Here are my personal highlights from WPP Stream unconference, which took place October 24-27th 2013, Antalya.
Stream is the annual WPP unconference, hosted by Sir Martin Sorrell & Yossi Vardi. 350 guests met up at a scenic, but basic, hotel for three days of discussions and debate.
There were over one hundred Discussion sessions, Ignite talks (15 slides in 15 seconds), a Dragon’s Den for social good, a gadget show, a tech lab, digital art, cooking, sport, film screenings and lots of conversation.
2. October 24-27th 2013, Antalya, Turkey
Stream is the annual WPP unconference, hosted by Sir Martin
Sorrell & Yossi Vardi. 350 guests met up at a scenic, but basic,
hotel for three days of discussions and debate.
There were over one hundred Discussion sessions, Ignite talks (15
slides in 15 seconds), a Dragon’s Den for social good, a gadget
show, a tech lab, digital art, cooking, sport, film screenings and
lots of conversation.
This deck contains my personal highlights from #WPPStream
2013.
Stream
website
h-p://stream.wpp.com/stream-‐2013/
WPP
Stream
Vine
compe==on
h-p://storify.com/WPPStream/wppstream-‐vine-‐compe==on-‐2013
2013
Timelapse
on
YouTube
h-p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2uL7fOYkXk&feature=youtu.be
Team
Fox
–
our
team
for
the
pitch
h-ps://vine.co/v/hpTimIVbWWB
3. Brand personality: Kit Kat & android
In early September 2013, Google announced that the
next version of it’s Android operating system was going
to be called Kit Kat.
A Google engineer came up with the idea of naming the
4.4 release “Kit-Kat” as he loved the snack.
Google approached Nestlé and they jumped on the
idea, it was reported that no money changed hands*.
Kit Kat uses it’s brand “personality” to assess
opportunities for partnerships. If brands were people,
who would you hang out with?
In the lead-up to the Android event it engaged with Red
Bull and Oreos campaigns on twitter and had a
successful dialogue.
It took 9 months to implement the partnership and
provides a great global communications platform for
both brands.
*
h-p://www.theverge.com/2013/9/3/4691040/android-‐kitkat-‐the-‐story-‐behind-‐a-‐delicious-‐partnership
4. That YouTube discussion
Someone wrote the words “YouTube” on the discussion board
and 30 people turned up to waiting for someone to take the lead.
The discussion that followed had some great insights into why
building YouTube subscribers today is being attacked with the
same vigor as a brand manager trying to get to 1 million
Facebook fans in 2008.
Successful YouTube creators have representation, e.g. George at
Fullscreen or Gleam in the UK for beauty.
Top Tips:
Follow what the YouTube creators do: their frequency, style and
pace teach you a lot about building YouTube followship.
Superdrug and Gumtree in the UK are acting in this way.
Most people watch YouTube in full screen, the valuable place is in
the player, so pre-rolls or the content itself, not advertising
around it.
The sweet spot is mixing content creation with influence.
Curation makes you smarter: brands are favouriting content their
subscribers will love.
5. WTF is my Wearable Fashion strategy?
Over the last 5 years, wearable computers have moved from the
lab onto the high street. Millions of devices like Fitbit, Jawbone
UP and Nike Fuelband are being worn and used everyday.
Until 2013, these devices have primarily focused on fitness,
however over the last 12 months we’ve seen signs of other uses
Google Glass’s launch at the Diane von Furstenberg SS2013 show
interesting, the intent was there, but she didn’t really use Glass.
Glass looks deliberately awkward as it’s a prototype.
Big Fashion houses are focused on not diluting their brands,
Smaller designers are culturally more likely to innovate
Current devices are not mature or appealing – like MP3 players
pre-ipod – the magic moment has not arrived.
Wearable Fashion could be the bag changing colours to match
your outfit (it’s not going to be solving a functional need)
When wearable technology becomes invisible, it will be easier for
the Fashion houses to adopt.
6. Sir Martin Sorrel’s Google Hangout
Sir Martin Sorrell traditionally speaks to the Stream attendees
about his view of the world as CEO of WPP Group. This year he
joined us from Google’s offices in China for a hangout.
In the recent Q3 earnings report, WPP reported revenue growth
of more than 7 percent. Great gains were made in fast growing
markets like Brazil and Russia, which made up for slower growth
in the mature marketing of Western Europe and the US.
He repeated his focus on getting Digital to make up 45% of WPPs
revenue over the next few years.
Google is WPPs biggest media partner, video and mobile search
are 2 growth areas. Amazon is also getting stronger.
New markets continue to open up, there were possibilities of
200m new consumers for packaged goods between Iran, Cuba
and North Korea.
WPP’s performance at Cannes in 2013 demonstrates creativity at
scale. They won 2000 points, 1000 from Ogilvy alone.
TOP TIP for Cannes: the better organised you are, the better you
will do.
7. Thank you
Ella Weston
Mark Read
Jonathan Lenson
Tara Marsh
Tess Bricker
Alemsah Ozturk
Candace Kuss
Gary Shainberg
The Real Justin Cooke
@POSSIBLE
Ian Crocombe
Chief Strategy Officer, Europe
@iancrocombe
ian.crocombe@possible.com
00 44 7932 00 41 01