Advertising has come a long way and one visionary who’s looking into the future has plans to bring his agency to India. During Goafest 2008, Scott Goodson said that he believed the future of advertising hinges on central ideas instead of focusing too much on the technical and gimmick-based aspects. The founder of Strawberry Frog believes that it’s “…more about the ‘idea’ and less about execution. The value will lie in the creative.” So how does Strawberry Frog go about being a different and viable alternative?
Strawberry Frog is headquartered in NYC and has a major presence in Brazil, New York and Amsterdam. It intends to use its diverse experience that has helped its client base (i.e. Heineken, Mitsubishi, IKEA, Sony Ericsson and Xerox) to initiate a cultural movement instead of merely marketing a brand.
In fact, before the Frog creates communications, they look at the cultural movement in the target markets, and after studying the necessary cultural connections, development of brand ideas begin. Goodson strongly recommends this mode of marketing to clients across the globe.
When ideas are planted in society, the Frog believes that the real challenge is to have communities believe in those ideas. After this, communities are then provided with tools to amplify their philosophy and then mass media to popularize it! This obviously brings to light the World Wide Web—the Internet, which is popular in India but not all the way.
Goodson does believe that the Web and India are compatible in excellent and productive ways. Although it will take a while for our country to improve our technology and cultural schematics, and the way they work together, Goodson believes that both are components of the future. They might take time to meet up and he feels it’s his responsibility and a proposition to make them do so.
Goodson also said that he wanted to enter the Indian advertising market by this year. He felt that the general perception of advertisement agencies is that their size, projects and so on prove nothing because dinosaurs are not necessarily the market leaders. Goodson hoped to break this view and let everyone know that being a successful agency is about accepting that there are alternatives and clients around the world are looking for them.
Goodson’s view about the future of advertising bears mention—he considers his agency as an independent, smart and forward thinking and uses its brains rather than its size to get what it wants. A likeable comparison to an element in the name of his agency, the frog, which has to outwit a city full of dinosaurs! And because frogs are smaller, Goodson feels that the agency can “…stay one hop ahead.”
So has the Indian sub-continent seen a notable Indian company working with Strawberry Frog already? There definitely is and it is automobile giant, Mahindra & Mahindra who’ve recently appointed the Frog to design a communication strategy for its foray into the US Markets for SUVs. All in line with Goodson’s statement, “I want to make India the hub for our operations in Asia”.