1. Building a new agency OS
Google #Firestarters 3 | 27.09.11
Mel Exon, BBH Labs
@bbhlabs @melex

2. Text Clue: it’s not this
Photo credit: Luca Zanier

3. ...nor this.
Photo credit: Luca Zanier

4. so what might it be?

5. learning to love uncertainty >>

6. "65 percent of children entering grade school
this year will end up working in careers that
haven't even been invented yet."
Cathy N. Davidson, Duke University, via theatlantic.com

7. so, let’s start by agreeing on the present >>

8. the pace of change... exponential?
“.. we are living through the greatest
revolution ever seen in the potential for
human achievement and human
connection.”
Ben Hammersley

9. the pace of change... exponential or logarithmic?
“.. we are living through the greatest
revolution ever seen in the potential for
human achievement and human
connection.” “That’s okay. It was ever thus.”
Ben Hammersley Matt Edgar

10. "we’ve been releasing a new
version of our mobile OS,
Android, every quarter... not too
long ago we had operating
systems that got released every
few years. That’s a huge change."
Larry Page, Google shareholders meeting, June 2011

11. "the question we’re always
asked is ‘Why do you have to
keep changing the
platform?’. My answer to
that... you’re welcome.”
Boz, Facebook Studio Live, London, Sept 2011

12. so... we might as well get used to it :)

13. a hypothesis guess about what this means
for marketing

16. Marketing Singularity?
The best marketing becomes so useful or entertaining
it becomes indistinguishable from the product or
service it promotes...
think: ongoing platforms as OS, campaigns as apps

17. Marketing Singularity?
The best marketing becomes so useful or entertaining
it becomes indistinguishable from the product or
service it promotes...
think: ongoing platforms as OS, campaigns as apps
(potentially) marketing as profit centre, not just cost

18. the task of an agency becomes ruthlessly simple.
What can we do to deliver marketing that reflects a
new reality?
Useful | Entertaining | Epic

19. what kind of agency OS does this demand?

20. reductive thinking everywhere
silicon vs carbon
‘big is a collection of smalls’
networked, vs in a network
renaissance (w0)men
make real things
curiosity & constant learning
youareyou.net/calltrace/

21. “We launched Kickstarter, added a bunch of complicated
features, then removed all of them... Simplify to the essence”
Yancey Strickler
“Photo sharing [on Burbn Inc] was one slice of many.. as we
worked on that, we realised we were doing far too much.
We cut everything, apart from photos.”
Kevin Systrom

22. Minimum Viable Product
Sound familiar?
great strategy and great creative have *always*
been about the art of sacrifice.
the task now is to apply this mindset throughout
the agency process; reduce to MVP, then listen
(data) & pivot as required...
...don’t launch & leave.

23. stability
creation of new many new
infrastructural infrastructural
technology technologies
followed by rapid
disruption frequent disruption
smaller periods of
stability
stability
years years
S curve - stable over decades the present - and likely future
Source: The Big Shift by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison, via Stephanie & Bryan Rieger @ Yiibu.com

24. “The world might be digital, but people are analog. Silicon
based technologies continuously improve and are emotion
free. Carbon-based life form’s (ie humans) ability to
process and adjust is not scaling at the rate of digital
change. This divide will be one that will be addressed by
successful companies.”
Rishad Tobaccowala, VivaKi
Photo credit: Joern Roede & Jonathan Pimay

25. nimble, task-based teams
UX/creative strategist
tech
Program client designer
manager
data
broker analyst

26. “big is a collection of smalls”
Nigel Bogle

27. networked, versus in a network

28. foster renaissance (wo)men

29. make real things
Source: flickr.com/photos/tbuser/

30. stay curious

32. thank you
Google #Firestarters 3 | 27.09.11
Mel Exon, BBH Labs
@bbhlabs @melex