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McCann Erickson Australia is an award-winning creative advertising agency, marketing agency, brand strategy agency, digital agency and graphic design agency with Sydney and Melbourne advertising agencies. McCann Erickson Australia is part of McCannWorldgroup. Since its formation in 1997, McCann Worldgroup has grown to become one of the world’s leading marketing communications organizations. It currently operates in more than 110 countries with best-in-class capabilities in seven branded communications disciplines. McCann Worldgroup delivers marketing solutions that transform brands and grow businesses. The company is comprised of a roster of best-in-class agencies, including McCann Erickson Worldwide (the world’s largest advertising agency network); MRM Worldwide (digital marketing/relationship management); Momentum Worldwide (event marketing/promotion); McCann Healthcare Worldwide (professional/dtc communications); WGEXP (global production); UM (media management); Weber Shandwick (public relations) and FutureBrand (consulting/design).

McCann’s Sydney and Melbourne integrated advertising work regularly features in AdNews, B&T, Mumbrella and Campaign Brief as well as numerous creative and digital advertising award shows including the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, One Show, Clio Awards, New York Festivals and local Australian advertising shows including the Australian Writers and Art Directors (AWARD) and Melbourne Art Directors Club (MADC) awards. The business has also been recognised in the B&T and AdNews Agency of the Year Awards.

A multidisciplined marketing communications agency, McCann Erickson’s services encompass brand strategy, advertising, direct marketing and design, including a full suite of digital, interactive, online and web services and all associated productionservices, both for above-the-line media, including television, print, outdoor, radio and magazine, and online and below-the-line media including email marketing, e-crm, direct mail, collateral, visual merchandising and public relations, as well as through-the-line media neutral and integrated communications services including experiential and activation services and installations and event management.

McCann Australia also houses MRM. As the network’s world-leading technology-driven marketing solutions arm, MRM is operational in 34 offices across 25 countries and works with some of the world’s leading brands including: General Motors, Nestle, Intel, Dell, Verizon, Mastercard and Johnson & Johnson. MRM’s primary focus is delivering Return On Investment models for marketing communications, with fully integrated creative and technology expertise in CRM, digital and brand platforms to create lasting,memorable brand experiences across the entire digital landscape. Few agencies can deliver the analytics, results and streamlined simplicity that McCann and MRM’s combined competencies offer in strategy, creativity, performance and technology.

McCann and MRM are staffed by a group of multinational agency professionals seeking to create a strategic and creative alternative to traditional agency thinking. A regular on Australian agency pitch lists, McCann competes against the likes of AJF Partnership, DDB, Badjar Ogilvy & Mather, BBH, BMF, BWM, Campaign Palace, Clemenger BBDO, Cummins Ross, Euro RSCG, George Patterson (GP Y&R), Grey Worldwide, Host, Jack Watts Currie, JWT, Leo Burnett, Marmalade, M&C Saatchi, Publicis Mojo, Naked, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Furnace, The Glue Society, The works and Three Drunk Monkeys.

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Whatever you can do, Walt Disney could do better.

When I went through the Disney exhibition at ACMI a little while ago, I thought it’d be all mermaids and maidens and pre-teen wish fulfilment. Which it was. But it was also something much more interesting: an insight into one of the most powerful creative brands the world has ever seen.

 

People often fall into the trap of thinking that they (or at least their generation) are doing things never done before. But when you learn about what Walt Disney actually dared to achieve in his lifetime, it’s beyond staggering.

 

On the wall of the exhibition was a quote of his, and it’s worth taking note of:

 

“Somehow I can’t believe there are many heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarised in four C’s. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe it all over, implicitly and unquestioningly.” – Walt Disney.

 

This is a guy who didn’t just make with the words: he lived every bit of it.

 

Obviously, you need creative curiosity to do things like invent Mickey Mouse and create (not to mention voice) his character. But how much confidence and courage do you need to do the following:

 

Decide to create the world’s first feature-length animated film. This at a time when no other animated film had ever exceeded a few minutes, and was never aimed at anyone but children. Disney bet everything he had on being able to create a feature-length animated film (Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs) that everyone would want to see.

 

Everyone was sure it would fail. All the advice he received was to ditch his crazy plan. But he went ahead and did it anyway. You know the rest: massive success, complete game-changer.

 

Curiosity means never being satisfied with the status quo. So Disney also invented an entirely new camera to make his films with.

 

But what he did next perfectly summed up his belief in the 4 C’s: Curiosity, Confidence, Courage and Constancy. He decided that the Disney brand didn’t merely have to be something that people saw on the screen… it could and should be something they can engage with, and actually live.

 

So he decided to build the most incredible theme park the world had ever seen, and in doing so take his brand off the screen and into the real world.

 

In briefing his architects on the 160 acre Disneyland site, Walt had this to say: “I want it to look like nothing else in the world.”

 

How’s that for confidence and courage?

 

Not only that, but he implicitly understood that the entire Disney experience must be perfectly consistent. No half-arsed recreations at Disneyland, every touchpoint needed to be perfect across the entire brand.

 

People today talk about activation and consumer engagement and consistency of brand experience like they just invented it. Walt mastered this shit before any of us were even born.

 

Awards? He individually won 22 Academy Awards from 59 nominations. Throw in 4 honorary awards, and that’s one hell of a trophy shelf.

 

It’s easy to look at Disney today and see it as a monolithic corporate, the antithesis of all that is brave and daring and creative. But have a look at what built this empire which today turns over $35 billion a year:

 

What you’ll see is commercial creativity in its most perfect form. And what underpinned Disney’s creativity? His 4 C’s: Curiosity, Confidence, Courage and Constancy. You could do worse than make them yours.

 

 

*and no, he didn’t have his head cryogenically frozen or any crazy shit like that. Quite the opposite in fact: he was cremated. But he DID testify to Hoover’s anti-American goons, and by all accounts believed that the Screenwriters Guild was a communist front. Which just goes to prove that nobody is perfect.

 

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We create advertising in all its forms. Our philosophy is summed up by Truth Well Told: a belief that powerful emotional truths, turned into compelling stories, have the power to transform brands. We are in Melbourne and Sydney, and all over the world.

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