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Bauer gives Beacons attendees a tangible memento

It’s no secret that media agency folks look forward to the Beacons every year. In many ways, the celebration of great work is the culmination of a year of late nights, impossible deadlines and the daily grind.

The only problem is that it’s over in a flash, and the 365-day cycle starts all over again. 

Well, Bauer has this year developed a bespoke magazine that will let attendees hold onto the moment for a little longer. 

Dubbed ‘Last Night’, the magazine was this morning distributed to all agencies as a tangible memento of the proceedings.
  
“Metro’s Last Night magazine was a great example of innovation in print,” said Stuart Dick, Bauer’s sale director of premium titles. 

“We captured content at the awards and sent files to our printers Webstar at midnight, and by 8am we were distributing the special edition to agency folk around Auckland whose memories of the night may have been a little hazy.”

This is the second magazine of its kind that Bauer has released, following on from the Last Night edition the publisher pulled together for the Axis Awards last year.

And given that we now live in an age where going digital detox has become a thing, we’ll likely see similar publications in the future. It certainly beats a grainy tweet. 

For this year’s publication, StopPress sent out a few questions to media agency folk, and here’s what they had to say:

Andrew Reinholds, managing partner of OMD

What media do you wake up to in the morning?

I always go straight online to The Guardian’s Football Unlimited to see if I’ve been snapped up by Man United overnight. Once that dream has been popped, then it’s straight to my stereo to get some decent music on. You can never get too much of The Fall in one day…

Who is your media/advertising/creative hero?

Mark E. Smith is my creative hero.  In terms of advertising, Howard Gossage aka ‘The Socrates of San Francisco’ was light years ahead of his time, yet for some reason doesn’t seem to attract as much attention as his other contemporaries from the fifties and sixties. In terms of my contemporaries, I always admired Roger MacDonnell’s ability to hold an entire room in the palm of his hand. One day!

How do you see media and creativity co-existing? Will we see more turf wars or collaboration in the future?

The magic happens when great creative and media thinking collides. The sooner we can unlock real collaboration between these two completely complementary skills, the brighter our collective future will be. As Martin Luther King so famously said: “We must learn to live together as brothers, or die together as fools”. If anyone still seriously thinks they can do it all on their own, they’re in for a very rude shock.

What’s the biggest threat to media?

Tough question! The biggest threat to advertising is that we continue to treat the very people we’re trying to influence with absolute contempt. With so much exciting new technology at our finger tips, we need to be more respectful. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we have to.

What is at the core of smart media thinking? 

Real, meaningful insight.

What keeps you up at night?

Wondering when I’m going to be signed by Man United. Tragic I know.

Emma Bolser, managing director of Ikon

What media do you wake up to in the morning?

I check the BBC World and NZH apps. I listen  to Waiheke Radio, a marvelous eclectic station which has introduced me to a lot of new music.

Who is your media/advertising/creative hero?

My heroes are people who walk the walk , not just talk it. People like the UK journalist Polly Toynbee who lived  and worked on the UK minimum wage, and Gloria Steinem who founded the first feminist magazine, Ms.

How do you see media and creativity co-existing? Will we see more turf wars or collaboration in the future?

Media and creative co-exist brilliantly when there is a genuine will to make it work. It is only the dinosaurs of the industry ( and there are still a few) who insist on rigid demarcation. This arrogance is to the detriment of clients. The very best ideas only come to full expression when everyone plays nice. Easy to say, hard to execute.. We have been told  by our most long standing client that at Ikon , collaboration is in our DNA . Long may that last.

What’s the biggest threat to media?

Unwillingness to embrace change. It’s scary but nothing is how it was, a media agency’s remit is evolving daily , and the rate of change is exponential . Diversification is the biggest opportunity.

What is at the core of smart media thinking?   

Passion and Process. If you don’t start out from a position of really wanting the best outcome for the client, whatever the brief , you will end up with mediocre work. In tandem with desiring the best for the client, you need a clear process. Without it, great thinking along the way can end up on the scrap heap.

What keeps you up at night?

My ever expanding renovations and my new kitten, Django.

Alex Lawson, group business director at ZenithOptimedia

What media do you wake up to in the morning?

News and sports news apps. NZH for local overnight updates, NFL and BBC for international sports fixes, before a podcast on my commute.

Who is your media/advertising/creative hero?

My first boss at MediaCom London, Adam Boast, who taught me the golden rules of going on media junkets … once learnt, never forgotten, always relevant.

How do you see media and creativity co-existing? Will we see more turf wars or collaboration in the future?

Collaborate – end of story. Collaboration between the disciplines is key to survive in the future, whether you work for the same company or not. Let’s get over the egos, huh?

What’s the biggest threat to media?

Complacency.

What is at the core of smart media thinking? 

Simplicity and a really good insight at the core. That and knowing your audience inside out.

What keeps you up at night?

My cat. Damn thing jumps all over me to feed it at 3am most nights. Yet, when I’m away, it will leave my wife alone and not bother her till 7.  

Suzie Thompson and Ryan Jordan, joint heads of media at Contagion

What media do you wake up to in the morning?

ST: I listen to Paul Henry on the way to work.

RJ: I usually read the guardian while eating my breakfast.

Who is your media/advertising/creative hero?

ST: Probably Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook’s COO). That lady’s got it nailed.

RJ: I have long admired Bill Simmons (ex bleacher report and ESPN editor, now HBO). He really gets new media and has built an awesome content platform with his new channel 33 venture.

How do you see media and creativity co-existing? Will we see more turf wars or collaboration in the future?

ST: It seems that more and more, marketers want to speak to one team for everything – I think this will force teams & agencies to collaborate better, and long term create structures that blur the lines between creative and media completely.

RJ: Traditional agency structures seem to get the benefits of moving back to a full service model. It won’t happen overnight – so in the meantime it’s down to individual personalities to make collaboration happen between agencies.

What’s the biggest threat to media?

ST: Consumers expect personalisation across everything these days but its not always scalable. Balancing relevance and scale is an ongoing challenge in NZ.

RJ: Crappy advertising, resulting in people becoming more savvier with ad blocking techniques.

What is at the core of smart media thinking? 

ST: Insights – market, audience & product.

RJ: No bullshit customer insight

What keeps you up at night?

ST: The next door neighbour’s light.

RJ: I’m loving Podcasts at the moment, and they’ve been eating into my eight hours.

Rufus Chuter, head of media and strategy at FCB

What media do you wake up to in the morning?

Rachel Smalley gets me out of bed, the Herald, Stuff and The Guardian keep me company over breakfast and Andrew Mulligan drives me to work. Facebook fills in the gaps.

Who is your media/advertising/creative hero?

I love anyone that can cut through noise and refocus on the basic truths of what we do. People like Dave Trott, Rory Sutherland, John Hegarty and the great Bill Bernbach are all refreshing antidotes to the rabbit holes we sometimes find ourselves down. Bernbach’s “Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make” is my most over-used quote. Questioning whether you’re focusing on the right thing is invaluable.

Locally my first media boss Barb Stone is also a hero. She taught me the importance of asking questions, embracing creativity and not being a dick (still working on that, Barb).

How do you see media and creativity co-existing? Will we see more turf wars or collaboration in the future?

Whether the agency models we’ve created like it or not, we’ve already entered an era of integration. So it isn’t a question of yes or no to integrating media and creative thinking, it’s a question of how. That’s obviously easier for agencies like ours with a single P&L and fully integrated services.

What’s the biggest threat to media?

Siloed thinking. Clearly our industry has challenges around accountability, ad-blocking and transparency, but these won’t be terminal. What will be terminal is if we let commercial structures, politics or the old way of doing things get in the way of what businesses and consumers ultimately demand: joined-up, consumer-centric thinking.

What is at the core of smart media thinking? 

Great insight. Simple as that, no matter how complicated some people want to make what we do. Translating that into brilliant execution is also about plenty of “give a shit”. Creating great work isn’t easy. Behind every award we’ve ever won there’s a team of passionate people not settling for the easy option.

What keeps you up at night?

My children. And Suits (the TV show … not the agency’s).

Simon Bird, group strategy director, and Gareth O’Connor, strategy director at Spark PHD 

What media do you wake up to in the morning?

SB: Various News articles delivered via Mr Zuckerbergs algorithms.

GO: My mobile is my first stop and I’ll check my emails, messages, social, the Guardian, Newshub, Stuff & One News apps to get the headlines. Spotify will then be with me on the drive to work.

Who is your media/advertising/creative hero?

SB: A three way tie between John Hegarty, Stephen King and Andrew Ehrenberg.

GO: I’ll have to go with ‘who are your’, Mark Holden, Martin Weigel, Dave Trott and David Walden.

How do you see media and creativity co-existing? Will we see more turf wars or collaboration in the future?

SB: While there is some cross over in output from time to time, the core skill sets of both agencies are still pretty different. As long as each agency is focused on the same end goal collaboration is going to be more effective and more fun than war.

GO: I think we’ll see a bit of both.

I still firmly believe that when creative and media work together, leaving egos at the door, it’s the best way to create brilliant and effective work for our clients.

I also believe that media agencies are in a position to create great work built on insight, audience understanding, and great ideas. We’ve got a lot of great strategic minds, creative people and media partners to assist in bringing our ideas to life where we don’t always need creative agency involvement.

Creative agencies can also be costly which certainly opens up more opportunity for media agencies and media owners to take the lead in idea and campaign creation.

The rise of content teams in agencies and strat and content teams in media owners is testament to this and some really solid work is being done and this will only get more prolific and better in quality.

What’s the biggest threat to media?

SB: The industry continuing to commoditise itself.

GO: People now spend more time than ever with media so I don’t think there is any real threat. Our world is becoming more fragmented for sure, but this fragmentation also delivers more opportunity to reach and engage audiences.

You could argue that streaming services like Netflix who aren’t ad supported and tech like adblockers could hurt us, but that’s very much a wait and see rather than a real threat at this stage.

I would say the biggest threat to us is shit work and that is something we have a bit of control over.

What is at the core of smart media thinking? 

SB: Curiosity, creativity and collaboration.

GO: Smarts in = smarts out.

Understanding how brands grow, how the decision process and human behaviour works, understanding the JTBD and the role communications will play on delivering on those JTBD is key. From there it’s giving yourself enough time to uncover the right areas of opportunity and insight where great ideas will be built from.

What keeps you up at night?

SB: Wine.

GO: My kids and worrying if the work is as good as it can be.

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