The legendary campaigns for brands such as Levi's, Johnnie Walker, Axe and Audi from the 1980s and 1990s, whose claims are still remembered today and many of us grew up with, have one name in common: John Hegarty. One of the founders of creative agency BBH will be speaking at the Brand Management conference in Prague this autumn.
The subtitle of this year's event, now in its tenth year, is "Married to Creativity." There are few people who would describe this adjective better. "Throughout my career, I have always seen creativity as a way to increase business efficiency. I've helped companies grow, helped them define who they are. And creativity is a way to do that," Hegarty said in a video invitation to the conference.
He has been on the global advertising scene for sixty years. He was one of the founders of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970 and three years later co-founded the creative agency BBH (Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty), which today has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Shanghai, Singapore and Mumbai, in addition to London.
Creativity requires courage
Creativity is a kind of ultimate value for John Hegarty. Something you can't build a successful business without. It is creativity, a hard-to-grasp force, that can magically transform an initial idea into an emotion. But its key ingredient is courage and boldness. "Boldness is crucial in the advertising industry, because you have to come into the office with a new idea and pitch it to a bunch of skeptics. Every day," he writes in his book Hegarty on Creativity: There Are No Rules (2015).
The unmistakable codes of Johnnie Walker whisky include the square bottle and the slanted label, designed by John Walker's son Alexander, who inherited the distillery from his father. The slogan "Keep Walking", another symbol of the brand, is, however, the work of the Hegarty agency.
Hegarty's team at BBH has been devising campaigns for the Levi's brand for 28 years. Remember the TV spots featuring Mr. Bombastic or the yellow Flat Eric plushie (who then appeared in a music video by electro music DJ Mr. Oiza)?
Another 1991 commercial also featured a young Brad Pitt.
At the turn of the millennium, another famous Hollywood actor, Ben Affleck, starred in a commercial for Axe deodorants. The Unilever brand was another long-standing client of BBH, which has been part of the Publicis group since 2012.
In 2014, John Hegarty co-founded The Garage Soho, which invests in startups and their brands.
For the first time in front of Czech marketers
Advertising legend Sir John Hegarty will take the stage at the Brand Management Conference on 3 October 2024 at the Cubex Centre in Prague. More than five hundred senior marketers in attendance will hear first-hand the importance Hegarty places on the power of creativity in direct relation to brand building and business growth. In his keynote, he will explain why it is useful to view creativity as an integral part of business strategy.
By the way, do you know why the black sheep became the symbol of BBH agency? It represents its entire philosophy and identity. It happened in 1982 after a successful campaign for the new Levi's brand, the then unusual black jeans. The poster, with a flock of white sheep looking in the same direction and a single black sheep in the middle, standing in the opposite direction, initially scared the client's representatives. "Where are the jeans! they exclaimed. I politely - or rather relatively politely... - reminded them that everyone knows what jeans look like, (...). It was necessary to say quite clearly: you will be different. You will not be one of the crowd. You will not be one of the herd," Hegarty recalls in the book. The original slogan was "When the world zigs, zag." And that's Hegarty's important message, too. Only by looking in the opposite direction can you discover something new.
Visual of Levi's; Source: agency BBHBrand Management for the tenth time this year
The Brand Management conference has been organised by Blue Events since 2015 and its long-term mission is to strengthen the role of marketing in companies. They believe that strong brands are the key to a successful business. It introduces Czech audiences to industry leaders and bestselling authors. Past speakers include Jim Stengel, Ken Segall, Rita Clifton, Sean Pillot de Chenecey, Jenni Romaniuk, Thomas Barta, Dan White, Orlando Wood and Les Binet. In this year's Behavio survey, respondents ranked Brand Management as the most beneficial conference for marketers in the country.
The text is published as part of a media partnership between Blue Events and MediaGuru.cz.
Source: mediaguru.cz
