Everyone needs a bahg. This, according to ‘creative catalyst’ Glen Hunt and his crew at Toronto-based shop Dentsu.
A’big audacious hairy goal’ is a ‘kind of dream of where you’d like your company or brand to be someday,’ he says. ‘[They] are ambitious, lofty and inspirational. They give your troops something to rally around and aim for in the future.’ As an example, Hunt points to Coke’s plot to have every ‘C’ on the water tap in every home stand for ‘Coke’ instead of ‘cold.’ Okay, it may not have happened, but the soft drink brand is in 200 countries with revenues of about US$22 billion. We’re equally interested in world domination, so we asked Dentsu to help us create our own bahg, as well as potential bahgs for other brands. Ours, which came to fruition after two hours of brainstorming, is to become a ‘must-read for Richard Branson.’ But we personally think Dentsu has the best bahg of all: to become strategy’s Agency of the Year by 2010. Now that’s lofty.
Here are some goals they’ve set for the rest of you.
Guinness:
To make everyday St. Paddy’s Day.
Guinness is an incredible brand but it suffers from the dreaded ‘turkey problem,’ i.e. everybody cooks a turkey on Christmas and Easter but nobody touches the stuff otherwise. Guinness’ bahg? To make Guinness as popular year round as it is on the fabled St. Paddy’s Day.
Canada:
To be a big brother to the United States.
Somehow, Canadians have ended up living in the shadow of the United States. Screw that. We’re bigger, we’re more worldly and although we’re friendly with our kin to the south, the one time we did get in a dust-up with them we kicked the snot out of them. Sounds like a bigger brother to us.
Starbucks:
For Starbucks to be the third most popular destination for Canadians, behind only work and home.
It’s a busy life. You race to the office. Nose to the grindstone. Finish your day. Rush back home, full of familial obligations. Starbucks’ bahg: to be the place you choose to be just behind the places you need to be.
strategy:
To become a ‘must read’ for Richard Branson.
Strategy magazine’s editorial and events should be so innovative, entrepreneurial, informative and entertaining that even the master of modern day marketing finds them essential. Strategy’s new mantra: ‘It’s just not good enough until it’s good enough for Richard!’
Dentsu:
Number one in 2010.
The world’s largest single agency is also one of the most awarded and creative. Dentsu is an incredible success through Japan and other parts of Asia. That success should be replicated everywhere in every Dentsu office, no matter where. Including Canada.
