Is Scott Goodson for real?
StrawberryFrog’s founder is the man behind ‘movement marketing’. But is it all meaningless marketing spin?
Considering Scott Goodson is based thousands of miles away in New York, Dubai has been good to the founder and chairman of StrawberryFrog.
His most recent sojourn to the emirate saw him not only give Dubai World Central its new name – Dubai South – but also the tagline of ‘City of You’. This adds to a growing list of Goodson-penned slogans and brand positionings that include Emirates’ ‘Hello Tomorrow’ and Downtown Dubai’s ‘Centre of Now’.
Goodson is responsible for the creation of the world’s first ‘movement marketing’ agency and is committed to cultural movements rather than traditional advertising.
But is he for real? Is ‘movement marketing’ nothing but marketing spin? What do the taglines for Emirates, Downtown Dubai and Dubai South actually mean?
“‘Hello Tomorrow’ and ‘Centre of Now’ are highly effective brand ideas that have helped grow businesses,” says Goodson. “There is a new mode of thinking for an increasing number of leading brands. That is to focus on developing beliefs and values on which to act, rather than on action without prior thought. Unless you underpin your strategy by first asking the question, how does my brand idea connect with global consumer culture and with the brand benefit or purpose, you risk having a idea that is out of date and irrelevant. You do not want to start building brands with the reverse process of asking: ‘What we can do?’ Millennial consumers do not buy functional ideas like their parents did. They buy values, they align with movement ideas, they want to make the world better. I always start the brand idea process by asking what kind of idea can we create? Therefore what kind of brand do we want to be?”
StrawberryFrog has created the branding and ideas for all of the campaigns mentioned above, but has not been retained by the clients. Why?
“I prefer to develop the groundbreaking strategy and the cultural movement idea. The innovative communications and advertising that brings this to life rather than the ongoing maintenance of an existing brand idea. Advertising is, in all honestly, best done by a local agency in Dubai. We are not staffed for maintenance. We have strategists and anthropologists and creatives to maximise a cultural movement, to create the brand movement idea. This creates the greatest value in our sector and in every sector for that matter.
“Focusing on developing the movement strategy and maximising that in breakout creative communications is my sweet spot. This work can take several years to establish the strategy and the perfect communications. We are not for everyone. We are not really set up to do 101 things for the local client. We are one of the world’s most admired agencies and our strength is disruptive strategy and breakthrough creativity. Once that is done, I prefer moving on to the next challenge.”
But has movement marketing created any genuine movements? Has StrawberryFrog created a movement around Downtown Dubai with ‘Centre of Now’?
“Yes of course. Brand movements have united millions of people inside and outside a company around an idea. My best-selling book
Uprising looks at 50 successful cultural movement examples. When a company is experiencing exponential growth, cultural movement ideas have proven to add salience and focus. This strategic approach leads to breakthrough creative. And creativity, not data, is what inspires consumers to take an action from seeing a company’s ad.”