This document is a visual diary created by a young creative who won an award and went on a trip to New York. It summarizes their experiences over 4 days visiting major advertising and marketing agencies in New York, including Ogilvy, Google, Merkle, Publicis, and MediaMath. At each visit, they learned about how the agencies use data to inform creative strategies and digital advertising, with a focus on personalized targeting, understanding consumer decision journeys, and measuring ad effectiveness.
2. See ya later Perth.
This is me about to check in to the
airport for my flight to New York.
It feels like yesterday that I had
this photo taken, but so much has
happened inbetween. This trip is
definitely one of the best things
that has ever happened to me.
After I post this picture, I check
the ADMA hashtags and realised
Molly had posted the exact same
picture the day before. Very funny.
3. On the plane I pick up the book
i’m reading, right as my favourite
character dies. There were lots of
conflicting feelings on that plane.
I made a pact with myself that I
would use my trip to practise a bit
of sketching.
I kept that up for the whole of the
first flight.
This is me freezing on the plane.
There definitely wasn’t that much
leg room...
4. New York, New York...
This isn’t my photo. I’m too busy pressing my
face up to the window of my yellow cab to take
any of my own.
My first look at Manhattan is disbelief.
The drive from the airport puts the skyline on
the horizon - and it looks like a tiny toy city,
but also huge - dense with so so many buildings.
That, coupled with hills of cemeteraies, sets a
pretty ominous scene.
5. My 31 hour Sunday.
I cannot believe it’s still Sunday.
It’s been Sunday for 31 hours.
I arrive at my hotel, on 27th and
Madison Ave.
This is a huge novelty. So very
‘Madmen.’
The crossroads take a while to get
used to - but when I do, I realise
they actually make lots of sense.
It wasn’t long before I was hailing
yellow cabs and saying take me to
Park and 59th!
7. Day 1.
Our first visit is to OgilvyOne
Worldwide.
I am visiting with Molly (Young
Marketer of the Year and Senior
Digital Marketing Consultant at
HIF here in Perth).
We meet with the delightful Ken
McVeagh - Marketing Mangager for
the OgilvyOne Worldwide brand.
And from what I’ve heard, now a
Marketing Manager on the IBM
account. Congratulations Ken!
We are given a tour.
And find out there are 2000+
employees and 11 floors!
8. Day 1.
Ken then hands us on to John
Long (Group Creative Director).
We sit in on a Jagermeister stand
up, and a Southwest Airlines
creative review.
The trip is all about data, and
one thing we learn is that for
SouthWest, they used data to
show that the price was the key
selling point, which meant that
the creative was centred all
around the number - $49.
There is a lot of talk about
influencers, and the power
they have to influence a captive
and willing audience. But,
that it’s quickly becoming an
oversaturated area.
9. Day 1.
We then talk about artificial
intelligence with Executive
Creative Director, Vicki Azarian.
She tells us all about IBM’s
supercomputer - Watson.
She explains Waton’s role in IBM’s
Cognitive Dress project.
Watson helped design a dress with
British design studio Marchesa,
by analysing the work of the
designers, and selecting on-brand
materials and colours.
Led lights were built in to the
dress which then changed colour
depending on the mood Watson
read from tweets on the night of
the Met Gala.
MORE INFO
www.wired.com/2016/05/ibms-watson-helped-design-karolina-kurkovas-light-dress-met-gala/
10. Day 1.
Another really cool example of
art made by Artificial Intelligence
is this portrait of Paul Rand, the
designer behind the IBM logo,
which is displayed on the IBM floor.
It is made up of lots of tiny emojis,
which were selected by Watson
analysing the tone of several of his
graphic design books.
MORE INFO
www.ibm.com/watson/artwithwatson/paul-rand.html
12. Day 2.
Our second visit is to Google NYC.
We talk to Kate Brennan
(Associate Product Marketing
Manager for Google Play).
She explains to us that each of
Google’s products have dedicated
teams. And within Google Play, her
focus is on Games.
A current project of hers is focused
on female gamers.
Typically games are marketed
at males. Think video games.
However, Google used data to
discover that 47% of mobile
gamers were female, despite male
skewed marketing.
This led them to shift focus and tap
into this audience. They created
a girl gamer summer camp and
invested in games made by women.
One of Google’s brand values is
to weave social conversation into
their business. In this case, they
wanted to invest in global studies
into sexism in gaming.
13. Day 2.
I am interested in knowing who
does the Google Doodles, and find
out this is their Brand Studio, which
is an in house design team.
This team is responsible for the
Google brand on a global scale.
14. Day 2.
Kate tells us about challenges faced
when designing for a global brand.
When launching the new Google
Play brand, which was very minimal
and clean, Japanese and Korean
markets did not respond well.
They were able to use data to come
to this conclusion, and to discover
that this market responded better
to a more vibrant, busy ‘Hello Kitty’
style of design.
15. Google NYC has over
Over 4000 employees.
Their office space is the
only one to span the
length of a whole block.
There are two buildings,
with a third being built
over the Hudson River.
This is a view of the
Highline from an
internal over-road
bridge that connects
the two buildings.
16.
17. Day 2.
Next we tour the Youtube
Creator Space.
It’s a studio space for Youtubers
with over 10, 000 subscribers.
And was set up as way for Youtube
to give back to creators and to
improve the quality of content.
Creators are invited to a short
course to learn film and editing
skills and how to use the space.
And are then they have free reign
of the facilities.
21. Day 2.
Our next visit is Merkle Inc.
We meet with George Gallatte
(Executive Vice President and Chief
Marketing Officer) who talks to us
about how data is paving the way
for consumer based Marketing.
From what I understand, this
means data can help us talk to
people on a more personal level.
He explains to us how data can
allow ads to be individually targeted
and customised, not to data sets or
lookalikes, but real individuals.
He likens this personalisation
to direct mail, where you have a
name and address, so can speak to
people one on one.
He talks about how data can help
us understand buyer decision
journeys. These are the ways
people interact with brands online -
where they spend their time, and at
what point they make a purchase.
Knowing where a consumer is at
in their relationship with a brand,
means messaging can be targeted
and relevant.
Fun fact: Merkle have mapped
100% of people in the US over 18.
And in the United States there is
zero data privacy.
MORE INFO
www.adma.com.au/people/george-gallate
www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-
and-sales/our-insights/the-consumer-decision-journey
22. We also spoke with
Colleen Kuehn (Chief
Media Officer).
She told us about The
Upfronts which is a
media event where the
advertising industry
is given a preview of
the new season of
television programs, in
order to buy airtime.
MORE INFO
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitas_NewFront
digiday.com/media/adcolonyes-wtf-newfronts
And a more recent
development - The
Newfronts - which is
similar, but for creative
media opportunities in
the digital space.
24. Day 3.
Today’s visit is with Publicis.
They have 8 floors and over
2000 employees.
We are shown some new work for
Loreal by Stefani Cotrill (Creative
Director), which is all very hush hush.
We talk about how verticle video is
trending thanks to Instagram Stories.
Tim Rich (Head of Data Science)
takes us out to lunch.
In two years he has grown a Data
Science team from 1 to over 20.
And this team has backgrounds
in all areas, including; academia,
techonology, and the arts. I think
one was a flute player. He says the
one thing they have in common is a
restless drive to do something new.
Tim seems really excited about
working with the Creative
department, and the potential
there is to make creative more
effective and evidenced.
Key learning: If the strategy behind
a creative idea is grounded in an
observation that is quantifiable by
data, then the creative is something
that cannot be argued with.
I think the biggest thing I learned is
that the world of data science is still
really new to me, and I understand
very little.
MORE INFO
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BF_huthYlk
26. Day 4.
This morning we visit the Estee
Lauder archive.
It is a collection of all
advertisements, invitations,
compacts, perfume bottles,
jewellery and clothing.
In the early days, Estee’s
advertising strategy was to go into
hair salons and offer to do
the customer’s makeup.
Her motto was to always give a gift,
to build brand loyalty.
29. Day 4.
Our visit to MediaMath in the
afternoon involves a tour and an
explanation of their services.
They have developed software
for clients to manage their digital
campaigns and analyse their sucess
using the data collected.
They showed us this really cool
data collection tool called MOAT,
which archives every digital ad
posted by a company.
It’s great for checking on brand
consistency, and for competitior
research. However, is US skewed.
