Tutssel plays to a full house in Melbourne

Last night in Melbourne the MADC hosted Mark Tutssel, Leo Burnett’s global chief creative officer and chairman of the 2010 Cannes film and print juries, for an intimate talk about his views on the future of the industry, judging award shows, lessons he has learned and the direction he’s taking Leo Burnett worldwide.

Speaking to a sell-out crowd, Tutssel was honest and unpretentious in his delivery, sitting casually on a chair at the front of the theatre and happily fielding questions from the audience. Says Tutssel: “It’s our duty to be creative and interesting. We don’t have a divine right to people’s attention.”

Having just judged the ANDY Awards, Tutssel said he was disappointed in the work this year.

“I don’t know what I was expecting but I was expecting something. Thecupboard was bare – and that frightened me,” he said – although he didsingle out the Gatorade ‘Replay’ campaign as an example of a greatpiece of work.

In talking about the changing nature of creativity and advertising, Tutssel proclaimed, “the days of selling are dead”.

“It’s about activating and amplifying human purpose in a fresh new way.”

He used DDB’s VW ‘Night Driving’ campaign as an example, telling theaudience that great ads no longer feel like they are selling yousomething.

“The VW campaign was an inspired understanding of human behaviour andthe way people interact with their cars, rather than trying to sellthem a car,” he said.

“They understood that there is joy and freedom in driving at night.It’s for people who just love driving,” he said. For the length of thecampaign, VW dealerships were closed during the day and only open atnight.

Being frightened was a recurring theme in Tutssel’s talk. He spokeabout the task of reshaping Leo Burnett worldwide and how that processhas scared a few people, including clients.

“Clients know the road is running out and they have to change the waythey operate. It is difficult – there are clients out there who hidebehind research.”

He told a story about a global client who did exactly that and how itwas killing the work. Tutssel put together two reels and invited theclient over to watch them. He played the first one and asked the clienthis opinion.

“That was hideous – they all spoke at me, not to me. They were crap,” the client said.

He played the second one and the client was jumping up and down with excitement – “That was amazing stuff. Play it again!”

And so they did.

Afterwards, Tutssel told the client that the ads on first reel wererated as the Top 10 in international Ipsos ASI research. The secondreel was examples from Burnetts offices around the world whose clientsbelieved in their agency, not research.

There was silence in the room and then the marketing director turned around and said, “I take your point”.

Within Burnetts, Tutssel has created ‘Energy Pools’. They are groups ofyoung, inexperienced people in hubs around the world, who are allowedto work on the most coveted briefs in the network, including pitches.

“They’ve been winning, too. They beat Goodby – who are one of theworld’s best agencies – in a recent pitch and that scared all our oldercreatives,” he said.

“When you say ‘digital’ to young people, they say, “what’s ‘digital?” To them, digital is everyday life.”

 Tutssel also spoke about Burnett’s philosophy of HumanKind, which isbased on creating ideas and experiences that are human-centred and havethe ability to transform the way a person thinks, feels and ultimatelybehaves.

“The ultimate goal of humankind is to create work that enrichespeople’s lives – with content that genuinely moves people,” Tutsselsaid, illustrating his point with the Leo Burnett Portugal’s recent‘Hope Store’ campaign for the Red Cross.

The audience was filled with a cross-section of creatives, producers, suits, photographers, students and clients.

“It was unique that an agency shared some of its insights sogenerously,” said Richard Patterson, creative director of OnionCommunications.

“It is exactly the sort of thing the MADC should be doing – offering ushigh-level stimulating events which leave us in a position of thinkingabout things differently. Mark Tutssel’s talk contained truths andtools that were relevant to everyone in the communications buisiness,”he added.

Richie Ralphsmith, MADC President said that the talk was creativelychallenging and reminded us all that people should always be at thecentre of everything we do.

“As part the revitalised MADC, we’ll be bringing our members manyopportunities to be inspired by creative leaders. Mark Tutssel iscertainly one of those. We’re grateful to him and Leo Burnett’s forsharing such wonderful insights with us,” said Ralphsmith.