President of the New York office of Digitas Advertising Agency, Joanne Zaiac spoke today as a member of the Newhouse Advertising Speaker Series. In her presentation, Ms. Zaiac told the audience about her, and Digitas’, view on developing an advertising campaign. She explained that advertising is not about reaching a target market, but engaging people enough to have them participate in a brand. Whether with a facebook page, twitter, a smartphone app or a website, Digitas’ belief is that it is through mobile and social media that brands have the best chance of engaging consumers.
I think that this is very similar to some of the concepts that are used in storytelling. In the same ways that storytellers want to engage viewers in their story to convey the most meaningful message possible, advertisers are also using the same techniques. An innovative advertising agency, such as Digitas, is a great example of this approach to advertising. Digitas’ approach to building a brand is what they called creating an “active brand”. They wanted the brand to encourage people to become active, in any way. This is because data shows that when people become active, a brand is engaging someone in an extremely personal way. This is very similar to the lessons we learned about PSA’s and the emotional connections we hoped to make with an audience.
Joanne Zaiac’s presentation as a whole was extremely information and interesting. Not only that, but it also incorporated many of the ideas that students are learning in COM 117.
