Brands should be flexible on product but stubborn on vision

Dentsu Branded Agencies launched a piece of thought leadership called ‘Dynamo Brand Index.’ that has the potential to really disrupt our industry. The Dynamo Brand Index is a global study, in collaboration with The Effectiveness Partnership, that offers a new way to think about brands. Michael Chadwick, APAC CSO, DBA was clear — what won for brands in the past (scale, heritage, share of voice) may not mean success in the future. DBA’s model investigates momentum and where brands are headed. The study crowd-sourced its data, finding examples of vibrant, fast-growing brands in overseas markets that we can all learn from.

At the heart of the work is the evidence that in the new economy, successful brands are marrying energy and direction. Energy is all about a brand’s presence, it’s ability to do new things and turn up in new ways. Direction means knowing where you’re going. Globally, there’s a surplus of direction, but a shortage of energy.

Check out the DBA team’s excellent session here — and follow up on their website for more information.

R/GA Ventures brought eight female founders to The Palais today all with strong purpose-led businesses that are trying to solve issues through innovation and technology. Hearing about these entrepreneurial, locally-led businesses is really important because it helps us to identify opportunities

critical to the economy and where people are bridging the gap between what is available and what is needed; people’s basic human needs and motivations which is something we at dentsu X are most interested in. There were three start-ups that I thought were the most compelling.

Medixus (Kenya): There are not enough doctors in Africa, especially in rural areas — as little a 1 doctor per 100,000 people. Medixus created a knowledge sharing platform on mobiles that helps African doctors find mentors to discuss challenging cases securely.

Praxis (USA): This business looks to increase diversity & inclusion through research-backed VR education experiences, providing VR-based unconscious bias training to corporations.

SheKab (Pakistan): Pakistan’s first shared taxi service for females ensuring their safety and security. In Pakistan, women spend 40% of their income on getting private transportation due to its inadequate safety, while men spend only 5%.

ZX Ventures & AB InBev did a session on creating a start-up approach to support young new businesses and how big corporates and start-ups can help each other — these corporations have a responsibility to help new businesses grow.

There were five key takeaways that are very applicable to the way we approach our clients:

• Find deep purpose
• Be flexible on product
• Be tech or dead
• Be prepared to go for millions of markets
• Nobody wants to be a startup forever — they are looking for scale

The most interesting piece of advice I heard was that brands should be flexible on the product, but stubborn on vision. Brands need to start looking at bigger competitor sets, broadening their outlook — for example; Nike started as an American running shoe company and is now inspiring athletes around the world. The total addressable market is smaller than the total addressable problem.

The Future Lions is a great category for us to review. It’s a creative competition that challenges students to produce innovative ideas that will create the future using Tech. The most interesting case was Vodafone — the students created a necklace that used AI to recreate the voice the patient lost, enabling them to communicate with loved ones once again. The device synced with patients mouth movements and gestures to recreate full vocal expression and emotion.

Mikiko Nishihara, Business Producer, dentsu X