Sustainability, brands, and marketing ‘the big idea’

Last night DigitalDonut hosted a debate in London discussing the view of Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, that Marketing is Dead. He has said that "Creative leaders should go for getting lots and lots of small ideas out there. Stop beating yourself up searching for the one big idea. Get lots of ideas out there and then let the people you interact with feed those ideas and they will make it big.”Roberts' view was contrasted with the belief of David Ogilvy, hailed as the 'father of advertising', that "You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas. It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night."

DigitalDonut suggest that Robert's claim is the product of the digital age and our reducing attention spans, while Ogilvy's is the product of a man who transformed how we think about agencies and advertising. The debate centred around whose ideas had the greatest relevance and value for marketing today.

You can read some thoughts sparked by the debate, and its relevance particularly for the crucial role that sustainability now plays for brands as a central part of their marketing message, in a blog "Making Brands Sustainable" , written by a Unilever brand builder who is well known to me! The blog contains a link to the Rainforest Alliance's superb video "Follow the Frog" which would make a good start to a classroom discussion about CSR and sustainability.