purpose

Stop interrupting what people are interested in and BE what people are interested in.

›  Role

Create work that people choose to spend time with.

›  Belief

Measure our value by what we produce and what our audience see, experience, and do as a result.

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But First, the End of Civilization

“This report documents a national crisis. Reading develops a capacity for focused attention and imaginative growth that enriches both private and public life. The decline in reading among every segment of the adult population reflects a general collapse in advanced literacy. To lose this human capacity - and all the diverse benefits it fosters - impoverishes both cultural and civic life.”

Reading at Risk, Executive Summary, National Endowment for the Arts, 8 July 2004

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Or, Not

“Contrary to the overall decline in literary reading, the number of people doing creative writing – of any genre, not exclusively literary works – increased substantially between 1982 and 2002. In 1982, about 11 million people did some form of creative writing. By 2002, this number had risen to almost 15 million people (18 or older), an increase of about 30 percent.”

Reading at Risk, Page 22, National Endowment for the Arts, 8 July 2004

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What’s Going On?

Enter the “Prosumer” (Consumers becoming producers)

Why is time so scarce and what are people interested in?

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How should I “brand” myself?

The (Post-Modern) Freedoms

Freedom of Speech, Norman Rockwell

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Do It/Not Self-Conscious Perform It/Self-Conscious

The Play’s the Thing - Shakespeare

Every generation

has its heroes.

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The Storied Self

U.S. Navy Recruiting Ad: If Someone Wrote a Book About Your Life

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The Democratization of Stardom

1920s: Them = “Stars”

1980s: Me = Star

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The Democratization of Stardom

You're a shining star No matter who you are Shining bright to see What you can truly be

Earth, Wind & Fire

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HP Invent: You Are Your Own Photo Opportunity

Homemade Celebrity

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Choice

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2 ways to be a soldier   Dead   Alive

212 ways to be a soldier

Year 1940 Year 2000

P R O D U C T I O N C A P A B I L I T Y

Choice

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Optionality Gone Awry

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Media Induced Self-Representation +

Exploding Productivity/Production +

Widely Available Credit =

“Optionality” (personal interaction with the state of abundant choice)

How it Happened

So What’s Your Story?

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Workplace Optionality

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American Express: DeNiro My Life

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The Paradox of Optionality

Fewer Limits + More Choices = Less Time/More Stress

Trouble in Paradise

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Successful advertising will help resolve the tension people feel between too many choices and too little time by giving them fodder for writing new stories or validating their existing stories

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American Express: My Real Life Doesn’t Need Any Extra Drama

Real Integration

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Old “Integrated” Thinking

The brand is rendered in every medium and provides “response mechanisms”

Magazines

Pamphlets

Media Sponsorship

Outdoor PSA

Sales Support

Newspapers

Posters

TV

Radio

Films

Brochures

Direct Mail

Brand

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Conventional “Entertainment Economy” Thinking

The brand rewards consumers with “involvement opportunities” that exploit the Small World (“viral”) nature of new media.

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Forward Thinking

The brand becomes an enabler of the brand they want to become and of a culture consumers themselves produce.

Stories must have an audience to live. Storytelling’s current name is sharing. It’s what new media is really all about.

A Place Called Kodak

Keep, Protect, Share

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“Marketers lure consumers with involvement, but are they asking too much?”

August 22, 2005

The Paradox of Optionality: Less Time

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Q. Are we wasting people's time by inviting them to interact with the brand without giving them an opportunity to act on the brand's stage or to use new media to build cultural communities ?

A. Yes. For any brand that can.

The Paradox of Optionality: Less Time

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Consumers are becoming producers; of themselves and of like-minded cultures. Today, because of new

media, they can produce.

Consumers are Producers!

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pre modern post modern

Lacks self-reflection

Self-reflection in virtually every

aspect of life

Pre media New Media

Givens Choices

Mastery of physical

environment

Mastery of social

environment

Summing Up

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New Thought: The Brand as Medium

Will Not Will

Present the brand as having inflexible properties

Stress brand utilities that enable script writing/“self-invention”

Go to the other extreme by presenting the brand as merely enabling countless options

Selectively suggest “story ideas” for people to use the brand to “write”

Consider it’s job is ever finished Continue to validate scripts and the customers who write them

Use new media to make demands Use new media to provide a stage or incubus

Successful Advertising

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