IAA World Congress

Moscow, 12-14 May 2010

From 'marketing' to 'serving'

Change and its consequences is a familiar theme for conferences this year, and the IAA World Congress in Moscow delivered some heavy hitting speakers, together with some important local insight, to offer new perspectives on what needs to happen first.  The overriding message was that mindsets need to change, to match the desires of what Publicis Groupe’s Maurice Lévy called “the revolutionary youth”. He said that changing consumer values mean it is no longer about “consuming more for less, but consuming less for good”. WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell had also made this a key point, alongside comment on the host nation’s potential, recovery and the industry’s failure to invest in talent. For Procter & Gamble’s Marc Pritchard actions speak louder than words. “We will look back on the great recession as the time we hit the reset button, to make a difference in what we do. To do that we need to change our mindset from ‘marketing’ to ‘serving’.” From a P&G perspective, he called the necessary discipline “purposeinspired brand building”, which speakers throughout the conference would pay tribute to.