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we are here today with colum Murphy the
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group strategy director for droga 5 and
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advertising agency based in New York
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City colum thanks for being here you're
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very welcome when you begin working with
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a new brand or on a new campaign what
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are the first questions you ask what
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kind of data do you need to get started
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yeah so the way that we like to think
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about things it's uh it's actually a
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pretty simple um construct but then
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there can be a lot of depth within it um
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is we look at the world through uh
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through four lenses we call them the
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four seas which is um uh the company the
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cat the consumer and culture and within
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each of those there's different amounts
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of research that you might need to do
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depending on what um uh what you already
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have available and then what new new
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questions you need to answer um but you
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know we get a lot out of um digging
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really deep into what the company's all
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about what the DNA and soul of the the
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the organization might be about like
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what the brand really stands for not
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just what it's selling um what people's
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Ambitions are where they want it to go
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um that's the that's the first part of
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it and the second part of it is the
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category so what else is happening
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around um around the uh the business
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that this brand is in what what white
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space might there be what other
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opportunities what are the tropes and
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things that you want to avoid uh what
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are the category Dynamics um then the
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third part is consumer Insight which is
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probably the one that most people are uh
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would can um would be familiar with um
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but what we like to try and do there is
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try and try and get a little deeper
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trying and get into something that maybe
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um hasn't been uncovered by by normal
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research um and uh but then because
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consumers are really good at telling you
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where they are now what they're thinking
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about at the moment the fourth is is
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often the most interesting to us which
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is the the cultural piece so um uh which
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is where are the uh what's happening in
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the culture that surrounds the subject
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matter that you're thinking about
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because what's happening there is where
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the customers will be in the future so
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um we also do a lot of research there
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very um very qualitative research often
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with um cultural leaders and experts
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that can um uh help us unlock a little
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bit about where things are going to go
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rather than where they are now now and
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it was actually it's interesting because
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it kind of ties in with my next question
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is I was reading an article about the
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agency and an executive from ker had a
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really interesting quote about droga 5
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when they said that droga 5 they don't
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ose their brand on the they don't impose
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their brand on the brand and so I was
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curious like what does that mean to you
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in terms of I mebe not making it about
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Drogo 5 and making it more about the
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brand but also I mean you want people to
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know it's you in some sense yeah I think
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I think the the thing that's consistent
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about what we do is um is the the
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influence that we're trying to achieve
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so it's more about the the way that it
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performs rather than the content of the
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work I think the um the process I was
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just talking about with the four C's is
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going to be different for every brand in
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every different situation because it has
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different customers um and and they
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deserve a go a fresh start every time so
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every every brand should have its own um
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totally unique point of view its own
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purpose and its own um whatever
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executional um elements and style are
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are right for that situation um I think
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what what we try and do is we have a set
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of um a set of values that we hold um
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that are always the same uh in how we
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work so we're always um creatively LED
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strategically driven um digitally native
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and Humanity obsessed uh which is just
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it's a it's just a
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um a a set of principles that I think
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will always apply and they they will
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always get us to the right product for
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the problem at hand um but I think the
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the similarities work in terms of
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philosophy more than um strategy or or
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or execution for for any particular
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brand now I mean these days I mean I
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guess when I someone like me would usly
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think of advertising you think of maybe
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just a commercial or an ad but today
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it's just I mean it's about a full
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campaign I mean it's about multiplatform
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and one of those a big one of those is
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social media and I wondered when you're
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planning for
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campaigns these days how do you
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determine like the right content for
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each platform and then also how do you
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plan for I guess verality I mean droga 5
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has been lucky enough to have campaigns
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yeah that have gone viral so for example
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you guys were behind the Newcastle ale
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this is not this was what our Super Bowl
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commercial would have been campaign for
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example and that did go viral but you
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can't really plan for virality so how do
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you how do you how do you kind of walk
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that type of I think that's right I mean
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verality is something that you are
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rewarded with if if you create something
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that people really really uh get value
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from so um you know if something's very
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entertaining or very useful you have a
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chance of it becoming viral but you you
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plan for being entertaining or useful
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not for being viral um that's that's
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something that you have the the
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privilege of of being the benefactor of
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if uh if if you create something that
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people genuinely want um so I think
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that's that's the first part of it but
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more more generally um we have after
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we've done the brand strategy um part of
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what I was talking about U with the four
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C's uh there's a just as robust
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Communications planning uh process where
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we um uh we we think about what are the
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tasks that Communications need to
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achieve what are the right channels for
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uh achieving those tasks um and then
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what is the right content to fill those
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channels so um it's all part of a of a
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plan which is far broader than than any
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one particular piece of content um and
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you just pull the right levers at the
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right time so I wanted to talk a little
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bit more in depth about a campaign that
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I think you recently worked on now this
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was a campaign by Dixie which is they
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make cups they make plates and this was
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a campaign that was planned around the
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message of #g go dark for dinner and
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what it was is encouraging people to
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take a dinner take a meal with their
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family but without their devices and
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this was a partly based on I think a a
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survey that Dixie helped do which showed
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that most people don't do that which I
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know from my own experience it's really
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hard to do even no matter how much you
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want to now can you take me through a
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little bit about how you work with a
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brand to decide like this was the right
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matchup for the brand in terms of this
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is you know want to promote the brand
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but we also want to promotee this
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particular message to people this sort
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of thing going on in the culture and how
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do you kind of strike that balance of
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you know obviously in the end Dixie
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wants people to buy Dixie Cubs but at
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the same time you're also sort of
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encouraging this more altruistic message
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of we also want you to spend time with
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your family yeah so I mean I I think
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they're they are two branches of the
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same thought for the brand which is that
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what we really wanted to do is find a
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different way of thinking about what
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disposable products can do for people so
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um there is uh you know it's a fairly
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common to talk about this disposable
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products as things that can save you
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time but we thought it was really
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interesting to think about actually what
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if it's about making your time better
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you know and and one thing that we found
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when we were doing doing our research uh
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into what we thought the brand could the
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the position the brand could take was we
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were finding out about um the people
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were really really um looking for more
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emotional presence in the moments that
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they had around their around their meal
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times um and we actually thought that
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the the the the plate was a a tool that
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could help you do that um so once you
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had established that that's what we
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wanted the brand to stand for it then
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became a fairly natural evolution of it
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to then think about so what are the
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enemies of emotional presence and the
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biggest one that we found from doing the
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survey and from other other sources were
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mobile phones it's the one thing that
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just like punctures the little bubble
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that you really want to try and create
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around mealtimes own bubble exactly and
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you know and and people um people love
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those moments and Dixie has a place in
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that in that moment um and so it's
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totally right I think for that brand to
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stand up for protecting that moment and
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I also find it interesting um with some
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of these campaigns like with the Dixie
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campaign and then also with the one that
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you guys have the the ones that you have
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done around honey m g crackers which has
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looked at kind of various different
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types of families the one I watched
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actually was about um non-traditional
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families and they were Blended families
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so parents who gotten divorced and then
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gotten remarried and it focused on the
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child who is spending time in both
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households and also has siblings in both
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households it was interesting to me
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because I'm a stepmom right but um what
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was interesting to me is just with that
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and with Dixie it's these longer kind of
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documentary length yeah I don't I
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wouldn't even call them ads and it was
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interesting I guess how do you take
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would you start with that and kind of
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break it down into the smaller pieces
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that then become the commercial the
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social media or do you start with the
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small and take it to the big or is it
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somewhere in the middle yeah that's a
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good question I mean I think the the the
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way that we really think about it is you
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know what do we want the the brand to be
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known for and then what's the right way
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of telling the story and and often with
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the um with the examples where we're
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we're getting into quite big cultural uh
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discussions it deserves a longer format
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um way of bringing it to life so um
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it'll be more about what's the right way
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of telling the story that we're that
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we're that we're wanting to tell and
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then um you know commercial there's a
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media plan to fill as well so then you
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know if if it requires breaking down
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into smaller segments then then you do
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that but I definitely would think about
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it more in a top down way um which is
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you know what's the story we want to
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tell what's the best way of telling it
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and then and then uh what's what are the
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right executions to do it and now that
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brings me actually to another campaign
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so you guys recently launched um I think
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it's under armour's first Global
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campaign around soccer or football as we
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call or football as most people call it
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soccer as we call it exactly so we're
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probably wrong but um how do you when
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you're working on a global campaign I
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mean I guess even just the wording sort
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of shows the differences right there
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between culture the culture here and
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culture and other places when you're
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working on a global campaign I mean how
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are you able to kind of keep that
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balance where you're reaching out to
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such I mean it's such a derse group of
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people just in one country def in the
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world that that's you know expanded
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that's expanded on by two or three or
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four or five or a million times so how
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are you able to kind of how do you
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strategize for a campaign that's Global
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how does that make it different how does
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that change things it's it's really
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difficult I think when you start getting
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into it you realize quite how much of
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the discussion that we have with one
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another um movies music advertising
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anything like how much of it does rely
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on local nuance and and and local
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context um but what you're looking for I
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think in in that particular example is
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well you're always looking for what's
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the highest the highest common factor
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that unites everybody that you're trying
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to speak to about the subject that
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you're trying to speak to them about so
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um you know luckily I think with that
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campaign we had a very specific audience
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which was um um young football players
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and and and they are united by football
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and actually there's an attitude that
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you that really um brings all those guys
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together um which is um you know about
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about the mental strength that it takes
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to just keep on like getting up and
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facing challenges over and over and over
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again which is what you can see in the
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work um and actually it was it was great
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we use our our um Global Network to to
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validate that that was a thought that we
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had and we we um we we spoke to actually
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um uh Scouts and coaches and people who
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were involved with um with with teaching
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young kids soccer uh and that's what
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they that's what they thought it was and
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then we tested that hypothesis in
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different countries to see if it was a
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thing that held true um uh and it did
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and that was that was great so that came
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from that came from the sport itself was
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the thing that United all those people
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at that time but yeah you're you're you
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have to find something that's Universal
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and that could be that can be
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challenging now with um you're saying
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you do a lot of cultural research in
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terms of trying to bring campaigns to
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life now with um so we're in sort of a
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period right now where Millennials are
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becoming the dominant consumer group and
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then behind them we have I guess what
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people are calling either Generation Z
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or MTV is calling them the founders how
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does as they become kind of the majority
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among consumers how does that change the
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way you approach campaigns I mean you're
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doing it differently than you would for
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say the majority baby boomer audience or
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even the greatest Generation before them
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all of that was definitely I mean the
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the inputs that you take I mean I don't
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think there's anything specifically we
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we would approach it with the same
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specificity as with any audience you
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know I mean the fact that they're that
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they're um Bound by an age group is is
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is is true but it's it's by the by
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really like we you know in like for
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example with the Under Armor campaign we
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were looking at um at kids of a certain
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age that play football but football was
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the thing that was uniting them so you
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know we will always um from both an
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insights point of view and a especially
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from a media point of um point of view
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look at how the group of people that
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we're thinking about um behave and how
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they think uh I I think specifically for
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for the groups that you're asking about
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I think there are there are certain um
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brand behaviors that are becoming more
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important as time goes on but I don't
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even think they're necessarily isolated
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to um to to to gen Z and Gen Y um but
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you know I think there there're things
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like um transparency for example I think
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that we're we're um in a an environment
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where people demand transparency from
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from Brands um it's uh the the
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interaction that a brand has with with
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it with its audience is so direct now
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that there's there's an expectation from
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customers and particularly from you from
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Young Ones um that they will have a
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transparent and honest relationship with
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with the the brand that they're talking
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to um and and and they're also fine with
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having relationship with Brands you know
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I think they they expect there to be
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discourse and they expect it to be
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honest but they're fine with having
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relationship with brand I think is is
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something that may be more true of that
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group than than others um some other
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examples I think are um personalization
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I think there's a lot of um room now
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there are a lot of tools available to to
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brands to personalize messages and I
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think that's another thing that's
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becoming an expectation um from um from
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people standards standards can be set
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outside of advertising you know like the
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the kind of personal service that's um
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the standard that's set by companies
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like Uber or um or something else where
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people are using um very personal data
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to um to provide a better service that's
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setting the standard now that brands are
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expected to live up to um and so I think
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personalization is another really big
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theme I'm curious and wondering if you
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when you're working with a brand on a
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particular campaign I mean what do you
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do if coming to you with something that
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maybe is the opposite of what you're
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coming at them with I mean how do you
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arrive at kind of the middle ground of
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what you're what what it's going to be
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in the end I mean I think generally we
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want to work as closely as possible um
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uh with with our clients and with
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everybody else who's involved in uh in
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the creation of the work and I think um
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there shouldn't really be surprises you
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know I think if you're if um the the the
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iteration of U of progress towards
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whatever it is you're going to do um
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should mean that you're you're really um
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more together than than apart on most
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decisions um I think generally it's
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better to pick pick a path and do it
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properly than it is to water it down
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with compromise um but yeah really I
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mean those are decisions that you should
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be making together and informing with um
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with strategy and with research so that
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uh you should you should rarely be too
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many million miles away from one another
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so we have my final question is one that
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we actually ask of a lot of people that
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come here to our studio which is what
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gets you up in the morning and
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conversely what keeps you up at night
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yeah I mean I think what's great about
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what we're doing at the moment is uh
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we're doing like the the world's best
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creative work on bigger and bigger
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canvases so I get really excited about
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that about seeing if we can know
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maintain the same level of uh of
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creative Integrity but do it on on the
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biggest possible
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scale and then for um in terms of what
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keeps me up at night I think um you know
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a big part of what what we've got to
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manage not just in terms of media but in
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terms of messaging and audiences and is
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is about simplifying complexity and I
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think that's the hardest part of our job
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and in every everything we do it's about
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trying to make very complicated things
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very simple and I think that that's that
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can be the thing that keeps you up at
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night great thank you so much for being
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with us you're very welcome thank
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[Music]
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you
