Hegarty shows how the ad world has evolved from ‘Super Bowl to Super Social’

VARCA: BBH worldwide creative director Sir John Hegarty‘s session at Goafest 2011 witnessed the highest turnout.

In his presentation termed ‘Super Bowl to Super Social‘, Hegarty started off by declaring that a technological storm has hit the creative industry.

“It would be incorrect to assume that this blizzard is destroying creativity. The problem is that creative people get nervous with technology. They should understand one fact: technology is an aid to creativity. Without an electric guitar, we‘d all be still singing folk songs,” he said.
 
Throughout his talk, Hegarty continually presented various television commercials created by his agency.

He smashed another common sentiment: digital change has given the consumer full control. Hegarty argued that customers were always in control. “They had the money, and didn‘t spend it on anything they didn‘t like. Now what has changed is that they can switch you off.”

Hegarty also mentioned that fame has become a powerful force in the market place, “because it protects margins, resists competitive pressure and shortens the decision making process”. 
 
Talking more about digital advantages, Hegarty said it “has huge potential as long as you have got the context right. Customers need to see value and return on their investments.”

After showing an ad his agency created for Levi‘s hero brand, Hegarty presented an ad created for the launch of Xbox in Europe. The ad was responded by a round of applause by everyone in the seminar hall (all his ads received similar admiration). “The client was absolutely against the ad. We told him we‘d try making it viral, and if the TVC gets good response, we‘ll take it into broadcast. It got nearly 15 million hits around the world.”
 
 These two ads were followed by another five spots for Barclay‘s credit card, Barnardo‘s, Axe, Johnnie Walker and Yeo Valley.

Talking about the Johnnie Walker ad Hegarty said, “The client had asked us to make a corporate video for journalists and other people who came to their office.” This ad with the brand tagline ‘Keep Walking‘ has received more than 100,000 views on YouTube and has become immensely popular.

Hegarty proudly declared that after the Yeo Valley ad was shown in the first break of X Factor, it had out-tweeted the show for the next 14 hours. “So do something we believe in at BBH–be bold in one media, it‘ll be picked up in something else.”

He advised, “Do something amazing and daring and something that‘ll cut through and get the kind of response you want.”