Creativity is ‘effectiveness’: DDB’s Amir Kassaei

DDB Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Amir Kassaei presented the last of the Knowledge Seminars on day two of Goafest 2013.

Noting that we are in stage of evolution, he said, “I don’t believe advertising is dying but it is evolving. We are in a fast evolving and most interesting period of our times.”

Kassaei termed the period from 1995 to 2011 as the ‘age of digital and fragmentation’, and the period from 2011 as the age of technology.

“Digital is the electricity of the 21st century. In the next 15 to 20 years, everything that can be connected will be connected. This will completely change the way we work, communicate, get information or get entertainment; the way we innovate, or collaborate, the way we do business or define quality, usage, design. Now, we are in a stage, where there is no difference between online and offline,” he said.

According to Kassaei, digital can be used as a tool but a marketer should not confuse it with an idea. He explained, “Technology cannot replace an idea. A marketer will always need that ‘idea’. One should use digital infrastructure to come up with an idea that produces a brand experience in a completely different way than the way it was.”

Talking further on the aspect of problem solving, he mentioned that in order to solve a problem one needs to define it correctly – whether it is awareness, brand loyalty or something else. “It helps one to be more effective and more creative,” he added.

Pointing out the importance of a brand’s relationship with the consumer, he said that a marketer should start to see the people who are out there not as a grey mass or some defined target groups but as ‘friends’.

Kassaei stressed that brands have to live the purpose and not just claim the purpose. “For the first time in the history of human world, everyone in the world can access everything in real time. As marketers, you need to be aware of that and live your brand promise.”

Terming Apple’s advertising mediocre, he attributed the brand’s success to the brand living the promise at all consumer touch points – be it the product or the store.

“Creativity is ‘effectiveness’. It lies in producing results,” Kassaei said. He went on to say that if a creative person thinks that he is an artist, he is probably in the wrong business. A creative person in advertising is the one who proves to his client that his solution is the best and can provide the desired results for the business, he added.

Kassaei believes that one can never ever be in the advertising business alone. Explaining his point he said, “We are in the business of making the product, services of the brand of our clients relevant. That’s the business we are in. The goal should be to use your creative talent to help your client and change the world for your client.”