Taipei Times: As your company's mission is to come up with creative solutions to create publicity for clients, how do you define "creative media?"
Andreas Vogiatzakis: Creative media has to show that it helps meet the objective -- it could be sales, awareness, maximum delivery or anything. It shows the "wow" experience -- making the audience experience something that is different. And to show innovation in the market, is [the media] an execution that was not done before? When we talk to our clients about creative media, it's not only something that looks cool, crazy or different. It could be a very well-done integrated campaign, using different media in the most efficient ways and bringing them all together in the best ways possible, synergistically.
For example, years ago, we put a Ford car [body] on the top of a building [in Taipei], which was a cooperative venture between us and J. Walter Thompson. We wanted to convey the idea that there are no boundaries and no limits for the Ford Escape, and the whole campaign was based on this idea. Although it was pulled off after two or three days [as the government expressed concerns about public safety], it generated so much publicity. Because of the entire campaign, the Ford Escape has become the most popular SUV in Taiwan.
We have also done a Nike "speed" campaign with a print execution that's simply creative. Also, the toothbrush-shaped bus stop sign for Gillette is a good example. It's using the same medium in a different way.
TT: Traditionally media buyers only focused on budgets and figures. Why do you believe that creative media will be a future trend?
Vogiatzakis: Because I believe that if we focus only on the price, we're going to completely lose touch with the customers. Do we think that consumers know how much a spot costs on TV, or how much we pay for a page in the newspapers? They don't know, and probably they don't care. What they care about is that they have less time to read the newspapers, and they get tired of commercials. They want to avoid them. So it's our job to understand [consumers] better, and to try to touch their minds in a way that we don't upset them, but we create an impact for them. That's why I believe that traditional buying is not going to be the ticket for success in the future. We need to understand consumers differently. That's why we invest a lot in research. But we need to be careful, because just to be creative is not good; If it links with strategies and brings results, it's perfect.
TT: MindShare has been in business for 10 years. As an industry veteran, what changes have you seen in the Taiwanese market in terms of the advertising industry?
Vogiatzakis: I've been here for only three years, but I can tell you that I've seen changes that are incredibly different from five years ago. First of all, cable TV -- that really changed the media scene a lot: the channel choices for consumers, the intense competition among the channels, the different price structures between the cable channels, and also in conjunction with terrestrial television. How the market has developed -- cable TV from nothing, to a lion's share.
The second change is the market entry of [the Chinese-language newspaper] the Apple Daily, which has created a lot of challenges. It proved that there's room to play, because the consumers are up to it.
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