JWT CEO Ingram sees creative work unfolding in experiential marketing and product utilization
Ahead of the awards being dished out at Cannes Lions later this month, the global chief executive of J. Walter Thompson has highlighed the role that experiential marketing is set to play and the importance of using product technology to tell a story.
“The experience economy is going to happen in the market place. We will probably be looking at experience awards and not just AI awards in the future, said Tamara Ingram in an interview with Beet.TV.
“I think the uniqueness of experiences and brands owning those experiences will be increasingly important as, oddly enough, platform explosion becomes so broad and so available that people want something that is special to them."
She points out the appeal of both long-form video content as well as the value of short snippets of video content.
“What I think is marvelous is that one can use film in many ways. To be very fast in the message, very present very now and then be very immersive, be very informative.”
Ingram also points to product utilization with the aid of technology as something that is an incredibly rich area for creativity. She refers to JWT’s award-winning work by its Shanghai office for the Elevit brand in China. The device is meant to share the early sounds of being pregnant.
“Very interestingly, in China men do not go to their women’s first scan. It’s just not acceptable,” says Ingram, who took the worldwide reins at JWT in 2016. “But a lot of men want to see their babies and hear the baby’s first heartbeat.”
Elevit captures fetal heartbeats and, when placed on the father’s chest, enables him to share those sensations. “It enabled a conversation in China that I wasn’t happening about the role of men and women during the whole process, says Ingram. “And it created some cultural connection between Elevate and people who purchased the brand and people who engaged with it.”
Within 24 hours of its launch, the campaign video garnered 3.5 million views and became the top trending topic on Weibo, the Chinese platforms that combines features of Facebook and Twitter.