A global theme at the moment is: transparency. It’s trickled
down right from the top through to brands and what consumers want from brands.
The world is starting to demand more openness from policy
makers, their brands and their agencies. I believe the riots we are witnessing
all over the world at the moment are in part because we are angry with our
leaders because of corruption and bad leadership. We want transparency from our
leaders. This is happening in countries from Libya to the USA, to cities like London
and beyond.
It is a theme that has been spoken widely about at this year’s
AdAsia’s conference. Indra Nooyi PepsiCo CEO, speaking at the event spoke of
these volatile times and said that all companies need to be open to their workers
and consumers. John Winsor, CEO of Victor and Spoils, spoke of the future of
advertising and the relationship between the client and agency; at the heart of
the relationship is trust and trust has eroded. Client’s want to know what they
are been charged for and why they are been charged for it. Again and again the
theme comes back to transparency.
I believe the reason why transparency is at the forefront is
because we want people to be accountable. We have witnessed many businesses that
led bad practice go on for longer than they should have. We want our leaders to
be accountable and for this to happen we need them and their practices to be transparent.
I am eager to see how these theme develops.
