The B Side of Innovation

A week ago I had the opportunity to give a presentation about innovation. “Take any angle,” the MN AdFed team said, “but make it interesting.”

Well, in my book, nothing beats the B Side — the often-neglected side of a 45 record — for potent perspective. So here’s a video of the presentation, followed by my talking points.

Presentation Transcript

First off, I think I need to start with an explanation of what a B Side actually is, and also what a 45 RPM record actually is, that has a B Side.

This is a 45. You would buy these in the 70s and 80s as an easy way to get the hit song that you heard on the radio without having to come up with the 10 bucks for the entire album.

There are 2 sides to this record. There was the “hit” side or A Side, and the less commercially viable side — the B Side. Still good songs, but slightly more intuitive than obvious.

This record is going to be a metaphor for tonight’s discussion on innovation in marketing, if you haven’t guessed that already, because like the 45 RPM record, I believe there are two sides to the discussion of innovation in marketing.

There are two ways to think about innovation in marketing — the more obvious and therefore “Side A” version is a modern definition — where the word “innovation” is inextricably linked to the idea of technology.

Most marketing conversations today are chock a block full of words like data, analytics, programmatic, lead nurturing, marketing tech stacks, consumer journeys, etc. — these represent the promises that the digital and connection revolution is able to deliver.

Which is phenomenal, make no mistake. These are tools that help marketers make decisions, understand outcomes and measure results unlike at any other time in history. We’re on the verge of being able to reach people 1:1, at scale. Who doesn’t want that? Seriously.

When you think about it, the A Side is all about HOW we communicate. It’s not about WHAT we communicate, or more importantly, about the insights behind the ideas we want to communicate.

Our challenge is that we spend so much time keeping up with the rapid advancements on the A Side, that we sometimes get lost, and stop considering the power of the B Side, which is all about creativity.

One of the modern paradoxes of marketing is that we start to confuse tech, code or software with the idea it is helping to enable or distribute. And when we do, we live out Bill Bernbach’s fears from 1947.

He said in his famous letter to the industry:

“I’m worried that we’re going to worship advertising techniques instead of substance.”

He continues to say, “Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.”

The solution to this paradox is to make sure we also consider the B Side of Innovation, the one that governs WHAT we communicate. Which is all about creativity and storytelling.

Which is an old definition of innovation that goes back millennia. From before the Greeks to the Romans and fast forward to the Renaissance where people like Shakespeare were filling their scripts with feeling, empathy and emotion — creating stories that were funny, unexpected, tragic, engaging and twisted — that made you care and which we still remember today.

This is power and the art of storytelling. Which is essentially the art of advertising.

It’s easy to think the future of innovation is solely in the A Side through tech, but the reality is that we have to push ourselves to keep innovating on the B Side, pushing our storytelling to new heights of imagination.

Every day we need to inspire people more than ever, and we have a better understanding of human behavior — understanding our motivations, the brain and the supreme power of emotion to govern our decisions.

We have to inspire them because sophisticated ad blocking software exists — it’s the enemy. Creativity and the power of storytelling is the way to get through this filter, get let in, and earn attention.

The A Side is the home of the hits, but the B Sides often have the magic.

Some famous B Side releases include…

The Beatles “I am the Walrus”

Led Zeppelin’s “Hey, Hey What Can I Do”

Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”

All B Side staples.

So, my advice — play the hits of the A Side, but mine the B Side for the magic.

Thank you.

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BY PAUL SCHMIDT, MANAGING DIRECTOR