Leap: A Revolution in Creative Business Strategy

By Bob Schmetterer

Traditionally, company leaders develop a business strategy based on bottom lines and profit margins, then hire an ad agency to back up that strategy with creative advertising. But history shows that some of the most effective branding campaigns are born when companies work with ad agencies to develop a business strategy that has a big, creative idea at its heart-what CEO of Euro RSCG Bob Schmetterer calls the Creative Business Idea. In Leap, Bob Schmetterer shows advertisers how to combine advertising creativity and bottom-line realities to develop winning business strategies and winning ad campaigns. He analyzes some of the most creative business ideas in history, showing how successful advertising and marketing strategies do more than simply communicate the brand-they define it. Advertisers know how to create demand for an existing brand, but Schmetterer argues that the next challenge for advertisers is to help their clients apply creative thinking to their core business strategy before they launch a branding blitz. Leap is about connecting the left brain and the right brain to develop solid business strategies that are also creative, fresh, and exciting. It's about mixing business's cold fixation on numbers with the warm heart of art and creativity to build revolutionary brands. It's about connecting with and listening to the client, understanding the business and the product, tapping into the client's passion for the product, and transmitting that passion to the consumer. It's about what happens when the business makes creativity part of its core strategy-enabling it to move beyond self-imposed boundaries and expand the limits of its reach. With a wealth of examples from Volvo to Purdue, Schmetterer shows ad agencies and managers how to help their clients develop the big, creative idea that will transform their businesses-and perhaps their industries. It's time for companies to make the Leap that synthesizes business and creativity to reap the full rewards of profitable innovation. BOB SCHMETTERER is Chairman and CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide, a one of the world's top five global advertising and communications agencies with clients such as Intel, Peugeot, Air France, Orange, Abby National, MCI, Danone Group, Reckitt Benckiser, Volvo, and Yahoo

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471229172
• ISBN13: 9780471229179
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: WILEY
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended!

Every executive pays lip service to creativity, but truly unusual ideas are tough to find among the button-down set. When it comes to encouraging and developing groundbreaking ideas, most organizations are at a loss. Enter advertising exec Bob Schmetterer and his focus on creative business ideas. These strategies, such as Volvo's emphasis on safety, set a brand apart from its rivals. How do you get creative? It could be as simple as tearing out your office doors and walls, and hiring a few dyslexics. Schmetterer`s clear, crisp writing style, bold suggestions and liberal use of intriguing corporate case studies make this book a joy to read. We suggest it to any executive whose brand must cut through the clutter.

There's No Time Like the Future

In working with Management teams charged with business development, our perspective is to always challenge the purpose of an effort or endeavor. No `work' exists that ignores the business product, clear communication, and an experience. All three components apply to anything we do either working for ourselves or companies as a: consultant, customer service agent, gas station attendant, secretary, CEO, insurance agent, factory worker, and of course, an advertising and marketing agency representative.Bob Schmetterer offers a framework for you to get at Why you do what you do, and How do you do it. This book is an inspiration for taking whatever you are engaged with, turning it on its side, and challenging the very premise of its existence. As I read the book, I have made so many notes that I must be careful not to overwhelm my customers with too many questions, challenges, and ideas.If you soak-up all the principles awash throughout the book and apply what you learn to your work or experiences you already know, you could walk into the Kroger and redesign the Experience of the produce department, propose a new Brand perspective to AAA insurance, or redefine how your customers `use you.'To be inspired, the reading material has to be inspiring. Bob Schmetterer's LEAP will go down in business literature as a fairy tale come to life. Bob, please conscript me into your service!

Fascinating, entertaning, insightful, powerful , wonderful..

Reviewer: Michael Adams, President, Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey....The concepts of Creative Business Idea's [CBI's], organizational DNA and wars rooms are capturing. Bob Schmetterer skillfully built his case with strong examples and reinforced key ideas with "Before You Leap" summaries. I thought the "voice" quite masterful - quite personal and capturing. Throughout Bob's career, and across Euro RSCG units, breathtaking CBI's have been created, but there is no hint of arrogance. It comes across as simply, " this is the way we do business - so should you."

I'll definitely recommend this book!

As a small-business owner, I constantly face the challenge of harnessing the creativity of my colleagues AND clients, and making our work fresh. And this book isn't the same old same old "how to motivate" genre. It's a solid read because it isn't didactic; it uses examples and anecdotes to illustrate how thinking differently absolutely leads to success. And it was interesting to learn about the origins of some of business' most enduring products (the Walkman/Discman) and advertising's longest-lasting taglines ("it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.") It helped all of us here realize that business is more than just solving the same problems we always have, in the same ways.

Made me (re)think some of my approaches...

Just finished reading Leap and have to say, it made me question some of the ways I've approached business problems heretofore. That is, the Bob Schmetterer book got me questioning what's innovation, when is innovation vital, and how to work the system to ensure my innovations make it. I like reading about Perdue and Intel Inside. Now if only I can invent my own Leap maybe 2003 will be MY year!