#18 Generation C – Saatchi & Saatchi Digital on the future of communication
August 3, 2009 by Jake Pearce
Tony Gardner – Head of Saatchi and Saatchi Digital New Zealand talks about the future of communication.
Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi&Saatchi has a particularly high regard for the quality of thinking coming out of New Zealand – so much so that Procter & Gamble have a special innovation unit based with Saatchi&Saatchi in New Zealand.
Tony makes the following points:
- There is a lot of ‘stuff’ on the internet – and a lot of it is ‘rubbish’
- However it is crucial to stress that one man’s rubbish is another man’s gold
- Corporates in particular risk making value judgements over what they ‘regard’ as rubbish
- Tony stresses the need for change – in particular the existing slow and drawn out process of generating communication (campaigns etc) which is not suited to the fast paced, ever changing modern world which we all live in
- In a fast changing world, more than ever – brands need a ‘lighthouse’ idea (per Kevin Roberts) which is a guiding principle for internal behaviour and external communicaiton
My thoughts on this issue
I agree with much of the above with one key issue – the concept of a lighthouse idea faces a number of key challenges due to the nature of Generation C.
- Historically, agencies have been paid to come up with the ‘big idea’
- Culturally,
- And clients have wanted to ‘control and manage the ‘big idea’’
- The challenge we have in relation to the light house concept is one of origin:
- In the future the ‘big lighthouse idea’ needs to be co-created between customer and brand
- This flies in the face of how both agencies and clients traditionally have operated
- And the fastest growing generation – Generation C – value co-creation because they are motivated by control.
We’ll come back to the future of communication – next week we’ll be looking at the future of banking, music and targeting Generation C influencers.
So – is a lighthouse idea enough – yes or no?
