Dispatches from Dreamland: Keith Reinhard

As we continue to unveil cutting edge work at shots, examining the progressive ideas behind the latest campaigns, today we take a back seat and chat with Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide.

A torchbearer of the legendary creative revolution on Madison Avenue back in the swinging ‘60s, Reinhard was responsible for the very first McDonald’s commercial, then went on to become one of the architects of Omnicom, adland’s first and only three-way union.

“It was a long, hard path to get my first job as a copywriter,” admits Reinhard on breaking into the business. “But I knew someday I’d be on Madison Avenue.”

Reinhard was still a high school student when he fell in love with the influential branding he saw around his home town in the Midwest. After realising the ads were created by agencies in New York, he took a trip to the Big Apple in search of work – but his dreams of becoming an ad guy evaded him.

He went home empty handed, but soon scored a job as an apprentice in a commercial arts studio, all the time shaping his portfolio and chasing his dream until a creative director finally gave him a break, asking if he’d consider becoming a copywriter.

“I took the job immediately – but didn’t even have a cubicle,” Reinhard muses. “Just a work station by a soda and coffee machine. I couldn’t even concentrate on work because I made change for people all day long.”

Yet time and effort led to Reinhard scoring his very first award, followed by a number of memorable campaigns including a slogan that is still in use today for State Farm; “Like a good neighbour, State Farm is there.”

In today’s multi-faceted new media world, are slogans still of consequence?

“I think we need both slogans and new media,” he answers. “You need to give careful attention to brand building, and slogans have always been an important part of a brand’s identity. I don’t see that ever changing because they are a powerful component of any brand. Creating buzz is very different from creating a brand. New media can generate the buzz around any brand – but that brand needs to have already taken its time to actually become a brand.

“We are in the cave painting days of new media,” he continues. “We still haven’t figured out how to transpose those craft and storytelling skills we’ve learned over the past century that that led to the creative revolution in the first place. Maybe in the next era – once we’ve stopped being so obsessed with our digital tools – maybe then we can align those craft and storytelling skills with all the new tools that we have at our disposal.”

Then, strictly speaking, what is a brand?

“The brand itself is not what you say, nor the slogan you create – It is an identity,” he answers. “A brand is who you are, what you do, why you do it, how you do it. For example, having good food and a good time for very little money in a location that is close to home and clean is the essence of McDonald’s.”

Reinhard should know. He created the very first McDonald’s commercial back in 1971 before the fast food chain had yet to become a global empire. He recalls winning the account, his team forbidden to pitch any creative work, instead handed questions to answer during the presentation, one being:

‘Does McDonald’s have one particular feature or attribute so important that it could be considered its USP?’

“We concluded early on that McDonald’s had many attributes that could be exploited,” he explains. “I told my creative team to come up with as many selling propositions as possible and write them all down as clever headlines in typewriter font. Then we sold them as unique selling propositions. That approach really won the day.”

Y&R, another agency in the running, suggested eliminating Ronald McDonald because research implied he was weak. Reinhard however, pitched otherwise, feeling the character needed to be more heroic – a move that led to many spots with villains attempting to steal food in McDonladland, yet foiled by Ronald at every turn.

Clearly client expectations have changed since those golden arched days, but Reinhard posits that many principles remain the same – albeit in a more complex world:

“Back in the 60s and 70s we could pretty much count on you sitting in front of your TV set at an appointed time,” he says. “Today it’s more complex due to an explosion of channels, so clients seek ROI – work that is relevant, original and impactful because it is a good quantifier of success. Research tells us what is relevant, plus it’s easy to be original. The challenge becomes how to create something both relevant and original and then strike with impact in terms of media.”

Reinhard references Old Spice as a brand resurrected in this fashion, a campaign he admires. After discussing the merits of directors such as Tom Kuntz (who helped reimagine Old Spice), he explains how he finds the right director for each project:

“You constantly look at reels, eye award shows and try to match the talent to the particular needs of each creative campaign,” he answers. “Directors are golden in terms of developing some of the great brands out there. You often see commercials where the execution almost becomes the content because the production is so key, so on-the-money. It’s such an important part of the process, but I see the absence of craft in so many new media ventures.”

As for awards shows, Reinhard admits, “we probably have too many – but don’t forget that creative people are the most insecure species on the planet, so need peers’ approval.”

As for what gets him out of bed in the morning, it’s still the same as it was back in the day. “I really have an endless fascination with this business of advertising and ideas,” he answers. “If I’m not doing something for DDB and travelling globally throughout the network, then I’m working on projects that I feel are important.”

Causes include work with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, currently focused on opening a jazz club in Doha and Shanghai. He is also working with Sesame Street to sharpen its identity in over 150 countries. “It’s not just a TV show anymore but an educational organisation using new media to reach its audience,” he outlines.

When asked of Mad Men and how the show encapsulates the time period he experienced so vividly, Reinhard relates:

“You see Don Draper up there with a big, smart reveal and that’s pretty much how it was,” he explains. “The art of selling the idea was, and still is, a very creative process. I remember we pitched, ‘Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,’ with a xylophone plunking out the tune. Odd, but original – and it sold the slogan.

“I think the show is wonderfully written, but maybe dipped a little too much in the infidelity and that overstates the era – but there was drinking, smoking and a certain amount of womanizing, plus a lot of really, really hard work. Some of the classic campaigns came out of that era for a reason.”