TRENDSETTER: Omnicom’s Vice Chairman Tim Love discusses Marketing Responsibility and “The Penalty of Freedom”
In an address to MBA students and key industry executives at Oxford University’s Said School, Tim Love, Omnicom’s Vice Chairman and recently-named Chairman of Asia Pacific India Middle East & Africa (APIMA), talked about how sweeping societal and technological change has altered traditional definitions of global brands in a world with new frames of reference.
According to Love, “Multiculturalism is fast becoming the new objective of global brand-building. The planet is not one homogeneous market.”
At the same time, Love believes that we now live at a time when definitions of borders and even nations may become somewhat less relevant. He cites that among the world’s top 100 economies, 49 are nations, while 51 are multinational corporations. “Today there is a shift in expectation. More people are touched by a brand across borders. And now given both Internet access and greater corporate transparency, we can find out more about a brand’s values.” This ranges from immediate consumer access to sources of a brand’s ingredients to its employment programs to its charitable associations and to its responsibilities in developing economies.
He adds that the evolution of media in particular is creating a new generation of global citizens whose effect on brands is undeniable. Not only is the control of information more individualized, but the individuals themselves are increasingly becoming the content creators. “We live in a more transparent, collaborative, in-touch world—where more information is good.”
Tim Love refers to Nelson Mandela’s well-known belief that education is the world’s most powerful weapon and suggests that communications is also a form of education—particularly when any individual or consumer can comment and offer ideas.
However, he reminds us that there is a penalty to this new-found freedom of unprecedented levels of shared communications. In a world where we are all more accessible and more visible, we also must become more accountable—to ourselves, to our society and to our planet.
