TBWA/Chiat/Day has updated its concept of disruption and expanded it via Chairman Jean-Marie Dru’s new book, Beyond Disruption<\I>. As a creative concept, disruption is easy to understand. The Absolut Vodka campaign and Apple’s “Think Different” series are two examples of how TBWA used creative concepts to grab attention and communicate brand attributes.

According to TBWA/Chiat/Day CMO Laurie Coots, media provide different levels of disruption. “Network TV is an emotional medium, good at raising immediate awareness but not at conveying information,” she said. “Print is a good medium for explaining the features and benefits, but has no sense of urgency. Radio will drive traffic locally, but is not a good medium for changing attitudes or image. And of course direct response is all about making the phone ring or beginning a dialogue.”

A good example of how disruption impacted the planning and buying for an automotive campaign is the Nissan “Master of the Sixth Speed” project. The creative campaign was aimed specifically at “Tuners” — a group into “tricking out” their cars to make them individualistic. Nissan wanted to tap into this trend and hence, the Nissan SE-R was born. Instead of creating a 30-second TV spot, the agency decided to hit the target audience with three-minute movie called The Master of the Sixth Speed<\I>, which it packaged in a CD-rom with the SE-R’s spec chart and a soundtrack. The CD-rom was wrapped within publications such as Import Tuner, Hot Rod and Maxim. The target was able to watch the movie on his computer or listen to the soundtrack in his car — literally surrounding (and disrupting) him in the SE-R experience.