Managing Partner Mediaplus Belgium
Playbook of Innovation:
Can you answer this in one word? Innovation, for you, is…
Enzo Ricciulli:
The future.
Through innovation, we aim to better our lives by finding new ways to solve problems. Innovation is on all levels; it’s evident when we’re actively doing something and organizing things in a novel way. It’s giving you a glimpse into the future.
Playbook of Innovation:
Why is innovation important for you, your teams, your agency, clients, consumers, and the industry?
Enzo:
If you want to look into the future, think outside the box. That’s what all the greatest inventors in the world began by doing: thinking outside the box.
For my team, innovation helps facilitate their daily jobs because innovation can occur on many levels. It can be on a creative media level and about how you work and implement innovation daily. If you facilitate innovation in your daily job, the job becomes more interesting. If it becomes more interesting, you’ve built a competitive advantage within the industry.
Clients benefit because it helps us, the agency, to communicate with them in various ways.
It’s also crucial for consumers because it solves real-life problems and ensures you’ll get value for your money.
Playbook of Innovation:
So, how does innovation help the advertising industry?
Enzo:
It makes advertising sexy again! Studies show that advertising isn’t what it was a few years ago. Nowadays, it has a reputation for being a highly demanding industry. There’s an aversion to advertising in general. That’s why people are using ad blockers. Even people working in advertising are using ad blockers!
I’m a board member of the UMA (United Media Agency), the organization of all advertising agencies, and we’ve had this discussion. If we can’t evangelize the impact young people have by working in our industry, the industry will never be sexy again. The marketing and communication within advertising should discuss the positive impact of our day-to-day work.
That’s why Apple is so interesting because they talk about impact. Microsoft, too, is doing an incredible job of saying, “We’re contributing to humanity by pushing AI.” We’re really going into this creative economy. We came from the Industrial Revolution, where we were doing things with our hands; then, we were in a knowledge economy; now, we’re going into a creative economy, and Microsoft, with OpenAI, is playing a big game. This is what we in the advertising industry should do to be creative and find innovative solutions. This is what innovation is.
To mention one more thing, too. UMA is the Belgian organization that oversees all media agencies. We talk every few months, and one of the topics I recently brought to the table was that we’re facing a problem in our industry. The problem is that we can have all the AI in the world, but we don’t have the people who bring bright and fresh ideas. If we’re unable to bring added value to the clients, we won’t advance as an industry; if we don’t advance as an industry, our industry will collapse. So, we need to rethink the structure of agencies, and this is also where innovation is essential.
Playbook of Innovation:
How do you create an environment where innovation can flourish in your agency?
Enzo:
It’s about ideas. Everyone’s idea matters. My ideal situation is that, as an agency, we can create an idea incubator where we produce ideas on all levels. It doesn’t matter if you’re an intern or a CEO. The problem right now is the accessibility to those ideas is limited.
What I try to do– even as a CICC-KPI, the internal tool that helps determine the individual goals of the employee, management, and agency - is ensure that generating ideas is evaluated as one of the most important points, even if you’re “only” in a campaign management role. This requires repetition; it’s about creating an entrepreneurial state of mind that everyone should be in. If everyone acts the same way, we’ll create this incubation of ideas. We’re not there yet, but that’s the aim.
Playbook of Innovation:
What inspires you?
Enzo:
Talking to people with views different than my own is what inspires me. You need a mindset that challenges the status quo all the time. And, you must be critical – even to yourself. Jim C. Collins wrote a book I like, From Good to Great, which explains how you can create a good solution, but you can also make a great solution. The difficulty comes in squeezing your brain to go that extra mile! That’s why I like to talk to Max Schöngen. Max comes from a completely different angle than me, the creative side. When different minds come together, there's a spark – that’s fantastic.
Playbook of Innovation:
Is there a service, tool, or product inside your agency or department that you consider a great example of innovation?
Enzo:
A great example of innovation is how we shape our agency. Of course, we work with ChatGPT and use machine learning, but the real difference, the real innovation, comes when we mold the agency of the future. We can only do this with the desire to implement novel tools.
For example, I said everyone has to work with ChatGPT. 60% of the team now uses ChatGPT Premium. For me, it’s important not to waste too much time writing the perfect email because we’re not copywriters. You can ask ChatGPT to do it for you. But, still, the idea must be our own. Remember, an innovative, creative mindset can’t be replaced.
Something else we’re building is our media planning tool, Neuron. Neuron is the real beginning of the agency of the future, where you have a platform to build your plans. We’ll automate the campaign setup and increase our standards. We have a standard now, but we want to have high standards. It’s all delegated to a system so people can do the creative work. This is the biggest achievement we’ve made in the last six months of working with ChatGPT to change how our colleague’s work.
Playbook of Innovation:
In your opinion, what’s the most innovative thing about Mediaplus?
Enzo:
What I like about Mediaplus is our partnerships within the network. For example, I know different managing partners like Vittorio Bucci from Italy, Menno Westinga from Netherlands, and José Carlos Gutiérrez from Spain really well – I’m well connected with these people, and the group board is accessible, including the CEO of Mediaplus Group, Matthias Brüll. When I have something to share, I have someone who listens to my ideas and ambitions. Even though Belgium isn’t the largest market, there’s attention to give everyone the opportunity.
That’s innovative because of their entrepreneurship that lives within the Serviceplan group. We’re talking about incubators, and when we talk about all this venture capital, and so on, it’s unique. The group has a way of asking for a contribution from everyone to make our company, the group, greater.
Playbook of Innovation:
Did your view of innovation change in the last years? If yes, then why?
Enzo:
In the past, innovation was linked to creative innovation. Now, innovation has extended to all levels of a company. 20 or 30 years ago, the standard project management approach was waterfall project coordination. Now we have Agile and Scrum, which are also innovation. So, yes innovation changed a lot, and the functions change all the time.
Playbook of Innovation:
How do you inform yourself?
Enzo:
I read a lot, including books about entrepreneurship. I even started to use an application called ForBooks. You pay 100 euros a year and receive summaries of books that interest you. If you're interested in the topic or book, you can buy or listen to it. With 15 minutes a day, you've read a book and understood its essence.
I also use Medium.com, a platform where different information can be found. And YouTube. I follow people who talk about all kinds of stuff, from politics – because we need to understand those – to podcasts and videocasts.
But my question is, why isn't everyone in the industry at the same pace? When I talk to real experts, sometimes I know more about the news than those experts. Curiosity is a driving factor for me. I think a level of curiosity that's disproportional to the normality of life is beneficial for everyone. We give another level of importance to the news we read. To me, something may sound ordinary, but it could be interesting for someone else. Everyone has access to information, but the difference lies in how we process that information.
I had an interesting talk with our Creative Director in Brussels. I said, “What's your creative process, and how do you define that? How do you bring ideas?” He said, “The more you explore the world, the more ideas you'll get.” I like that because you need to look around and observe.
As a side note, and a bit off-topic, I have a past as a professional musician. When you're in the creative process, you go to extremes. But you need to know what you're doing in your creative process. It's something that's always helped me. You must go to the places where no one goes, then come back with your luggage and bring something to the table.
Playbook of Innovation:
It's fascinating to see how innovation evolves and influences every aspect of the industry. Now, to lighten things up, let's move on to a fun segment with a quick question: pineapple on pizza or not?
Enzo:
I really like pizza. I’m Italian so I enjoy baking pizza a lot. I read a book about the history of pizza, and the author described how pizza was awful at the beginning of the 1800s. It became popular because Italians went to the U.S. and started to open pizzerias. When Americans came to Naples during the Second World War, they asked, “Why aren’t there pizzerias in Naples? Pizza comes from Naples; why are we not seeing any pizzerias?” The question the author posed was, what if pizza never arrived in the U.S.? Would pizza have become popular? I think not because Americans are good at expanding.
The first pineapple on pizza was seen in the ’70s in Canada. In Italy, youngsters now eat pizza with fries, sausage, and mayonnaise; it’s awful. I don’t know how Italians can criticize the pineapple on pizza that’s been there since the ’70s and not criticize the awful pizzas that youngsters eat right now. In my opinion, if you like pineapple on pizza, eat it!
Playbook of Innovation:
Thanks for sharing the history of pineapple on pizza with us! Before we let you go, if there was something you could share with the network, what would it be?
Enzo:
It would be what we’re doing with AI-driven automation. It’s something that we’re working on that’s an important topic.
Playbook of Innovation:
Thank you so much, Enzo, for taking the time to share your insights and experiences with us. We appreciate your time and look forward to seeing the exciting developments from your work at Mediaplus Belgium.
