Weapons of Mass Distinction

It’s time for media agencies to think more creatively, said Sam Geer, Managing Director, and Chris Colter, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Initiative, during their MFA EX 2023 session “Weapons of Mass Distinction”. 

Why? Because when media is as creative as the creative itself, that’s when it’s most effective. And creating distinctive media devices is the way to achieve it, they said.

Here are the key takeouts:

Make Distinctive Media Devices the Goal

What is distinctiveness? It’s those elements that trigger your memory of a brand and everything it stands for, even when the brand name isn’t right in front of you.

To achieve it, shift the focus from short-term gains to distinctive media devices with long-term potential that you can build equity in.

Think of the Coca Cola billboard at Kings Cross – a 50-year screen investment. Once you have equity and consistency in a device like this, you can give it colour with cultural moments, like Pride or The Matildas.

Plan, Prioritise and Protect

Plan

To create distinctive media devices, you need to really understand your brand. Not just Why, How and What, but Where, When and Who they show up for consistently.

Prioritise

Think about which device you’re going to back and prioritise over the long term.

Protect

Don’t measure yourself short. With a distinctive device, like the Ikea shopping bags, the purpose is to build emotional memory structures and long-term associations, not drive immediate sales.

Set the right measurement agency with your clients – for example, salience over sales, affinity over action.

Evaluate the brand experience

Conduct a brand experience audit on all your clients, looking for any distinctive assets they may already have that are just waiting to be leveraged. Then build a proper launch and protection plan around them.

Watch the video of Chris Colter and Sam Geer’s talk at MFA EX here.