It was Mad Men’s Don Draper who famously said, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” Those ten little words have gone a long way in advertising, shaping the discussions that industry experts have of its future, and in keeping the conversation shifting on a global scale.
This is now a conversation that allows everyone to be a participant. Meetings that were once invitation-only to a select few now stream live on Periscope. Live events come accompanied with a hashtag, the international symbol that all understand and under which we are unified in learning and delighting in serendipitous discovery together.
While we may live in an era of inclusion instead of exclusion, there is one aspect of the conversation that does not change: passion. Advertising isn’t for the faint of heart, after all. It is for the ones with drive and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. It’s for those who tell stories and mine data. For the Mad Men, the idea men and women, those who strategize and execute fearlessly, the creatives who solve problems and understand the power behind a beautifully designed, emotional campaign for the consumer. And always the consumer, the person for whom at the end of the day finally feels it: they listened. There was a conversation and they, and their needs, were heard.
Through the week at Advertising Week Asia, listen in on that conversation (and tweet along) as three power players with deep roots throughout the world open up about the industry’s future.
Having spent much of his career devoted to promoting the globalization of Japanese corporate management and operations, the term power player fits Paul Yonamine like a glove. Some of Yonamine’s greatest career hits include President of Hitachi Consulting Co., Chairman of BearingPoint Asia Pacific, and President of KPMG Consulting Japan. As the Country General Manager and Preident of IBM Japan, hailed as the most successful and strategically important unit of the IBM Corporation, Yonamine will explore and investigate “IBM: Digital Marketing and New Customer Engagement in the Cognitive Era.”
Aside from passion, those who are driven in the pursuit of success tend to rarely veer off-course. Such is the case with Asako Hoshino, Senior Vice President of Nissan Japan who will be delivering a keynote no doubt including a retrospective of her illustrious career. Hoshino got her start in the late 1980s in the Marketing Intelligence Corporation as Senior Consultant of Customized Research. She joined Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. serving as Vice President in charge of Market Intelligence Dept. in 2002, moving steadily up to roles including Corporate Vice President in charge of Market Intelligence Dept. and Corporate Vice President in charge of Corporate Market Intelligence Dept.
We began the post with Don Draper and now end it with the last of the original “Mad Men,” Keith Reinhard. Founder of Ominicom and a DDB Global Chairman, Reinhard is also a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame and the first American to ever serve as Cannes Jury President. In his seminar, “The Real Mad Man: Conversation with Keith Reinhard” he will be sitting down, fireside chat style, for a conversation on his 50 + years in the business, where the global advertising industry has been, and where it’s going in the future.
