Tereza Báčová:

For me, being innovative is being alive. Being alive as an individual, a couple, a group, a company, a society, and ultimately as a civilization on that topline level. Innovation is the energy, intelligence, or courage dedicated to moving with some questions or life itself in a particular direction. If you look closely in a particular direction, then innovation means being more active, positive, and curious. It’s about having this demeanor rather than a negative, passive, giving-up attitude. And that´s worthy.

It reminds me of one of the latest features from the SXSW conference this year. There was a speech about how non-obvious thinking is responsible for solving issues and troubles in people’s lives. There’s something beautiful about that. If you imagine that we would not challenge the status quo or challenges we have, nothing would develop. For me, innovation has the potential or power to solve troubles and create opportunities for positive development.

For teams in our agency, we’re empowered by this active attitude. It’s important for every colleague working here because when you participate in creating in the way that you want, it feels great and helps self-growth, self-expression, and self-realization.

Rick Rubin says in The Creative Act: A Way of Being, “Only the work that respects who you are and what you are living for can hold its energetic charge.” I love this quote because it encapsulates how Mediaplus specialists understand their outputs and work. It’s an energetic charge or proactive movement, not just, “Here is a presentation rather than ambition.” You get this energy back when you think like this.

For the agency, innovation is crucial in creating a unique group of people. What differentiates us from other agencies, especially network agencies, is that we’re not just a group of people bonded by skills. We’re bonded by beliefs and proactive attitudes, living the innovation. That makes for a wonderful spirit. I’ve never seen this as deeply engrained in other network agencies I’ve worked for.

For clients, I really believe that our innovative thinking is the engine and fuel to help accomplish clients’ goals and visions. It’s like an emotional marriage with economic benefits because innovative thinking helps to solve the clients’ needs and goals.

And for consumers, this is one of the most crucial questions when we think about and prepare media strategies because we always consider issues from the consumers’ perspective. The world is not waiting for more of the same. That’s why innovation is the solution to staying relevant in people’s lives. I’d rather use “people” than “consumers” because we’re all people and everybody consumes something. Innovation helps to remain relevant in people’s lives.

And when I say “relevant,” I believe that brands should have the right to serve people. Serving them can mean helping with something or solving one of the issues in their lives, or it can mean entertaining or taking care of them. A brand should have this service or product that provides the privilege to serve people well. If we innovatively tackle that and incorporate it into media strategies, then we can connect consumers and brands to allow both to extract value. It’s nothing artificial; it’s connecting the needs with the solution. This is the main point of what innovative media should do for brands and consumers: We should be the bridge between both.

Why is innovation so crucial for the industry? Innovation always seeks a purpose and function. From that perspective, it keeps the essential dynamics we need within the marketing industry to compete for the best ideas and offer solutions to clients. It allows us to test, to try, to make mistakes, but on the other hand, to see and discover what works. Otherwise, we’d be defending the status quo and wouldn’t move forward or do anything for positive development or change.