The View From Here

Seminar 4 transcript

The View from Here Event – 17th May 2007
‘Is the digital revolution driving disposable relationships?’

Photographs from Seminar 4

Good news and bad news

The bad news is, due to illness, Jonathan Durden can no longer participate in tomorrow's View from Here event. The good news is Mark Earls has agreed, at very short notice,  to replace him.  We feel very fortunate to have found a replacement of Mark's calibre at such short notice, and I'm sure we all wish Jonathan a speedy recovery. 

View from Here Seminar 4

We all enjoyed November's View from Here so much, we've decided to do another one on May 17th, 2007- and this time we're tackling the tricky subject of relationships, though not in a Jeremy Kyle style. (sorry guys but the thought of dysfunctional chavs airing their dirty laundry is a little "off brand").

The theme this time is: 

Is the digital revolution driving disposable relationships?

•

A welcome from Alex Batchelor

Well, I have to say, I thought it was an excellent evening. The speakers were great – really inspirational – and the topic, how to engage the new ‘empowered’ consumer of The Velocity Age, seemed to really polarise opinion and stimulate a lively debate.

There were a lot of interesting points of view that emerged from the debate that I will probably be kicking around for some time to come; however, before I start jotting down the main points and conclusions (if you can call them that) that I took from the evening, a bit of background…

The Velocity Age

What does it mean?

The new empowered consumer

Our premise:

Not only is the world around us changing at an incredible pace, but this is having a major impact on the relationship between brands and those that consume them. The Velocity Age is giving birth to a new breed of consumers that offer marketers an entirely new set of challenges.

Photographs from Seminar 3

Alex Batchelor

Alex joined Royal Mail as marketing Director in June 2005. Prior to that, he worked at Orange for around four years, where he was Vice President and responsible for managing and developing the Orange brand on an international basis. Alex joined Orange from the brand consultancy, Interbrand, where he spent five years and was made joint Managing Director. Before that, he held a variety of positions at consumer products group Unilever, then moved to Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, where he was Board Strategic Planner.

Mark Earls

Mark Earls is one of the leading thinkers about brands, marketing and consumer behaviour. He has been an account planner in advertising agencies and the like for most of his working life, holding senior positions in some of the largest and most influential communications companies in the world. Mark’s last job was as chair of Ogilvy’s Global Planning Council, prior to which he was Planning Director at the revolutionary St. Luke’s Communications. He was Vice Chair of the Account Planning Group from 1997-9 and has judged a number of awards competitions in the UK and abroad for communications, marketing effectiveness and innovation and even collaboration between arts and business.

His published work has regularly won awards from his peers and is considered by many to be amongst the most influential being written today. His first book, Welcome to the Creative Age, was widely read and discussed and has been translated into several languages. Dominic Mills of Campaign Magazine called it, “the book that Naomi Klein should have written”.

His latest book, Herd: how to change mass behaviour by harnessing our true nature,

was published in February 2007 by Wiley’s, challenges our received wisdom about mass behaviour and develops an alternative model rooted in our ‘Herd’ nature.

Michael Wall

Michael Wall is President International of Fallon. Following a degree in Economics and French at Sussex University, Michael worked in France for a year as a management consultant on behalf of Michelin. He spent the next year traveling around Asia before beginning his career in advertising. Michael has worked at DMB&B, Lowe, and TBWA with a variety of clients from Tesco to Sony PlayStation. As one of the founding partners of Fallon London, Michael helped to develop the Fallon brand and business into one of the most respected agencies in the UK and Europe. In September 2004, he was promoted to President International, and is responsible for the Fallon network offices in London, Singapore, Tokyo, and Sao Paulo.

Oliver James

Oliver James is a clinical psychologist, writer and television documentary producer. After a 2.2 degree from Cambridge University and completing his training as a clinical psychologist he worked in the Cassel mental hospital.

Both noted and controversial, James is a critic of evolutionary perspectives on psychology, and of what he perceives to be the conventional psychiatric approach to schizophrenia. He has written on the subject of the problematic relationship between wealth and happiness, which is the subject of his most recent book, Affluenza - How to be Middle Class, Successful and Fulfilled

Seminar 3 transcript (part three)

Seminar 3 transcript (part two)

Seminar 3 transcript (part one)

23 November 2006, Courthouse Kempinski Hotel