media update’s Adam Wakefield spoke to Adrian Miller, who was recently appointed as the executive creative director at the Riverbed agency, about his role in the industry and the age of the empowered consumer.
The lines of creativity between PR and marketing are blurring. Do you think this is a healthy development for both industries?
I don’t believe there are any lines left in our industry. The consumer doesn’t see lines, they just see the work. They don’t distinguish between PR, above-the-line, below-the-line, digital or events.
Either the consumer finds the brand message, or rather the brand experience, compelling or they don’t. Media no longer controls the conversation, consumers do.
We’re going to have to get used to the fact that we’re living in the age of the empowered consumer, and we’re going to have to optimise all we do. So it's best that we don’t bore them to death with banal massages they can choose to ignore with a flick of their thumb.
What made you decide to join Riverbed?
Douglas Adams once wrote: "If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat."
Just as fragile as your average cat, are ideas. As communicators, we’re especially fond of pulling ideas apart. Which, more often than not, renders them useless.
Keeping good ideas intact requires an agency that is truly integrated, doesn’t operate in silos, strong partnerships at the top and a shared vision across the entire agency.
When I sat down with Monalisa to chat about the vision for Riverbed, I found someone who wanted ideas to sit at the front and centre of the agency. Mona wanted to build a creatively driven agency, not just a creative department. I immediately found that compelling.
When putting together a campaign, what questions do you ask yourself at the beginning of the process?
Anyone who creates ideas for a living can attest to the fact that it’s a gruesome process. For me, it induces anxiety attacks, which deprive me of oxygen, which happens to be one of my favourite gases.
Jokes aside, I always start by looking for an interesting human insight that can inform the strategy. From there, it’s a process of conceptualising an idea that the consumer actually wants to interact with.
The main questions I ask is will the idea generate a conversation, will it be shared and will it be played with? After all, time is the new currency for brands.
For more information, visit www.theriverbedagency.co.za.
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As the importance of different 'lines' in communications has changed, so has the relationship between PR and the media. Read more in our article, Why it's important for PRs to understand the news industry.