Zeus Jones - Less Talk, More Action

The names of many advertising and marketing agencies are similar to those of law firms: take the last names of the partners and start a company called Smith Adams and Brown.  Zeus Jones did the opposite, naming themselves after a fictitious person which enabled them to "behave like a modern, multidimensional person."  They then established a system of beliefs, based on the principle of connecting with consumers by actually doing things for them, versus simply shouting messages at them.  We caught up with founding partner, Adrian Ho, to discuss marketing as a service and how actions speak louder than words.

Most brands use disruptive advertising to sell a product or service, even going as far as tactics like tattooing branded messages on people's foreheads to get attention.  But Adrian Ho believes that using marketing to help people rather than sell people is the way of the future.  He tells us, "Instead of creating communications or messages to 'say things to people', we prefer to create services and things of value to 'do things for people.'  So at one level, we're hoping to prove that 'doing things for people' leads to more effective marketing and prove that we can find enough clients who agree to build a business around. More optimistically and more idealistically, we're hoping to play a small part in making marketing something that people don't hate so much and undoing some of the damage we've helped to do in our former lives."  The way this often plays out is that Zeus Jones will encourage their clients to provide customers with a valuable service that makes their lives better, thereby creating an ongoing feeling of good will towards the brand, rather than throwing money behind one-way communications.

To further promote this unique, forward-thinking principle, Adrian sets up an incentive system for ideas that reward helping people.  He explains,"We spent a lot of time trying to create a compensation arrangement that rewards doing the right thing. Basically we make money when ideas move from concept to reality and have the potential of making even more by making the idea really successful. What this means is that the success of our business is entirely aligned with the quality and success of our ideas. I know it sounds basic but I don't think that's true for most companies."

At the end of the day, if this model works for a small creative shop like Zeus Jones, imagine how powerful it can be to solve the world's biggest social problems.  As he tells us, "I was reminded of Frank Lloyd Wright's brilliant quote the other day, 'An idea is salvation by imagination.' I think this is truer today than it was in his time. Wherever you look, the problems we face don't have obvious solutions. I think we need more creative thinkers across the board in business, politics, society and without doubt helping create environmental solutions."

We're hoping that more companies put their money where their mouth is because it's true... actions always speak louder than words.