Real world connections matter: Facebook's Mark D'Arcy

2014 is the year when the ad-land’s prestigious body The Ad Club turns 60! Marking this momentous and celebratory occasion, The Ad Club hosted a session with Facebook’s the Chief Creative Officer - Mark D’Arcy.

The session saw a full house attendance of media, brands and advertising who’s who, where Mark D’Arcy gave an understanding and his opinion on ‘Creativity that Matters’.

Mark D’Arcy began his session by highlighting, ‘Creativity is the key to unlock any medium’.  He further said, “The thorough transformation and evolution of technology that we all can see today was not there when I was a kid. At that time the biggest technological product which could mark the evolution of technology in New Zealand was a digital watch with calculator but today we all have super powers in hand. I strongly feel that today creativity is in line with technology and technology is what is enabling creativity at every point.” He feels that creativity and technology are changing businesses and giving a new way for different platforms and applications.

Being an admirer of Bill Bernbach, he believes that creativity is not abstract, but it is aligned with technology. “Today with companies like Facebook and others we have the advantage of connecting, engaging and involving people in real time hence content that has always played a vital role again plays a vital role here in terms of engaging the audiences but what will make a brand stand out is the way it is/has using/used the platform, therefore, Creativity that matters.”

Apart from this, what has majorly changed according to Mark is the way advertising and marketing fraternity approaches its audiences. He said, “The marketing and advertising world has seen a fundamental shift in past few years. Not only marketing and advertising fraternity but the communication industry as a whole has also gone through this shift. We have moved on from disruption to connection. So it is quite fair to say that marketing is getting newish day by day.”

To make the audience understand how brands can make optimum use of Facebook, he cited an interesting example of Nescafe’s campaign called ‘Can we turn virtual friends into real life friends?’ wherein an average guy unexpectedly meets his Facebook friends and offer them a coffee at their doorstep like real friends would do. These two month encounters were captured and were created in a two-hour long web documentary. The documentary went viral and reached around 7 million viewers therefore helping the brand become a symbol of true connections.

Another point that Mark mentioned that evening was the marketers need to start marketing for people from marketing at people. He said, “For Example, when marketers use Facebook etc, it is important to know how to optimize the medium. Connection of people is really important when someone uses a platform like Fcabook. Till the time one doesn’t understands the science, it will not be able to advertise correctly or cater to right set of target audience.”

Making a very true point, Mark said, “Facebook as an organization itself saw a drastic change when it evolved from being a desktop company an on-the-go app. This technological journey has made the company learn a lot many things in the digital world.”

Concluding the session, Mark said, “Consumption of video on mobile is something that is in conversation everywhere and is surely going to create wonders going ahead.” “The success to anything depends on the way we approach them,” he said while concluding the session.

For information and records; after two decades working as a writer and Chief Creative Officer in advertising and media, Mark joined Facebook in 2011 to better explore the creative potential of the Facebook platform.

As part of this effort, last year he founded the Facebook Creative Council. Comprised of some of the most highly regarded and influential creative voices in the world. The council provides Facebook with invaluable perspectives and ideas to better engage and educate the global creative community, Identify and celebrate breakthrough work and influence how Facebook develops to be an even richer and more engaging place to connect brands with the people they serve.

Prior to joining Facebook Mark spent seven years at Time Warner in New York, as Chief Creative Officer of its Global Media Group. Here he co-developed the first truly creative media arts practice within a global media company designed to better leverage the company’s extensive television, film, print and digital assets for its key marketing partners. In 2009, Mark was also named President of the Group and Senior Vice President of Time Warner.

Mark has been widely recognized for his creativity and leadership in the creative industries and regularly speaks all around the world on the subject of creativity in social media, the transformation of marketing, the communication arts and the role and purpose of brands in society. Mark has served as a juror on numerous international awards shows including the CLIO Awards, LIA Awards, The International ANDY Awards and in 2013 served on the inaugural Innovations Lions jury at the Cannes Lions Awards.

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