Rob Belgiovane, Paul Williams and Jamie Mackay bought back the 51% of the agency they founded, from Enero (ex-Photon) in August 2012
“Like most people if I had been able to predict the GFC there are a lot of things wouldn’t have done, that [the Photon deal] would perhaps be one of them. We are happy to be independent,” Mackay said at the time.
It cost them $7.5 million. And you know what, it was money well spent. BWM is soaring.
The Stable wanted to know about that and forced BWM executive creative director, Rob Belgiovane, to show off his finesse when faced with a barrage of questions. Hell, he even answered the impertinent one.
TS: Does a campaign as clever as the Veda webisodes need to be on TV?
RB: If I could go back, no I wouldn’t do a TV campaign. Using the digital TVCs to present the Veda branded content was essential to bringing the Veda brand alive, driving consumers to the brand’s touch points and getting Australian’s talking about their Veda Score.
Traditional media still has an important role to play in driving people to branded content.
No one can know what will go viral. Success isn’t an exact science. It’s all about testing a few approaches and supporting what was popular, and removing what was not.
TS: The iiNet m.d. video made with Cirkus was another video that would have had a huge impact on TV, perhaps?
RB: The iiNet m.d video was purely online, as there wasn’t a budget for television. The reason the video was so successful was because it was promoted via traditional and digital media, which were promoting the iiNet website – this in turn drove traffic to the video.
TS: Leggo’s Hidden Veg was a campaign that got inside the heads & hearts of mums and dads. Was using print the reason?
RB: Great ideas can become popular regardless of what media you use, provided you have a great insight and you base an idea around that. As long as you have that insight you could run it on a beer coaster and it would still go viral. The Leggo’s print campaign started as a beautiful idea for the channel, but was predominantly based on a good insight.
TS: You reinvented Kmart’s brand personality while the chain reinvented itself. The song is annoying beyond belief & that’s trademark retail: sticks in your brain. Tell me where it came from and what it did.
RB: In tough economic times, the family provider wants to be able to deliver quality product at a really affordable price. Kmart changed the model by providing high quality product at prices that seemed incongruous. For mothers especially, coming home with products their family love without breaking the budget overcomes the fear of being a bad provider. Guy Russo’s (Kmart’s MD) business model for Kmart was the breakthrough. All we had to do was bring that to life in a fun, stylish and approachable way. The song was the most fun you can have for a really affordable price, not dissimilar to the store.
TS: The land of the great outdoors has the world’s most boring OOH. What are we doing wrong? Or do you disagree?
RB: I think that for the most part I agree – out of home is boring. However, I think it’s boring the world over, predominantly because the role of out of home is simply to remind people of the messaging they have engaged with in other channels. It’s just the final steer before you hit the supermarket. I think that’s its primary role, and to do anything else with it is a complete waste of time.
TS: John Hegarty is really old, yet really respected in Adland-Europe. You’re not really old, but what’s it like to be in Adland-Aus when 35 is a memory?
RB: Human behaviour isn’t ageist. Nor have we as human beings changed in any way, shape or form in the last 200 years. We all love our families, we all miss home when we’re away, we all love our kids, we all want our kids to do well, we all laugh when we’re happy, and we all cry when we’re sad. Great communications are based on really fundamental human behaviour and insights. As long as people understand that underpinning great communications are great insights and great strategies, you can always do top line work no matter what age you are. As it turns out, BWM’s creative departments are staffed by some of the youngest and hungriest people in the country. When you mix that with the wisdom of people who understand human nature, you can’t go wrong.
TS: Peek into the creative future of BWM. What will BWM look like in January 2015?
I think in January 2015, BWM will be generally regarded as the advertising agency of the decade. We have spent the last year completely re-engineering our people – particularly our creative departments. We have taken special care to get rid of people who don’t want to be here, so we are now staffed with people who are engaged, ambitious and hungry. We’ve also been very careful to employ strategist and researchers that align with our vision of creating work that get Australian’s talking. BWM has always been one of Australia’s leading advertising agencies, and I think it’s well on the way to reclaiming its rightful spot at the top of Australia’s creative ladder.
