Paula Abdul – the next marketing guru?
Just read a terrific post by Mullen’s Edward Boches that included a bit of a throw-away line that I’m totally going to steal now. In fact, it wasn’t even the actual post, but a response by Edward to someone who commented on the post. Edward offered that:
“It is an amazing time to be in the business. More exciting than when Bernays invented PR, or Bernbach redefined creative. Opportunity abounds if you’re willing to stay curious and think like a choreographer as much as a creator.”
Godin, Jaffe, Brogan... Abdul!?
Think like a choreographer. That’s a brilliant line because that really is a vital skill now for any marketing professional that wants to be relevant and of real value to a client or brand. To me, a choreographer can take a variety of elements – music, stage, dancers, costumes, musicians, the audience – and blend that together into something cohesive, intelligible and ultimately something with emotional impact.
Now, transfer that notion to marketing. The marketer who can take a product, an ad campaign, consumer-generated content, a website and a live event and blend that together into something cohesive, intelligible and ultimately something with emotional impact has created something of real value.
A nimble marketing choreographer will be able to adjust quickly to changes in the marketplace and leaves room for interpretative freestyling from creatives. She’ll be able to remove certain elements and add others without losing the thematic of the whole. A marketing choreographer will be able to coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies, bringing their expertise to the fore without the conflicts that arise when multiple divas must share the spotlight.
And perhaps most importantly of all, a marketing choreographer understands the importance meeting the needs of the client / patron who is ultimately paying for this work of art.
So, who are these marketing choreographers? Are they the strategists at ad agencies? Is it folks like Naked or the Barbarian Group? Possibly, but it could just as easily be someone in-house, at the PR agency or the digital shop. Ultimately it will be the person/agency with the best ability to think laterally and see the big picture. It will be whomever has the humility to understand they are just part of the big picture and the agileness of mind to see how all the pieces fit together.
Kudos to you and Ed Baroches for the original post. I’ve been thinking and running my PR agency like this for over 15 years (primarily because I love dance, and it’s become an active life philosophy of mine), and I have always been relentlessly focused on seeing the “bigger picture” in everything that I do. It helps maintain perspective. Keeps the ego out of it, and the mind can focus on it’s not me that is in the spotlight, it’s the work, the client, the goal. As a result, I’ve collaborated with some of the biggest and the best, and those that are just plain cool to work with. I agree with Ed, it’s an amazing time to be in business, and for those that can think like a choreographer, who do already, it’s a beautiful dance on the road to creativity and success.
Rick, I agree with Tami in that this is a very original and very fitting description of many of us who work in today’s all-encompassing field of communications. I also love dance, and your comparison of the future leaders of our industry to choreographers makes me excited about that future!
Lelia and Tami -
Thanks for commenting, I’m glad this post struck a chord with you both.
Excellent post. Excellent comments. As a writer I’ve always tried to encourage this way of thinking. Unfortunately, I’m often overruled. Onward to a new and better way of doing things!