Benjamin Malbon

Are big ideas relevant anymore?
Absolutely, the death of the big idea has been widely mooted but the reality is quite the opposite. Big ideas are more important than they were, not less. The intensity and fragmentation of media mean that consistency, relevance and resonance are needed at an overall level for brands to connect with the greatest efficiency and potency. That said, smaller ideas matter, and it’s not either / or as often presented. If we think of big ideas as platforms and smaller ideas as fuel for those platforms, it’s clear that we need both. There’s no fire without a spark. There’s not much heat without fuel.

What role does technology play in the future? Does the future belong to specialists or generalists?
"Technology … is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other." –C.P. Snow, New York Times, March 15, 1971– Never has that been more true than for the communications industries. Technology fuels creativity. It allows us to hack existing channels and platforms, using them for new, sometimes unintended, sometime provocative, occasionally ill-advised, purposes. Technology has allowed us to create new channels and platforms, creating more engaging, useful and entertaining content for brands, delivered to people in forms and at times they prefer. Technology provides opportunities to create more immersive, vivid, and exciting experiences. Technology also creates opportunities for brands to establish different types of relationships with people. Within creative businesses we will always need specialists in the area of technology, because that’s a full-time job (and more) just on its own. But we also need hybrids, people who get excited by technology and the potential it offers, and are inspired to think in new ways about what they do. For me, the critical thing is that one knows whether one is a specialist or a generalist.

Is the recession feeding creativity?
Completely. As so many people have noted, certainly in our industry this seems like more than a recession, it seems like a re-set. We’ve yet to see the really provocative fruits of the downturn rise from the rubble, but most of us will know people, groups, agencies who have been plotting radical, experimental or disruptive projects. So at a model level, I’d say yes, it’s definitely fuelling creativity. Let’s wait and see what emerges. I have my eye on a few people and places. I’m especially excited by programs that some of the schools (VCU Brandcenter, the new Boulder Digital Works) are putting together. They understand that we don’t need more people in the industry, we need better people, more radical and challenging people. We need more mavericks and hybrids. People with craft skills but who are also boundary-testers. People who have none of our built-in respect for departmental or disciplinary boundaries or linearity. People who don’t respect orthodoxy around channels and technology use. People who think of integrated in a smarter more multi-platform and technology-powered fashion. People who embrace data as a route to magic. That’s another area where I hope to see real energy and transformation emerging in coming months.

Do award shows matter any more, and who is qualified to judge work?
Yes, for sure. I see a critical role for awards shows today in setting the agenda in a time of phenomenal flux and seemingly limitless possibility. Some might say they have always done this. I disagree. For many years certain categories of certain shows were in most ways indistinguishable from previous years. Craft skills were awarded (and this is still vital – let’s be very clear about that) but innovation and disruption were frequently in short supply. The marketing and communications industry is currently enduring an identity crisis: unsure of what it produces, how, with whom, and how to charge for it. Awards shows have an opportunity to gather some of the most respected and experienced people in the business and ask them to give some guidance in return – what should we pursue harder? What less so? What are some fledgling uses of technology or channels that they believe have potential for greater exploitation? What has the potential to be hacked, and made into something new, more creative, more effective? There is no right or wrong, but experience does matter here.

What keeps you up at night?
If anything stops me sleeping as easily as I might, it’s a preoccupation with finding and working with the right people. We’re currently experiencing one of the most exciting and challenging periods in the history of marketing. Technology – especially the internet and mobile – have dramatically increased the scale and the nature of the canvas for our creativity. At the same time, everything we do is more measurable. Yet more than ever, what we do relies on talent. Arthur C. Clarke may have been near the mark when he noted how ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. But finding the right people to make sense of what’s emerging, and who can produce applied creativity for brands, remains the most difficult task. People provide still provide the real magic.