Top Ad Exec: End Barriers Between Technology, Creativity

Speaking at the Cannes Advertising Festival, top ad agency exec Bob Schmetterer said he is
concerned that “the creativity of advertising and technology are being driven
apart by growing misperceptions about the Internet and what it means.”

Bob Schmetterer, chairman and CEO ofEURO RSCG Worldwide, said that “the
Internet puts communication strategy at the center of corporate strategy and
puts before all of us a greater creative challenge than we’ve ever faced
before.”

“The Internet not only extends the possibilities of the brand, it extends the
possibilities of business — the definition of business,” he said.

He called for advertisers to start the creative process with a more fundamental
question, asking about business ideas first instead of advertising ideas

“Advertising is no longer about advertising…Advertising is about
integrated creative ideas…and interactivity is the key to integrated
ideas,” he added.

Schmetterer, said that for the advertising industry to embrace the opportunities that technological innovation affords — in both new ways to touch consumers and new ways to strategically create powerful branding campaigns — “a marriage must take place, on a very deep level, between
creative advertising ideas and technological innovation.”

“It means blowing apart the barriers that separate the best creative people
in advertising and the Net experts … it means breaking down the very real
walls in our agencies and in our companies … refocusing our most brilliant
creative thinking on much bigger issues than ads, commercials, banners or Web
sites.”

Schmetterer, an early proponent of integrating interactive advertising and
marketing into the general agency structure, has been a keynote speaker at
several @d:Tech conferences and most recently at the inaugural @d:Tech
Europe.

New York City-based EURO RSCG Worldwide is the fifth largest agency network
in the world and is a unit of Paris-based Havas Advertising Group, the
world’s sixth-largest communications group.

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