The Age of Sisomo For the first time since the dot-com boom, this year's Ad:Tech attracted a couple of bigwigs from the world of traditional agencies. Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts, sporting a Madonna-like headset contraption, gave a keynote address on Tuesday that introduced his new Grand Unifying Theory: sisomo. In addition to lovemarks, the world is now ruled by Sight, Sound and Motion. It's a fun word, particularly with Roberts's many mutations: sisomoments, sisomovies, sisomojo, etc. The long and the short of sisomo isn't exactly earth shattering: TV is mutating into video on lots of different devices and advertisers need to find ways to engage consumers. Conveniently for Saatchi, despite this fragmentation, Roberts believes consumers still make decisions based on emotion rather than reason, a world "for everyone who was ever thrilled by a car chase or wept over a motherless deer." Forget Google, targeting and optimization: storytelling still rules. He even gave attendees a photo-heavy, soft-cover book about this emerging world of many screens (eBay price: $9.48). Curiously, in illustrating this new world, Roberts made it look a lot like the old one: He trotted out over a dozen TV commercials, like a funny spot for a soft drink and a precious one for diapers. The only interactive bit introduced was a Lexus campaign that let people beam their photos up on the Reuters sign in Times Square. In fact, Roberts said most creative on the Web (and mobile) is "appalling." —Posted by Brian Morrissey

November 11, 2005 in Kevin Roberts, Morrissey, Saatchi & Saatchi | Permalink

Comments

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Agreed, sisimo isn't really anything new. Another part of his speech, although not new either, did cause some deep thinking on my part. It was this:

"Reason leads to conclusions. Emotion leads to action. We're in the business of generating action."

As marketers we can't avoid the truth: we're in the business of generating action. But how to emote someone into action in today's noisy, crowded marketplace and our current world of information overload?

Kevin's answer: "...the new currency...storytelling". Ok. Got it. But it was once easy to stand out as a good storyteller. But it's much harder today with all the clutter.We need to filter out most of it in order to understand any of it.

After thinking about Kevin's speech, I came up with a few ideas about telling standout stories:
1. Stand for something. And stand there. It's very tempting as a marketer to glob onto the next big "cool" thing. Or to instigate change. That's how we're wired. It's part of what makes us good at what we do. Drawing a line in the sand and saying this is what you stand for and not wavering makes your stories resonate. It makes your stories matter.
2. Involve your customers. Stories are much more powerful when told by those who live the experience.
3. Tell your story from "their" point of view. Too often, we marketers cast our company and product as the hero of the story. After all, it's our story, so shouldn't we be in the starring role? Actually, by putting your audience member as the main character, you've given them a stake in the game. Of course, your product is what makes them live happily ever after. But it's a story about them, not you.
4. Show more. Tell less. Think of your story as a children's book...there are more pictures than words. Engage both sides of your audience's brain.

Posted by: Jonathan Dampier | Nov 14, 2005 12:00:32 PM

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