WORK WE’RE PROUD OF: MAYFLY QUEST
PROUD OF
Normally we promote other people's work, but this year we got a chance to make our own. In March, we launched Mayfly Quest, a book-marketing campaign for my postapocalyptic novel Mayfly. Book publishing rarely mounts the kind of campaigns that marketers do for entertainment and brands, focusing on getting books into the hands of people who weren't already fans. The focus of #MayflyQuest was reaching people who didn't know they should be fans.
The quest expands upon traditional online scavenger hunts by hacking Google Maps with 360-degree VR images of Los Angeles landmarks that have been "apocalypsized" and populated with clues. The hunt also includes radio emergency broadcast signals that dramatize a story taking place in the world of Mayfly. I'm proud of the way it turned out. But I also learned I'd much rather be creating work for someone else!
JEALOUS OF
This one just snuck under the wire—or should I say "snicked"? I'm a sucker for simple campaigns that bring an outsized response, so I loved when Snickers swapped its candy bars in France for Bounty bars. The actual ad associated with "Snickersgate" is solid (it probably reads better in French), but the genius is in the act itself. Replacing something people love with something most people hate? That's just sneaky and mean and delightful enough for my taste.
EXCITED BY
We've been wrestling with the agency model being broken for years now. Each new agency trend has promised to be the answer to the problems we all see in the system. Right now, agencies seem to be opening their minds—and models—even further, shifting to hybrid agencies or redefining "consultancy" in the shape of the kind of business they want to do. The challenges in our industry are requiring agencies to be proactive and inventive. The exciting part is that those are the exact attributes that make people successful in advertising, so I can't wait to see what happens next.
LOOKING FORWARD TO
People aren't forced to sit through ads anymore, which means that if any advertising is going to break through, people have to want to talk about it. Agencies and brands get this, I think, but for the most part no one has been building PR into what they create. I think that's going to change this year, not because we're getting smarter but because there won't be a choice. We're going to see more beautiful films, more experiences that grab people, more brands acting upon their beliefs. The question I always ask creatives is, "Would I share this if I wasn't getting paid to work on it?" More and more, the answer is going to have to be yes.