GPC 3Q 12 A Letter from Mark A QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FOR THE GLOBAL PRODUCT COMMITTEE Dear Friends, A new season is upon us. Summer has come and gone, and after a strong showing at 2012’s prestigious creative award shows, it’s time once again to take stock of our journey and plot out the path ahead. In late August I had the pleasure of chairing the 3Q12 Global Product Committee meeting, hosted at our headquarters in Leo Burnett Chicago for the first time in four years, and I’m delighted to share with you the results from that meeting. The GPC is more than just a conference where we evaluate work; it’s also an opportunity for us to spotlight and learn from some of the outstanding people who make up the Leo Burnett global network, an 8500-strong family of writers, artists, and thinkers who collectively constitute one of the planet’s most formidable communications companies. Each time the GPC convenes, we sit around a table and trade stories, perspectives, knowledge, drinks, and laughter, all while recommitting ourselves to our shared mission, the lofty goals set down by our founder so many years ago. It was at the last GPC held in Chicago, during a bitterly frigid winter week in February of 2008, that the Worldwide Creative Board hashed out the first draft of the HumanKind GPC scale. At the time HumanKind was still a work-in-progress that needed some clarity to bring it into sharp focus. That is what the GPC does: it exists not just to dispense scores and constructive critiques of our creative product, but also to serve as a global brain trust, and a forum where our company can refine ideas and distill our thinking into a clear concise purpose. The HumanKind GPC is a living testament to the way Leo Burnett puts people at the heart of everything it does. I am proud to be a part of a company that encourages authentic dialogue across borders, as it helps people to learn from and collaborate with their peers across the world. Every three months we gather together some of the best and brightest talents in our global agency, and set ourselves to the difficult task of making the work better, piece by piece, through intense discussion and debate. Nothing is more important than the quality of our work, and this process we’ve spent so long developing ensures that we’re all looking through the same lens. It was a joy to bring the GPC back to Chicago, where it was first born decades ago. This return to our roots was a long time coming. 1
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GPC 3Q 12
A Letter from Mark
A Q U A R T E R LY N E W S L E T T E R F O R T H E G L O B A L P R O D U C T C O M M I T T E E
Dear Friends,
A new season is upon us. Summer has come and gone, and after a strong showing at 2012’s prestigious creative award shows, it’s time once again to take stock of our journey and plot out the path ahead. In late August I had the pleasure of chairing the 3Q12 Global Product Committee meeting, hosted at our headquarters in Leo Burnett Chicago for the first time in four years, and I’m delighted to share with you the results from that meeting. The GPC is more than just a conference where we evaluate work; it’s also an opportunity for us to spotlight and learn from some of the outstanding people who make up the Leo Burnett global network, an 8500-strong family of writers, artists, and thinkers who collectively constitute one of the planet’s most formidable communications companies. Each time the GPC convenes, we sit around a table and trade stories, perspectives, knowledge, drinks, and laughter, all while recommitting ourselves to our shared mission, the lofty goals set down by our founder so many years ago. It was at the last GPC held in Chicago, during a bitterly frigid winter week in February of 2008, that the Worldwide Creative Board hashed out the first draft of the HumanKind GPC scale. At the time HumanKind was still a work-in-progress that needed some clarity to bring it into sharp focus. That is what the GPC does: it exists not just to dispense scores and constructive critiques of our creative product, but also to serve as a global brain trust, and a forum where our company can refine ideas and distill our thinking into a clear concise purpose. The HumanKind GPC is a living testament to the way Leo Burnett puts people at the heart of everything it does. I am proud to be a part of a company that encourages authentic dialogue across borders, as it helps people to learn from and collaborate with their peers across the world. Every three months we gather together some of the best and brightest talents in our global agency, and set ourselves to the difficult task of making the work better, piece by piece, through intense discussion and debate. Nothing is more important than the quality of our work, and this process we’ve spent so long developing ensures that we’re all looking through the same lens. It was a joy to bring the GPC back to Chicago, where it was first born decades ago. This return to our roots was a long time coming.
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GPC 3Q 12
In the ten years that I’ve been working at Leo Burnett Chicago, I’ve never been more excited about the direction and leadership of our flagship agency. When I first arrived here in 2002, after 15 years at Leo Burnett London, there was a pervasive feeling of uncertainty in the air that colored every day at 35 West Wacker Drive. There was turnover at senior management positions, fallout from a bad economy, and the agency was struggling to shake off a reputation of being an old-fashioned TV and print agency in an age of smaller and hotter shops. The teams in Chicago were still producing outstanding work, but underlying all their achievements was a persistent current of frustration, and disquiet with the status quo. The old ways of working had to change. In the decade since that rough stretch of time in 2002, the agency has undergone a sweeping transformation, evolving in multiple directions to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing industry. Under the steady leadership of President Rich Stoddart, and with Chief Creative Officer Susan Credle at the helm of a revamped creative department, the agency has gotten leaner and more focused, and is currently experiencing a rebirth. The agency is on an impressive streak of new business wins, and there’s a tangible sense of confidence and excitement in the air. The work emerging from our largest office is winning over people all across the world, and as new revenues pour in, there’s a sense that the ship has been righted and is headed in the right direction. As ECD Ryan Wagman noted during the GPC discussions, “this place feels like it’s humming right along.” When Leo Burnett Chicago is firing on all cylinders, our whole global network shines a lot brighter. I’m deeply proud of the team in Chicago, and I hope you take the time to pore over some of the brilliant work they’ve been producing quarter after quarter, year after year. It’s not easy to get an agency of 1500 people to buy into the same vision, and to march in lock step towards it, but clearly, Rich and Susan have built a winner. Together they’ve set a goal for the office to be the number one creative agency in the USA in the next two years. You have to admire the drive and ambition of a team that’s aiming for the top.
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City of Big Shoulders
GPC 3Q 12
Before diving into this quarter’s large volume of inspiring 7+ work, I want you to take a look at the charts on the following pages, which break down our network’s performance at the 2012 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. I talk about Cannes a lot, and even though we are three months removed from the festival, I want to reiterate why Cannes is so critical to our outlook as a company. We do not strive for Lions simply for recognition. We are not in the business of chasing awards. We are, however, in the business of ideas. We are paid to produce beautifully crafted ideas, that are rooted in human insights, which serve our client’s brand purpose. Our job is to produce contagious brand communication that spreads like wildfire amongst people, and that resonates so deeply that it becomes a part of the social fabric. Cannes is the ultimate measure of the quality of our ideas. A Lion is a mark of outstanding creative acumen that serves a client’s larger business goals. But don’t take my word for it: below is an excerpt from a fascinating article entitled “the Business Case for Creativity: Why Coke thinks Winning at Cannes Matters.” This piece was published in Fast Company, and was written by Coca-Cola’s VP of Global Advertising Strategy, Jonathan Mildenhall. The full article offers a deep glimpse into the unmistakable correlation between creative success at Cannes and business results:
“The global significance of [Cannes] gathers momentum each and every year... No other award festival covers so many critical categories for advertisers. Cannes Lions now boast 18 award categories... The breadth is staggering and it will only continue to grow as more and more genres of creativity are embraced to drive business growth... But an awards festival that focuses solely on breadth could be destined for a dull and uninspired future. Cannes is not about volume. It is absolutely, steadfastly and utterly, committed to quality. And to me, few things are more important. Cannes Lions simply curates the world’s finest strategies, ideas, executions and craft. To be recognized at Cannes is to be recognized by the world’s finest creative minds. Minds that are not only brilliant, but brutal in their critique of the work. Winning a Cannes Lions builds careers. Permanently.”
The careers Jonathan is talking about are not just on the agency end. He offers a number of telling examples showing how the work that wins Cannes Lions leads directly to commercial success and greater market share for clients. Here he quotes James Thurman, the author of “The Case for Creativity”, to emphasize his point:
In every case, the companies that have been the most tenacious in their pursuit of great creativity in their advertising have been the ones outperforming the stock market and enjoying historic periods of financial prosperity. And in every case the leaders of those companies had created a culture of innovation that advertising was just symptomatic of, but which extended well beyond advertising and into culture, the products, and the day to day activities of those companies. A creative day to day that produced the most extraordinary results in the history of the world’s most illustrious companies.
Please read Jonathan’s whole article, linked to on this page, and share it with your clients if you can. We must cultivate relationships with our clients so that they too become champions for creativity, and advocates for Lion-winning work. Love it or hate it, despise it or celebrate it, Cannes remains the gold standard for our industry. Every year, more and more clients are flocking to the festival, and are embracing it as the place to identify best practices and the agencies who bring ideas to life in fresh and interesting ways. It’s on us to make sure we shine with the best, and are producing world-class work worthy of the great brands in our portfolio.
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The chart above documents all the Lions and shortlists Leo Burnett received in 2012, in each of the 18 categories Cannes recognizes. A single glance at this is revealing: although we had a phenomenal year, winning a record 55 Lions and having 173 pieces shortlisted, it’s clear that there’s a lot of room for improvement in a few specific areas. For instance, as mobile devices become more and more ubiquitous across the world, it’s unacceptable that we have no work in 2012 that was even shortlisted in this increasingly important category. We must build on our strengths, while also seeking out new opportunities in each of these channels. There is no reason why we so often default back into traditional media choices when there are so many more contact points available today.
I urge all of you to take stock of the campaigns you’re currently working on, and identify the best platform idea you’re working with. Can you find a way to express that idea in each of these categories? Test the quality of the thinking underlying your campaign or execution by asking whether or not the core idea can be expressed in a variety of communication channels. Truly great ideas are media infinite in their potential, and they don’t hinge on your choice of contact point. Think big, and don’t be hemmed in by what you’ve been asked to do. This is worth remembering: we have far more creative opportunities available to us if we take advantage of all the communication channels we can work in. It’s our job to show our clients media options that they might not have considered.
SHORTLIST GRAND PRIX GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL
DIRECT 15 0 2 0 5 7
PROMO & ACTIVATION 14 0 0 2 4 6
PR 13 0 2 4 3 9
MEDIA 16 0 0 1 8 9
OUTDOOR 34 0 0 0 3 3
MOBILE 0 0 0 0 0 0
CREATIVE EFFECTIVENESS 1 0 1 0 0 1
PRESS 45 0 0 5 3 8
CYBER 3 0 0 1 1 2
DESIGN 11 0 1 0 0 1
RADIO 10 0 0 2 2 4
FILM 2 0 0 0 0 0
FILM CRAFT 0 0 0 0 0 0
BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT 5 0 2 0 0 2
TITANIUM & INTEGRATED 1 0 0 0 0 0
YOUNG LIONS 3 0 1 1 1 3
TOTAL 173 0 9 16 30 55
2012 CANNES
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This second chart documents which Leo Burnett offices around the world won Lions at Cannes in 2012. I want to congratulate each of the winning teams for all their hard work: the depth and breadth of this list testifies to the talent we have across our global network. It is my dream to one day have every one of our 96 offices represented on this list, which I don’t think is too much to ask. For that to happen, we need every single Leo Burnett agency to have one great idea, one campaign that’s been crafted exquisitely, and presented impeccably. If each of our agencies puts a single great idea on the table, we will achieve success en masse, on a scale our network has never achieved before. All it takes is one great, world-class idea from each of our offices. We have the talent, we have the brands, and we have the global support system to make this real. I hope you all take a page from the agencies listed to the right, who set their goals high, and put in the time and effort to win the highest accolade in our industry, a prestigious Cannes Lion. The countdown to Cannes 2013 has already begun. What are you doing about it?
I want to thank everyone on the team in Leo Burnett Chicago for being wonderful hosts to the 3Q12 GPC. It was a truly enjoyable and memorable week for all of us, and we hope the GPC will be back in Chicago soon.
Please spend some time reviewing the inspiring 3Q12 7+ work on the following pages. I’m proud of the great work here and all the teams that produced it.
Kind regards,
Mark Tutssel Chief Creative Officer Leo Burnett Worldwide
GPC 3Q 12We focus on ideas and acts that become part of the social fabric. HumanKind speaks to the world we live in today - with all its glorious confusion, beauty, technology, and wonder.
GPC 3Q 12
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ContentsThe 3Q12 Global Product Committee 8
Susan Credle Leads Chicago’s Hottest Shop 9
The Black Couch Series: A Masterclass with Tony Malcom & Guy Moore 10
The One Show: Lessons from Legends 11
The 3Q12 8-Balls 13
The 3Q12 7+ Gallery 26
“People in my home town thought of Chicago as a kind of Rome to which all roads led, with a side-order of Babylon - beckoning, majestic, maybe a touch or two wicked....I like to think that the language of our ads has been ventilated in the fresh Chicago breezes and rinsed in the clear waters of Lake Michigan. And touching this, it seems to me that Chicago advertising draws up a lot of nourishment from the richness of American folklore, restores it, and perpetuates it in a keen and lively sense....I like to think that Chicago is a consumer city, not a colony of communication specialists, and we aren’t huddled up in one-industry suburbs where a man can’t toss off a remark for fear of hitting his boss. I like to believe that our city is a well-adjusted organism that doesn’t need an analyst to tell it who it is and where it is going. ”
GPC 3Q 12
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The 3Q12 Global Product CommitteeMark TutsselWorldwide
Kamil KowalcyzkWarsaw
Tony Malcolm London
Malgorzata “Gosia“Nierodzinska Warsaw
Sainath Saraban New Delhi
Kerri SoukupChicago
Morgan KurchakToronto
Rich StoddartChicago
Fernando BellottiBuenos Aires
Selim UnlusoyMoscow
Rosalie Geier Chicago
Guy Moore London
Fuad AhmadBangkok
Andreas Pauli Frankfurt
K.V. “Pops” SridharMumbai
David FedericoToronto
David SkinnerNew York City
Jon KingTokyo
Darren WrightNew York City
Jennifer Skidgel Chicago
Ryan Wagman Chicago
Susan Credle Chicago
Tom Bernardin Chicago
GPC 3Q 12
Susan Credle arrived at Leo Burnett Chicago in the fall of 2009, 24 years into a storied career that began at BBDO in New York City. Her rise through the ranks at BBDO is the stuff of legend: not every intern can fearlessly scale the ladder to become the Executive Creative Director of one of the world’s greatest agencies. Along the way, Susan collected virtually every creative award in the business, and become renowned globally as one of the masterminds behind the colorful M&M characters that gave a long dormant brand a new lease on life. She took M&M’s, an iconic old product with deep equities, and transformed their rather formulaic approach to marketing into a showcase for some of the smartest brand icons in advertising. Where there were only red and yellow M&M characters before, Susan and her team created a colorful ensemble of five, each with a distinct voice, color, and story to tell. With this new cast, she helped launch a new era for M&M’s that changed people’s perceptions and gave the brand a platform to build on for decades to come. It is this kind of experience and background that led Mark Tutssel to hire Susan as the Chief Creative Officer of the company’s flagship agency in Chicago. Another brand with deep and valuable equities was looking for a leader to spearhead a new approach.
In the three short years that Susan has led Leo Burnett Chicago’s formidable creative department, she’s helped engineer a remarkable turnaround for the agency. After a prolonged period of lackluster new business growth, the agency has won a stunning 16 new accounts since the summer of 2011. The new clients knocking on the door are impressed with the creative work emerging from the office, specifically the way Leo Burnett has rebooted it’s 50-year relationship with Allstate Insurance by creating the hugely popular “Mayhem” campaign, which marks a big departure from Allstate’s more traditional approach of years past. That campaign is a great example of the fresh, strategically sound, and creatively compelling work currently coming out of Leo Burnett Chicago, and it’s created a wave of momentum throughout the agency. There is a growing sentiment around the building that everyone is making tangible contributions to the creative product, no matter what their department or job title is. In an agency the size of LB/Chicago, getting everyone on the same page is no small feat, and Susan has accomplished this by fostering a sense of openness and accessibility, and by emphasizing the benefits of collaboration instead of competition. She has repeatedly implored her teams to be generous with both their ideas and talents, and her frank assessments and straightforward style are transforming a creative department that for many years was a labyrinth of conflicting loyalties and ambitions. With Susan, what you see is what you get: a soft spoken leader with a firm hand, with a track record of bringing out the best in the people around her.
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Susan Credle Leads Chicago’s Hottest Shop
A Q U A R T E R LY N E W S L E T T E R F O R T H E G L O B A L P R O D U C T C O M M I T T E E
The GPC is proud to announce the Black Couch Series, a master class format in which notable GPC delegates will be interviewed in front of agency audiences about their successes and insights into life and advertising. At the 3Q12 GPC, the employees of Leo Burnett Chicago were treated to a hugely entertaining hour with one of London’s longest tenured and most celebrated creative partnerships, between Guy Moore & Tony Malcolm.
Who is this dynamic duo? Tony and Guy have been a fixture at London’s top agencies for almost three decades, rising through the ranks at multiple companies on the strength of their partnership and the award-winning work they’ve created. They began their career at Leagus Delaney, then moved to Still Price Lintas, and subsequently made stops at CDP, TBWA Simons Palmer Clemmow Denton and Johnson, and AMV BBDO, before forming their own shop called Malcolm Moore. After a few years of running their own company, which was subsequently bought out, Tony and Guy were hired by Wieden + Kennedy / London as senior creatives, and then in 2004 they were lured to Leo Burnett London, where they have been hugely productive and responsible for some of the agency’s most lauded work of the past few years. As the authors of the universally acclaimed McDonald’s “Favorites” spot (which won a Silver Lion at Cannes in 2010, and then the first ever Gold Creative Effectiveness Lion in 2011), and the iconic Nike “Parklife” commercial from 1998, Tony and Guy spent an hour describing the creative process behind these two successful films to a rapt audience. An unlikely odd couple with a hugely endearing sense of humor, this talented pair has created outstanding work for some of the world’s greatest brands. Pictured below are links to just a few of their celebrated pieces. At the inaugural Black Couch Series, Tony and Guy shared a window into their creative process, a little glimpse of the fanatical attention to detail and passion for craftsmanship that’s essential for anyone hoping to succeed for three decades in advertising.
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The GPC presents the Black Couch Series:3Q12: Guy Moore & Tony Malcolm
A Q U A R T E R LY N E W S L E T T E R F O R T H E G L O B A L P R O D U C T C O M M I T T E E
Emily Isovitsch, the Managing Director of the One Club, visited the 3Q12 GPC to deliver a brief presentation on the One Club’s ongoing role as a champion of creative excellence in advertising and design. The One Show is one of the most prestigious award shows in the world, and stands out from other festivals for several reasons. Unlike many award shows, the One Show is run by a non-profit organization, and its judging sessions are conducted by secret ballot, without the debates that characterize so many other juries. This laser sharp focus on the quality of the work goes hand in hand with the One Club’s mission, which is to “celebrate the legacy of creative advertising and to use that legacy to inspire future generations.” Emily was kind enough to spend some time introducing One Club activities to the GPC, such as the One Club’s ongoing education initiatives for advertising professionals and its programs to strengthen and encourage more diversity in the communication and design industries. After reviewing some of the One Club’s activities, Emily showcased some of the amazing work that won pencils at this year’s One Show festival, held every May during New York City’s Creative Week. The panel was delighted with the work she shared.
One of the One Club’s many collaborative projects is an inspirational speaker series entitled “Lessons from Legends.” In conjunction with Google, the One Club sponsors this event, featuring creative icons describing some of the lessons they’ve learned over the course of long and successful careers in advertising. The first speaker was Lee Clow (Chairman, TBWA/Worldwide) in Los Angeles, and this month, the One Club hosted Mark Tutssel (CCO of LB/Worldwide) along with Bob Scarpelli (Chairman, DDB/Worldwide) in Chicago, where these two industry titans discussed the potency of big ideas, and the contagious quality of truly inspirational creative work. This kind of constructive creative dialogue, showcasing the talents working in communications, is what the One Club strives to do, year after year, through all their endeavors,
A Q U A R T E R LY N E W S L E T T E R F O R T H E G L O B A L P R O D U C T C O M M I T T E E