Kevin Roberts’ new book Sisomo: The Future on Screen, outlines what he ‘calls the biggest and most exciting opportunity to connect with consumers since TV.’ Namely, he speaks about how marketers should and could capitalize on the fact that screens surround us – in-store, in cars, on mobile phones and so on.

A term invented by Roberts, Sisomo stands for ‘sight, sound and motion’ and is meant to connote what brings a screen to life. Right now, he says, the industry is abuzz about technology, but ‘the next step is when [screens] start dripping ideas and making emotional connections in the way television now does. It will [happen] in the next two years.’

Roberts, who has worked as a senior marketing executive at Gillette and P&G and was also once CEO of Pepsi Canada, has enlisted Brett Channer, CEO/ECD at Toronto-based Saatchi & Saatchi, to act as an early adopter for the rest of the network, because ‘in places like Canada, this revolution will take place in the year 2006.’

For his part, Channer says he’s already been working towards this goal, and cites as recent examples the Toyota Uncle Yaris campaign, and a new two-minute Toyota Camry ad that ran during the Academy Awards and pushed consumers online.

Strategy caught up with both men in Toronto last month, to hear more.

Why is Canada being chosen to lead the ‘revolution?’

Roberts: You don’t have the big budgets, so first of all, necessity. Secondly, [because of that] your clients here get to play in these interactive mobile areas the big clients in the U.S. still haven’t understood. And third, you have a bunch of support industries around these areas that are used to doing shit for 5,000 bucks. So the opportunity is enormous.

How are you structuring the agency to make this happen?

Roberts: We’re going to become the ultimate connectors…and we will have to collaborate like we’ve never had to before. We need incredible consumer insights that turn shoppers into buyers at every touchpoint. Through our creative people we will be the father of the idea.

If not, we’re going to be out of a job. I developed Sisomo out of naked fear, because I felt we were structured to be giving clients what they didn’t want and that soon they’d stop coming to us. Yahoo, Google, and Rogers are trying to get into our territory. Shoppers Drug Mart is trying to become a medium. Boy, we don’t have a lot of time to get this right. There are going to be a few agencies in a few years time that are standing.

Are marketers asking for change?

Roberts: In all fairness to them, they pretty much know that the current mass marketing model’s dead. They also pretty much know that power has switched away from brands, away from retailers, into the hands of the consumer. They pretty much feel that this new range of media choices looks really exciting, but they’re terrified to go into it. Why? The first thing is, self preservation. The average chief marketing officer is in the role three years in the U.S. The marketing manager, less than 18 months. They’re getting whipped for quarterly results and ROI.

[And] planning at the moment isn’t delivering. Planning’s falling all over itself – they’re getting account planning, creative planning, strategic planning, media planning, context planning – and the clients are going, ‘Jesus, what’s all this?’

How do you convince marketers to take a leap of faith?

Roberts: First of all, it starts with having a framework of ideas the client can understand. So the reason we’re writing books, frankly, is so that they give us credibility. The second thing is you have to give the client absolute knowledge that you know his consumer better than him. This isn’t hard to do, because a client has to know his product, his brand, his competitor. If you look at his typical week, it wouldn’t be more than 5% of his time. Third, you have to convince the client you have very big ears – that you understand the client’s business needs, traumas and realities. The fourth thing you gotta have is inspirational, creative value-adding ideas. None of that will work unless he has confidence in you.

Can you give an example of a current campaign that takes advantage of Sisomo?

Channer: With Buckley’s, we did 30-second spots, that then downloaded into a Web site experience. We did the ‘bad taste tour’ – we went on the street and gave people samples, took snapshots of their faces when they tasted the product, that then went on the Web site. Next year someone’s going to win a contest to be in the ads. On top of that, consumers came back and said: ‘We love that music in the spot.’ So we just finished producing a full-length track and we’ve created a whole Buckley’s folklore [around it]. The band is called Buckley and you will be able to download the Buckley song and video. It’s just about embracing this whole experience -right medium, right place, right time.