I was in New York last week when someone last week asked me what makes CP+B so powerful as a creative agency. I had a lot of answers but it was hard to put my finger on it, until today. It's ability to be in sync with culture. The analogy that I've always thought about for being in sync is it's the difference between being on the bank of a river, methodically measuring and observing it's flow versus being in the river itself, reveling in it's every undulation.
Culture has become so fluid that if you're not fully immersed in it, there is absolutely no way to keep up. Seth's been writing some really great stuff lately about Choice and Unbundling. What makes these things possible is the lack of cultural friction. Consumers and companies, a like, can flow from one idea to the next, one product to the next, one brand to the next, with such remarkable fluidity today.
If you're a brand that's trying to use the old rules of measuring and observing the culture from the sidelines it's time to let go and get in sync.