Leo Burnett launches the Institute of Behaviour in Singapore to be overseen by CSO Saurabh Varma
The Leo Burnett Institute of Behaviour is founded on the belief that understanding the behaviour of people is the key to the future of communication. It taps into Leo Burnett’s propriety suite of quantitative and qualitative tools that includes ‘What If Mapping’ (which re-invigorates brands by re-imagining product categories) and ‘HumanKind Quotient’ (maximizing brand and shareholder value through the HumanKind approach).
Based in Singapore with an Asia-wide remit, it will offer companies competencies focused on behaviourial knowledge and insights across brand consultancy, research and innovation for their brand building efforts that will reframe how contemporary brands are built.
Conceptualised and created by Leo Burnett Asia Pacific, the Institute of Behaviour will make its debut in Singapore with the potential to be rolled out in strategic hubs globally.
“In an age where the face of brand communication is changing ever so rapidly, we aim to deliver future-facing, relevant brand counsel for local and multinational companies through The Institute of Behaviour. 21st century sees the shift of the control over brands from marketers to people who are empowered by technology and internet. Key result of this is that corporations no longer ‘own’ brands, people do. In our business, there is a lot of focus on digital which is necessary but we must also remember it is ultimately people and their behaviour that are at the core of these changes. We see the understanding of people’s behaviour as the way forward for brand communication and the Institute of Behaviour underscores our commitment to help brands arrive at contemporary brand building solutions”, said Jarek Ziebinski (pictured second from left), President, Leo Burnett Asia Pacific. “Given our regional and possibly global aspirations for the Institute of Behaviour, Singapore, with its large base of Asian and multinational companies, its status as a gateway to Asia and its conducive business environment is a natural choice for us to launch this initiative.”
“We are delighted to celebrate this launch with Leo Burnett. The Leo Burnett Institute of Behaviour is a welcome addition to our pan-Asian consumer insights ecosystem.” said Kelvin Wong (far left), Executive Director, Professional Services, Singapore Economic Development Board. “Companies can now leverage Singapore’s strong consumer insights ecosystem, skilled talent and proximity to Asia’s growth markets to generate insights and develop effective marketing and communications campaigns for the region and beyond.”
Saurabh Varma (third from left), chief strategy officer, Leo Burnett Asia Pacific will oversee the Institute of Behaviour while branding specialist and author of “The Brutal Truth About Asian Branding”, Joseph Baladi has been named to head up the consulting unit. The search for the heads of research and innovation divisions is currently underway.
8 Comments
Do clients still fall for all this rubbish?
A good ad person doesnt need an institute to teach him about consumer behaviour. They mingle with people, listen, observe, talk…that’s how you figure out how consumers behave. There’s no substitiute for discovering it yourself rather than reading it in some biased report.
^ R U KIDDING?
We don’t but you can’t blame big agencies who keep trying to ‘add value’ and grow revenue.
I have no doubt, we will be seeing lots of consumer insights from these boys in the coming months.
Whether clients will pay for them depends on whether it solves any of our problems.
Don’t broadcast generic nuggets of insights.
Get off the Herman Miller chair and serve behind a fast food counter, work the floor of a retailer, trail car buyers at the showroom, sit through a bank’s financial needs analysis.
Invest some time in learning a clients business and what keeps him up at night.
Revenue will come when relevant solutions are on the table.
I hope it won’t be like the pathetic planner’s tripe from another agency a few months back.
Some gems from it were:
“In Indonesia, parents want the best for their kids.”
“In Singapore, young people like material things but also want spirituality.”
Here’s my rare insight:
“Consumers want good quality products and services…but they also want to pay less.”
1. Stop going to the internet and ripping off from presentations.
2. Dont just attend the first creative review and then disappear after dropping your nuggets of wisdom. Stay with the entire project like evryone else does.
3.Dont assume you’re the most intellectual individual at the table.
4. Stop embarrassing yourselves (and all of us) with these little institutes of insight etc.
Sorry to say this (but not really), but I tend to agree with all the posts above – yet another ad/brand(?)/design/pr agency jumping on the brand/ insights/ engagement bandwagon to help differentiate themselves.
Not sure of the true value creation from these businesses or the ‘talent’ – just an ability to support their pricing/ billing and differentiate (but maybe not).
I do hope clients see through this and recognise it for what it really is – platitudes, slogans and words with no real insight but nice bills.
If these planners are masters of behavioral insights, wouldn’t they have known better than to issue this PR in a blog that’s frequented by anti-planner creatives?
Like duh.
I think the issue which I tend to care about is the value which this new unit will add to society in general and to educational institutes in particular.
Let the benefits of such institutes be available to upcoming generation and do not limit such practice to paying masters alone. It is time that we make it a habit to give back to our society.