THE VERY BEST
July 2, 2008 – 3:10 amEnter another wise man.
This one was a visionary CEO. He asked us to do what most clients ask: help him build his business. But then he told us to do something no client had ever requested: Do not do any advertising. The agency happened to be Euro RSCG MVBMS in New York. The CEO was Irv Hockaday. The company was one that consumers had turned to for generations: Hallmark Cards, “When You Care
Enough to Send the Very Best.”
How the agency responded is a subject I will come back to. What was so revolutionary to me was the idea that this CEO would turn to this densely populated group of creative people—of really talented art directors, creative directors, copywriters, production people, planners, interactive people, strategists, people whose fundamental reason for being is to think creatively—and give them the assignment to think creatively about his business. It was a breakthrough, another inflection point. A client asking for what we already had been doing—disguised as advertising.
Taken from : “Leap” A Revolution in Creative Business Strategy
