Playbook of Innovation:
Managing Partner
Playbook of Innovation:
Can you answer this in one word? Innovation, for you, is…
Bernhard Redl:
Advancement.
Playbook of Innovation:
What do you mean by advancement?
Bernhard:
Innovation is about not sticking to the same way of working. It’s about how we advance media, our approaches to clients, and our client’s customers. It’s about new things, thinking about what was good, wrong, and excellent in the last campaigns, and considering how we can innovate those.
Playbook of Innovation:
Why is innovation important for you, your teams, clients, consumers, and the industry?
Bernhard:
It helps me to stay ahead of other agencies and consultants. It also helps to improve my skills and knowledge. I don’t like to repeat the same methods every time I work; I want to rethink and enhance my personal and professional growth. So, innovation is necessary to keep the fun and meaning for myself in the things I do. I’m always innovating to keep myself in this process.
For my teams, innovation is a team spirit. Innovation doesn’t come from one person; it comes from the strength, creativity, and collaboration of the team. So, it’s important to increase productivity, job satisfaction, and employee retention because —honestly speaking— there’s a lot of very good and talented people at other companies. Mediaplus must continue innovating through collaborations that embrace the strengths of everyone.
For the agency, innovation is an organizational growth driver. It’s important as we claim ourselves to be the most innovative media agency. For me, innovation is essential for sustainability – not in an environmental way, but in terms of not thinking about numbers and income alone. We must foster a sustainable collaboration with our clients over an extended period and elevate them to the level they want to be.
It also enables the agency to adapt to changing markets and market dynamics. As we all know, markets and client demands are changing, and being innovative in how we do media means being innovative in how we see ourselves and work internally as an agency. It’s essential to adapt to the environment and growth of the market. The outcome is that innovation helps to provide unique, cutting-edge solutions and services to our clients. It helps to enhance their satisfaction and loyalty.
Playbook of Innovation:
And do you find innovation to be crucial for the consumer?
Bernhard:
Not necessarily for media innovation, but we should never talk only about media innovation; we should talk about product and service innovations for our clients, too. Sometimes, we help clients with their products and how we communicate their products. Innovation is also necessary for the consumer, so the services advertised are more efficient, user-friendly, and tailored to meet their needs and preferences. Innovation also helps satisfy consumers in their daily lives and maybe save some time where they can focus on their family or even sports to increase their habits.
Playbook of Innovation:
So then, why is innovation valuable for the industry?
Bernhard:
The industry continuously adapts. In the last 20 to 30 years, the media industry, and overall industry, transformed a great deal. So, innovation helps to drive growth and transform evolution in the industry, leading to the development of new technologies, processes, and business models.
Maybe I’m a dreamer, but innovation benefits all stakeholders and people involved in this lifecycle to drive economic progress. And, as I said before, innovation is essential in adapting to new problems and market developments, as well as offering the top level of consultancy for our clients.
Playbook of Innovation:
We talked a lot about why innovation is important. So, how do you create an environment where innovation can flourish?
Bernhard:
At Mediaplus Austria, we’re very open to communication and collaboration. The key to solving this problem isn’t a single person or team. It requires collaboration across various teams. Our strength lies in the combined knowledge of everyone involved. Some are numbers experts. Some are media experts. But, when we combine everyone and have open communication, collaboration, and culture, we can generate the best of everything. So, it’s not one thing we can do. Instead, it’s about encouraging people to be open-minded and talk to others.
We offer several tools to our colleagues within Mediaplus Austria, from the rapid ideation session to the trend radar, but they’re only tools. The main thing is that it’s essential to encourage open communication and collaboration to empower our employees to speak up and say, “That’s not right. Maybe let’s try this one.” We need to foster diverse, inclusive workplaces where everyone’s opinions are accepted. Everyone has the right to raise their voice and share their perspectives.
Playbook of Innovation:
What inspires you?
Bernhard:
Maybe it’s silly, but problems inspire me. I want to solve problems but don’t like getting stuck with them. I always want to get rid of problems. It inspires me to dig in and solve something without knowing how to.
We have many clients at Mediaplus Austria that conquer bigger competitors with more money, influence, or long-lasting market positions. These are the clients I love to work for because one of my main sayings is, “If you can’t outperform them, outsmart them.” Maybe you have other regulations or less money, but you can always outsmart the big players. That’s what motivates me: solving problems.
Playbook of Innovation:
Is there a tool, service, or product inside your agency that you consider a great example of innovation?
Bernhard:
Rather than a tool, it’s a way of working. First is the togetherness, as I said before. The tool is the rapid ideation session wherein we brainstorm various methods. In this session, we work with people from other teams. It’s not only the consulting team. It’s also the buying department, innovation team, strategy team, and management team. People come with various points of view and a different look at the problems, briefings, or projects we brainstorm about. Togetherness increases the output.
Of course, we have structured ways of doing client presentations or strategies. For example, we have “strategy on a page” that involves detailed looks at the briefing to collect all the data and analysis we can generate and combine on one page. We then read and revisit that page to know more or less everything about the problem, the client, and the campaign they want. From there, we start the solution.
I also spoke on trend radar. We have our strategy and business innovation teams, and one of the best outputs is the trend radar, meaning we have all the trends regularly updated there. We discuss it internally and then with our clients. We use it for the newsletter and send it to clients so that we can all move away from standard thinking. We do this to provoke the thought process, so they might ask, “What innovation is out there? What trends are out there? What do I do to adapt my way of thinking and working? And, how do I modify my product to that?” Afterward, we make a campaign and innovative communication from this.
Playbook of Innovation:
Would you mind repeating the names of the tools?
Bernhard:
To name a few, the trend radar, strategy on a page, and rapid ideation session.
Playbook of Innovation:
In your opinion, what’s the most innovative part of Mediaplus?
Bernhard:
The best method to be innovative is to avoid working alone. Innovate as a team and integrate ideas from every perspective. The best example is that we can integrate our media team from Mediaplus Realtime to bring technical solutions and use Max Schöngen and his creative team to help us think out of the box we’re normally within.
Playbook of Innovation:
Did your view of innovation change in the last few years? If yes, why?
Bernhard:
Of course. I started in media 15 years ago at a big agency in Austria. In those years, innovation was all about out-of-home and print. For example, we’d create billboards with something hanging on them or expand their normal size. This was the way of doing it. It was the one thing we added when there was a free budget, and we wanted to be more or less creative.
In the last years – and one of the best examples of what’s innovative about Mediaplus – we strive to have special ideas first and then build everything upon it. This innovative idea, the solution, is the cornerstone for everything and affects all the others –TV, digital, whatever channel. And it’s not the add-on; it’s the main center of a campaign. From then on, we start to gain reach for this idea. So yes, it’s changed.
Playbook of Innovation:
Thank you for sharing your valuable insights and letting us learn more about your experience. Before we let you go, let's jump into a fun round of this or that questions starting with PC or Mac?
Bernhard:
This makes me think about advertising 20 years ago, “Hi, I’m a Mac. Hi, I’m a PC.” I always wanted to be the Mac. Now, work-wise, I use a PC. But I’m the iPad and iPhone guy. So maybe you should change the question for me. So, yes, iPad and iPhone. That’s me.
Playbook of Innovation:
Cats or dogs?
Bernhard:
Lazy cats. Definitely.
Playbook of Innovation:
Tea or Coffee?
Bernhard:
Coffee, always, even at night, after a good meal with friends. Espresso is the last thing I drink after a meal. I’m not a tea guy. I’m a coffee guy.
Playbook of Innovation:
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Bernhard:
Please don’t make me decide that.
Playbook of Innovation:
Disney classics or Pixar movies?
Bernhard:
The modern Pixar movies. I have small kids, and they’re more convenient.
Playbook of Innovation:
Beer or wine?
Bernhard:
I like both, but I prefer wine. I grew up in lower Austria. Maybe you know a region called Wachau. It’s along the Danube River, and they’re famous for wine and vineyards. I really like wine, especially white.
Playbook of Innovation:
Farm or city?
Bernhard:
Farm, but I enjoy both ways of living, from the very focused and modern way we work in the city to the opportunity to shut down my phone and go to the rivers and forests. That’s why I live in the countryside and have the best of both worlds.
Playbook of Innovation:
Well, thank you again, Bernhard, for speaking with us today. It was a pleasure to learn more about your vision, and we're excited to see what comes from Mediaplus Austria in the future!
