Sep 28, 2017

Smashing Innovation

Posted by Wendy Weber

 

I’ve started going to events that don’t speak directly to my immersion in direct and digital marketing.  But I think there is value in any event that inspires you to examine the world around you.  Last night I attended a session on Innovation.

I like Tom Goodwin.  He is a “Marketing Provocateur” who speaks his mind, and isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers.  His official status is EVP, Head of Innovation at Zenith Media, and his role is to understand new technology, behaviors and platforms and ideate and implement solutions for clients.  He makes me think.  And something I’ve noticed lately is that a lot of people will do almost anything to avoid having to think.  Sometimes I am one of them.  It’s just so much easier to crash mindlessly through our days convinced that we are too busy, or that there is nothing left to innovate in our company/industry/world.

So when I saw that he was hosting an event called “Smashing Innovation: A contentious progressive debate on driving real change in advertising and beyond” my interest was piqued.

The panel consisted of:

Ty Montague – Founder – co:collective

Piers Fawkes – Founder and Editor-in-chief – PSFK

Melissa Mackey– Head of Digital Partner Strategy – Verizon

Mona Elsayed– Strategy Director – Redscout

Tom Goodwin – Head of Innovation – Zenith

The panel debated what innovation is, should be, and how to recognize it.  Tom described it as something that is hard to articulate, but that – like pornography – he knows it when he sees it.  It is rooted in taking risks.  It’s not necessarily something new and shiny; it can be as unspectacular as taking something away…a great example he gave was Jet Blue’s home page, which cuts straight through the clutter to “Book a Trip”.  Other airlines quickly followed, as it is such a clean and obvious landing page.  But it wasn’t always so…it was innovative.

One of the panelists quoted Jeff Bezos: “Advertising is a tax you pay for a lack of innovation.”  Yes!  I had never thought if it that way.

While the panel was not quite as evocative as I had imagined/hoped, it was definitely interesting, and I met interesting people on both sides of me in the audience.  I’d go to another Tom Goodwin event.

 

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