Picking On Goliath

By Anthony Garcia - Jan 11 , 2011

Leo Burnett is a massive international ad agency.  They craft campaigns for some of the biggest brands on the planet – McDonalds, GM, Visa, Nintendo, ad nauseum.

So leave it to this short guy in Austin to shout from our little blog, to fling a little stone at Goliath, to point out that the emperor may be naked.

I watched this video yesterday.  It is a showcase piece where Leo Burnett’s Chief Creative Officer, Mark Tutssel, waxes on about a concept he calls, ‘Humankind’.

It all sounds pretty good; there is a buzzword every 5 seconds or so.  And he seems to say all the right things.

I can’t help but agree with him when he speaks about people, purpose, and brand building.  But I don’t know if I should be thankful that the big boys, like Tutssel, are saying the things that Roy H. Williams, The Eisenbergs, and Michael Drew have been saying for years.  Or if I should be skeptical.

The video correctly points out that People build brands, not advertising. Agreed. But then the wheels start to fall off the bus.

He claims that creativity is the key, the magic bullet that will change ads to ‘acts’, whatever that means.

Hmmmm.

Not to undervalue creativity, as I work with some of the most creative people in the space, but can creativity alone uncover what people need and want? Can creativity deliver it?  We found out many years ago that creativity is just a big tool in the tool box.  Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg worked many years developing an approach that will get more focused and measurable results from your creativity without hindering it.

It’s called Persona Architecture.

Sounds to me like Tutssel knows the direction we are all headed, and he sounds like a visionary, but at the end of the day, I am not sure he is doing anything different but throwing creative ideas at a wall and waiting for something to stick.

We can do better than that.