At ADFEST 2017, Paul Kemp-Robertson, Co-Founder of Contagious, will reveal four ways of working that make a company’s marketing “truly contagious”.
 

Kemp-Robertson has spoken at ADFEST before, and his sessions are a bit like leaping into the future to discover what trends will shape our industry most profoundly.
 

We asked him to elaborate on what you’ll learn by attending his session this year.
 

Your talk will be about contagious brands. But what is a “contagious brand”?
 
For me, a contagious brand is one that understands and acts upon its core purpose, takes creative risks to stand out from the clutter, embraces technological and social change and allows the people who believe in it to truly participate in its content and to share the message and the communications. Contagious brands use their creative and financial muscle to effect meaningful change in the world and recognise that marketing is just as much about creating unique services, utilities and experiences for people as it is about generating ads.
 
Contagiousness is in the stuff that people choose to care about and feel compelled to share. It’s a spirit and a mindset that reaches beyond siloed disciplines, fusing creativity and marketing, technology, design and human behaviour.
 
Hopefully the ADFEST audience will see some ideas they wouldn’t expect to come across at an advertising conference.
 

Can you tell me a little about your process of distilling knowledge into advice for being more creative? How do you do what you do? 
 
The four Contagious pillars – Embrace Change, Prioritise Purpose, Disrupt Process and Execute Bravely – were identified by our dedicated consultancy unit, Contagious Insider. This team delivers hands-on services that equip brands and agencies to create braver, more contagious work and to become fit for the future.
 
As a company, we believe that brave, innovative creativity is the best means to gain an advantage over the competition, so we designed the pillars as a roadmap for how to achieve that.
 
Bravery isn’t necessarily instinctive; it requires practice, knowledge and reassurance – which is why the pillars are so fundamental.
 
We are able to back up our strategic advice because our judgement and our evidence is based on the mission we’ve had since launching Contagious in 2004: to focus exclusively on that top 1% of creatively innovative and commercially effective work that redefines the immediate future of marketing.
 

What was your favourite campaign or innovation of 2016?
 
At our annual Most Contagious conference in December, we awarded our Startup of the Year prize to a tiny company in Chile that uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to produce affordable, plant-based foods with the same taste and texture as their animal-based counterparts. It’s a massively innovative idea that could have a positive impact on the environment. If implemented at scale, a meat substitute, for example, could result in a 15% reduction in animal production and save the need for millions of creatures who take up land, consume massive amounts of grain and water, and belch gases like methane into the atmosphere.
 
The Not Company’s unbiased algorithm analyses food on a molecular level to predict plant-based combinations that can be used to recreate the flavours of food we are used to eating, but with healthier ingredients.
 
For example, the program might suggest mixing legumes, pumpkin seeds and pine flowers to make chocolate. This AI model also understands the price of every alternative it suggests, to keep in line with consumer expectations.
NotCo has launched a batch of products like NotMayo, NotMilk, NotSausage and NotChocolate, and are already developing alternatives to cheese, butter, pâté and yoghurt. The idea is so smart, it’s been picked up by 140 stores around Chile, including Walmart.
 
That’s what I love about Contagious. Working in marketing, it’s essential to be at the intersection of technology, innovation and emerging consumer behaviours – which means you get to analyse all kinds of amazing new, unexpected ideas.
 
* ‘How to Build a Contagious Brand’ takes place on Saturday 25th March, 10:45am. Book tickets to ADFEST here
 


www.contagious.com