The message is clear: creativity and ideas lead

By: Darren Woolley

Day two of the Adforum CEO Summit, Monday 4 October 2010, opened with heavy grey skies over Manhattan for our first day of agency meetings. Up early and on to the bus, the mood and expectations were high as we headed up and across town to Ogilvy.

They did not disappoint, getting us to Rethink Ogilvy by setting the breakfast meeting as if it were late night in a nightclub or cabaret. But the message was clear and reinforced here and in following meetings at Droga5 and Grey Global Group:

The industry has come to grips with integrating and having digital as the foundation and platform for brand communication, so now the focus is on creativity and the ideas that drive change and results. But this is no longer about global head offices developing campaigns that are pumped out into the various markets. The new paradigm is a focus on delivering customised messages to consumers, based on their geographic and cultural needs.

This was demonstrated with live links to their four main growth markets in India, Brazil, Russia and China, which in five years have quadrupled their contribution to the agency's total revenue.

Droga5 had a different approach to the same creative-led message, which focused on their approach to deliver bespoke strategic solutions for the clients' needs. This approach was demonstrated with great case studies for Puma, UNICEF Tap Project and telco company Net10.

The concept of effective creative was echoed at Grey with their positioning and the fact that Fast Company named them as one of the top 50 Most Innovative Companies.

To follow the progress during the week, continue checking back on this blog or check out #adforumceosummit on Twitter for frequent updates