Ad agency CEO: Big ideas still work on TV screens
“We always have to ask ourselves: ‘What’s next?’”
In a world where TV viewing is shifting to small mobile screens and online ads are targeted to an audience of one, Michael Fassnacht, CEO and president of FCB Chicago, is still thinking big.
Fassnacht, 50, leads one of the oldest and largest ad agencies in Chicago and sees the fragmenting media landscape as an opportunity for FCB to use its size, experience and diversity to create campaigns that break through the clutter and resonate with viewers.
Coming up with the big idea — the epiphanic moment that regularly saved everyone from Darrin Stephens to Don Draper in fictional TV ad agencies — is more important than ever for Fassnacht and FCB Chicago, whose client roster includes AB InBev brand Michelob Ultra, fruit spread-maker Smucker’s and Choose Chicago, the city’s convention and tourism bureau.
FCB Chicago traces its roots to Lord & Thomas, a Chicago ad agency founded in 1881, which evolved into Foote, Cone and Belding. In 2006, the agency merged with Draft, a Chicago-based marketing services firm, where Fassnacht was an executive.
Fassnacht took the reins at FCB Chicago, then known as DraftFCB, in 2010. FCB’s global headquarters is in New York, but Chicago remains one of its largest offices, with more than 700 employees.
A native of Germany, Fassnacht is in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two children.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How has the ad agency evolved under your leadership?
A: Any reinvention of a large organization is primarily driven by culture. One cultural change over the last couple of years: More than 50 per cent of our leaders are women, which was not the case five or six years ago. We’re really building a truly diverse organization that represents the United States of America in 2017.
Q: FCB Chicago traces its history back more than a century. What does the future look like under Michael Fassnacht?
A: I’m the 19th president of this organiza- tion. While we are proud of all of the work we have done in the past, we always have to ask ourselves: What’s next? What’s new? It’s not just the digital revolution, but the fragmentation of media, artificial intelligence. That changes how we think about the work, how we build insights, how we create content. But the magic in our business has not disappeared. Big, creative ideas are as important as ever before.
Q: With everything from cord-cutting to digital platforms disrupting traditional media, how does the traditional ad agency adapt and evolve?
A: So many people in our industry complain about media fragmentation. I love it for two reasons. One, we have so many more ways of expressing ourselves, so many more canvases we can put our ideas against. Before, it was your traditional TV spot. Now you have Facebook ads, you have an Instagram feed — you have so many different things. For us, it’s a much better challenge and a much bigger opportunity.
Secondly, because of the fragmentation, we have to create better work. Because you don’t have to watch what we produce. So our standard of doing relevant work is higher than ever before.
Q: Nineteenth-century Philadelphia department store pioneer John Wanamaker coined an advertising maxim that still resonates: “Half my advertising is wasted; I just don’t know which half.” Do we have a better idea of what works in the digital age?
A: Yes. Because of big data and some of the progress in scientific advertising, we understand the return on investment better than before. But I think the digital revolution had a lot of overpromise, and a lot of the digital media didn’t comply with our high expectation on transparency. But overall I think we have a much better understanding of what creative works and what doesn’t.
Q: Use of ad-blocking software grew 30 per cent last year, according to Irish consulting firm PageFair. How do you overcome the latest technological obstacle to getting your ads viewed online?
A: It’s just a bigger challenge to us to do better work that people are willing to watch and engage with. We cannot waste people’s time; we have to create something that’s meaningful and relevant and engages them emotionally. That’s our job every day.