Two advertisers take the industry to account. Are you sold?

DAWN HUDSON
JOB Senior VP, strategy and marketing
ORG Pepsi-Cola North America
PLACE Purchase, New York

What's wrong with advertising? As a client, I need to hear more of, "Hey, here's an idea!" If ad agencies are truly in the idea business, then they need to completely shed the old mentality of simply making ads. They're beginning to turn in that direction, which is actually a return to what the industry has always been about: creativity.

I want an agency that is creative enough to help me reinvent my total business. Lots of agencies understand brands and how to reinvent them, but I'm not seeing the kind of big-picture thinking that will help clients take advantage of the multiple ways in which people experience brands. Beyond that, the other challenge that keeps me up at night is keeping a really big brand vibrant. We're pretty good at coming up with new products and reaching out to new consumer groups. But how do I grow a big kahuna like Pepsi?

Today, the average American receives more than 3,000 marketing messages a day, and I would argue that advertising has never been more relevant. As people's attention spans shorten, there's an even greater need for an enduring brand. Of course, the challenge is creating campaigns that will last a decade. The future of advertising lies with passionate brand advocates who not only bring ideas to their clients but also help them figure out how to communicate those ideas in a truly integrated way.

CJ FRALEIGH
JOB Executive director, advertising and corporate marketing
ORG General Motors
PLACE Detroit, Michigan

Media dollars may be down in general, but the role of advertising is just as critical as ever. The world continues to get more competitive and more cluttered. To succeed in that kind of Darwinian environment, companies constantly have to find new ways to stand above the crowd and connect with the consumer. For that reason, we haven’t made any significant cutbacks in media spending.

In fact, we recently launched a brand-new Cadillac campaign. Traditionally, Cadillac has not been the coolest or the most relevant brand to people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. But we have just spent billions of dollars producing some of the most innovative vehicles in the world, so now is the time to come out with an entirely new ad campaign. More than anything else, we need advertising to make an emotional connection with consumers. Emotion grabs attention — and ultimately sells products.

Last year, U.S. market share went up for General Motors, and we made money. We’re the only domestic automotive manufacturer that can make that claim. We started to make products that people need to have as opposed to products that people want to have. Advertising has a critical role: It tells a story in such a way that a product becomes totally relevant to people’s lives.