On Thursday, July 23, Gareth Kay spoke as part of the "Outside Voices Speakers Series" 
at the Curtis Hotel on "Why Ideas Need To Be Different"

Formerly - in fact, very recently formerly, the head of planning for Modernista! in Boston, Mr. Kay is currently bound for San Francisco where he will become Director of Digital for Goodby Silverstein. 

Of the insights and "different thinking" he presented, along with samples of these notions that included work from Great Britain and the US (with work from our own Crispin Porter + Bogusky among the samples) Gareth showed an emerging importance that goes beyond awareness and branding, past simple engagement, with a focus and purpose of participation and involvement. 

"Influencing cultural practices and behaviors with vessels of meaning designed to fill in gaps and invite participation and motivate sociability." Kay said, showing examples of Nine Inch Nails 2007 Experience, Nike's Chalkbot as well as Levis "Go Forth" and Cadbury's "Gorilla Dreams" spots, "This type of messaging motivates an action not just a passive recognition."

Other samples included environmental placements of massages in the form of monoliths and painted crosswalks and manhole covers, integrated with online and mobile applications and point-of-purchase.

Big visuals and big budgets may get in the way of effectively communicating – and engaging - those people who get most of their ideas about products and services on their mobile devices and other more intimate delivery systems. Personal and extremely relevant engagement with your customer is a far more powerful way to reach today’s young and busy audiences. It’s critical to connect with what they care about.

The dinner at the Samba Room following the event gave us more of Gareth’s insights. In an industry in which technology changes faster than the speed of thought, he assured us that we’re all in for a different, and very exciting ride.

Gareth's descriptives for good messaging: Magnetic, Deep, Slippery, Spreadable, Participatory, Generative. Now, please keep in mind that, with his heavy British accent, your humble scribe is prone to translation issues... but that's what I heard.

Follow Gareth's blog at GarethKay.com and ask him yourself.

Stay tuned for upcoming Outside Voices here as well!



Special thanks to Samba Room and Larimer Square for hosting the VIP dinner after the event. To attend future dinners after each Outside Voices Series event, contact Gregg Bergan.

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