Cossette had a successful night at the 30th annual Association du marketing relationnel’s Gala des Flèches d’Or, where the agency was honoured for its work with SAQ Inspire.

“We are continually proud of the success of SAQ Inspire. We’d like to thank our client for the trust they placed in us and their invaluable collaboration throughout this major project,” says Malik Yacoubi, Head of Digital Development and Strategy at Cossette.

Alex Côté, Vice-President of CRM Technology, was also named AMR’s 2017 Personality of the Year, most notably for the leadership role he’s played within an ever-expanding national team. Alex was also instrumental in developing and implementing SAQ Inspire.

“Given the increasing volume and complexity of our digital mandates, Alex’s contribution has become vital. We’re extremely proud of his RMA win and incredible work,” added Malik Yacoubi.

Cossette received the following distinctions:  

• Campaign of the Year: SAQ Inspire
• Loyalty—Retail category: SAQ Inspire
• Personality of the Year: Alex Côté, Vice-President of CRM Technology

 Each year, the Gala des Flèches d’Or recognizes the best relationship marketing campaigns in Québec, as well as the agencies and individuals who have distinguished themselves in the field.

“We’re aware of the major impact our leaders have on mobilizing and developing young talent. These promotions are part of our efforts to maximize their potential and recognize their significant contribution to the agency’s success,” says Louis Duchesne, Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Cossette Québec.

Renewed leadership at Cossette Québec

After being with the agency for nearly 20 years, Marie Vaillancourt has been named Senior Vice-President, Integrated Product. Marie will continue to shine through the development of successful integrated campaigns for the agency, and will play a key role in the evolution of Cossette’s product. She’ll provide strong leadership in the Québec City office, and take part in various committees and large-scale projects on the provincial and national levels.

“Marie possesses the perfect blend of intelligence and sensitivity, necessary to drive teams to create products that are innovative and impactful. Over the years, she has made her mark with her on-point perspective and is now considered an authority within the industry,” says Louis Duchesne.

Another 20-year veteran of Cossette is Nathalie Bernier, who has been named Vice-President, Media Planning and Operations. As well as continuing to play an active role in media planning, she will work closely with Claude Lamoureux to manage Cossette Media’s operations province-wide, as well as with Marie Vaillancourt at Cossette’s Québec City office.

“Nathalie is one of Cossette Media’s most valuable assets. Her energy and passion will help us consolidate the transformation that we’ve been engaged in over the past few months,” added Claude Lamoureux, Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Cossette Media in Québec.

A strengthened business strategy

Sébastien David has been named Senior Vice-President, Business Strategy. While continuing to provide executive leadership, he’ll also play a key role in devising market development strategies for the agency. Furthermore, he’ll help clients strategically position themselves in a constantly evolving world by harnessing his profound understanding of media and digital technology.

After finishing his studies, Sébastien joined Cossette Media in 1998, where he quickly rose through the ranks to become head of the media group. He then moved to Cossette’s digital department before earning the title of Vice-President, Client Lead. His commitment to producing results for major clients, including McDonald’s, Loto-Québec, Destination Canada, the Alliance de l’Industrie Touristique du Québec and Tourism Montréal, is second to none.

“Sébastien has shown an incredible entrepreneurial spirit, in keeping with Cossette’s corporate culture. His work ethic, constant quest for excellence and ability to develop rewarding strategic business relationships contribute to the success of our clients, as well as our own,” added Louis Duchesne.

Creativity at its best

Anne-Claude Chénier joined Cossette in 2000 and has since contributed to numerous landmark campaigns for the agency’s clients. Her promotion to Creative Director is both well-deserved and highly anticipated.

While continuing to be a leader in terms of copywriting, she’ll also head up creative mandates on accounts such as Home Depot, Gadoua and Vachon. Her work has earned prestigious industry recognition, receiving accolades at the CASSIES, Créa Awards, STRAT Awards and Marketing Awards. Her contagious enthusiasm and expertise earned her a seat on the juries for the Québec Créa Awards and the Canada-wide Marketing Awards.

“Anne-Claude is without a doubt one of the best copywriters in Québec. Her promotion is the latest achievement in a career studded with success and an indication of the key role she plays within the agency,” says Antoine Bécotte, Chief Creative Director at Cossette.

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For more information:
Steven Lessard
514 282-4662
steven.lessard@v7international.com

“We are incredibly thrilled to have a client that had the courage to bring SickKids VS to life. It’s truly an honour for the tremendous hard work of our team and everyone at SickKids to be recognized at the world’s most celebrated advertising festival,” says Mélanie Dunn, President and CEO, Cossette Canada.

The SickKids VS platform, developed to tell a different side of the SickKids story, represents a revolutionary shift in tone and approach in the hospital’s marketing, highlighting the fierce side of the patients, families and staff at SickKids and the fight that occurs at the hospital each day.

SickKids, Cossette and associated agency and production partners* picked up the following awards:

• Gold, Fundraising & Advocacy: Film – SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS: Undeniable
• Gold, Fundraising & Advocacy: PR – SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS
• Silver, Fundraising & Advocacy: Film – SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS: MomStrong
• Silver, Fundraising & Advocacy: Integrated – SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS

In it’s 64^th year, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a seven day festival bringing the world’s most inventive, talented and creative people in the communications industry together in Cannes to learn, network and celebrate.

Lions Health is a special event dedicated to life-changing creativity, showcasing and inspiring ideas that transcend especially challenging boundaries. With insights from thought-leaders, marketers, specialists and scientists, Lions Health connects global healthcare and pharmaceutical professionals, allowing them to share successes, problem-solve and do business.

*The SickKids VS platform was created with production partners Jam3 Toronto, Skin & Bones Toronto, The Mill New York, Westside Studio Toronto, A52 Santa Monica, SNDWRX, Pirate Toronto, OMD Canada and The Vanity Toronto.

The jury also named General Mills Canada Client of the Year for the Bring Back the Bees campaign.

The agency was recognized for work from offices across the country with several clients, including SickKids Foundation, General Mills Canada, Ronald McDonald House Charities, McDonald’s Canada and Rakuten Kobo.

Koo, the multicultural arm of Cossette, also took home silver in the Multicultural category for its work with Egg Farmers of Canada.

“We are absolutely thrilled. Alongside our incredible clients and talented teams, it’s an honour to be recognized as having Canada’s best creative work this year,“ says Peter Ignazi, Chief Creative Officer of Cossette.

Overall the agency won:

• Best of Show - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees
• Best of Public Service - SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS
• Gold, Out-Of-Home, Best in Point-of-Purchase - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees
• Gold, Integrated - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees
• Gold, Integrated Campaign Led By PR - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees, with Veritas Communications
• Gold, Public Service, Out-of-Home Single - Ronald McDonald House, Any Way You Look At It
• Gold, Public Service, Television Single - SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS – Undeniable
• Gold, Public Service, Out-of-Home Campaign - Ronald McDonald House, Any Way You Look At It
• Gold, Radio Campaign - Rakuten Kobo, Titles
• Gold, Public Service, Integrated Campaign - SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS
• Gold, Public Service, Online Film Single - SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS – Undeniable
• Silver, Multicultural marketing, Integrated Campaign - Egg Farmers of Canada, 2016 Chinese Campaign with Koo Multicultural
• Silver, Radio, Single - Rakuten Kobo, The Birds
• Silver, Public Service, Out-of-Home Campaign - SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS
• Silver, Out-of-home, Billboard Single - McDonald’s Canada, Equalizer Fries
• Bronze, Public Service, Press Single - SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS
• Bronze, Digital, Online Film Single: Long-Form - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees
• Bronze, Digital, Best in Direct - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees
• Bronze, Film, Television Single: 30 Seconds and Under - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees
• Bronze, Out-of-home, Billboard Single - McDonald’s Canada, Time For a Big Mac
• Bronze, PR, Community Building - General Mills Canada, Bring Back the Bees, with Veritas Communications
• Bronze, Public Service, Integrated Campaign Led by PR - SickKids Foundation, SickKids VS MissingHome

Cossette proudly won two gold and one silver for its work with McDonald’s Canada and the Moncton Homelessness Steering Committee.

• Gold- Public Service/Print OOH, Moncton Homelessness Steering Committee, Cover the uncovered
• Gold- Print /OOH campaign, McDonald’s Canada, All Day Breakfast  
• Silver- Integrated, McDonald’s Canada, All Day Breakfast  

The ICE Awards are organized by a diverse group of Atlantic Canadian advertising and marketing professionals to celebrate creative advertising made in Atlantic Canada. ICE is an acronym that stands for Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise.

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This new spot centers on a real father of a SickKids patient, Frank. Frank and his wife Stephanie had twin baby girls last year. One of the babies, Naya, has a complex heart condition that required open-heart surgery, as well as other health conditions. She has been living at SickKids since she was born 14 months ago.

The spot follows Frank throughout a typical workday while he laboriously runs his own HVAC business working on residential construction sites in Toronto. The video ends with Frank ending his workday, only to drive to SickKids hospital to greet his wife and take over the “night shift” to be with his daughter as she’s in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

The inspiration for this spot is that parenting is a 24/7 job at the best of times. For parents with a sick child, the regular routine of family is completely thrown off. What people may not realize is that when kids need to stay overnight in hospital, it’s likely that a parent is also spending the night with them. Add to that, the need to maintain their jobs, household routine … and everything else.

The spot ends with the tagline “This Father’s Day, support the night shift” and a call to support SickKids Foundation by purchasing a gift online at getbettergifts.com.

The agency was recognized for its work with Honey Nut Cheerios and McDonald’s Canada.

“We’re proud to be ranked amongst some of the best work across the globe. These campaigns not only highlight the top talent we have at Cossette, but speak to the extraordinarily strong relationships we have with our clients. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to help us take home these incredible industry recognitions,” says Peter Ignazi, Chief Creative Officer at Cossette.

Overall, the agency won:

• Gold, Sales Promotion – Is It Still a Big Mac, McDonald’s Canada
• Gold, Integrated – Bring Back the Bees, Honey Nut Cheerios (General Mills)

The FAB Awards is an international awards program focused entirely on work done for Food and Beverage brands. Now in its nineteenth year, it recognises the critical contribution that outstanding creative work makes to building brands, and identifies and rewards the leading practitioners from over 60 countries around the world.

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The agency was recognized for its work with SickKids Foundation and General Mills Canada.

• Grand Prix, SickKids VS, SickKids Foundation
• Gold – online video, Undeniable, SickKids Foundation
• Gold – AToMiC ROI, SickKids VS, SickKids Foundation
• Gold – AToMiC Shift, SickKids VS, SickKids Foundation
• Gold – AToMiC Idea, SickKids VS, SickKids Foundation
• Silver – AToMiC Shift, Bring Back the Bees, General Mills Canada
• Silver – AToMiC Idea, Bring Back the Bees, General Mills Canada

“We're honoured to be have been recognized amongst Canada’s best at the 2017 AToMiC Awards. Congratulations to our talented teams and incredible clients,” says Carlos Moreno, Chief Creative Officer at Cossette.

These wins follow a successful showing at the 2017 awards circuit for Cossette, with big wins at D&AD, Webby Awards, Shopper Innovation Awards, Carte Blanche and the FAB Awards in London.

The AToMiC Awards are produced by Strategy Magazine, Canada’s national marketing business publication, in association with Playback, Canada’s national production industry news source, and Media In Canada, the daily media industry news site. 

The video ends by recognizing how hard parents work to get their child into post-secondary education and leads the viewer to visit ontario.ca/osap. There, parents can learn more about the new program changes and funding available to help pay for a college or university education.

Back in March, OSAP launched its “Get the monkey off your back” campaign targeting students and introducing the latest changes to the program, including eligibility for free tuition and other benefits that help reduce the burden on Ontario students and their parents.

“Parents are involved in their child’s education throughout the years, and they work really hard to support them both emotionally and financially to get them into the college or university of their choice,” says Peter Ignazi, Chief Creative Officer at Cossette. “Now the new OSAP can help them achieve this goal.”

With 60, 30 and 15 second executions, the video runs online and on TV until May 21.

Credits :
Client - Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development
Advertising Agency - Cossette
Production House – Ad Hoc
DOP – Vinit Borrison
Editing House – Saints Editorial
Online – Fort York
Transfer – CO3 (Alter Ego)
Music and Sound Design – Grayson Matthews
Casting – Powerhouse

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Pierre Delagrave was awarded the Beacon profile, which is given to a communications professional who has inspired people with creativity and strategic thinking. “Committed to seeking out innovation, Pierre Delagrave continuously pushes the boundaries of his profession, making him a pioneer and visionary without equal. An experienced communicator with an incredible work ethic, he created several tools that are still used in the industry to this day, and demonstrated tremendous generosity towards up-and-comers,” noted members of the A2C jury.

“Pierre has always been an active participant in the evolution of both the agency and the industry,” said Cossette Quebec Executive Vice-President and General Manager Louis Duchesne. “This well-deserved recognition by our peers acknowledges his contribution to the development of our craft, and we are very proud of him.”

Beyond Pierre Delagrave’s professional achievements, Louis Duchesne also stressed his human side. “Pierre’s career is undoubtedly remarkable, but his great respect and concern for the people and teams he works with are equally important. He always inspires colleagues and friends alike with his strong values.”

Every year, the A2C Hall of Fame recognizes the careers of great visionaries who, each in their own way, made exceptional contributions to the excellence and vitality of the marketing communications industry in Quebec. The 2017 inductees were unanimously chosen by the A2C’s board of directors. The inductees are Yves Gougoux (Builder profile), Pierre Delagrave (Beacon profile) and the late Normand Grenier (Ally profile).

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For more information:
Roxanne Chaudier
514 985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

The campaign includes three 15-second pre-roll videos, billboards on highways and in urban centres, Web banners, and social media videos.

“To stay relevant during this time of the year, we developed contextual messages featuring summer habits and situations, inspiring people to continue questioning their transportation habits,” explained Gilles Legault, Creative Director at Cossette.

As for the 11 videos developed for social media, they adopt a funny, lighthearted tone. Four of them target business travellers, who remain a major part of VIA Rail’s clientele over the summer, while the other videos are directed at the general public. They will be online all season long.

Credits:
Advertiser: VIA Rail Canada
Agency: Cossette
Media agency: Touché!
Digital agency: Tink

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For more information:
Roxanne Chaudier
514 985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

The agency’s “Life Unpaused” campaign for SickKids also won big, taking home Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Overall, the agency won:

• Grand Prix- Bring back the Bees, General Mills Canada
• Gold, Integration- Bring back the Bees, General Mills Canada
• Gold, Original Idea- Bring back the Bees, General Mills Canada
• Gold, Reinvention- Bring back the Bees, General Mills Canada
• Gold, Small budget, big impact – Life Unpaused, SickKids
• Silver, Original Idea - Life Unpaused, SickKids
• Bronze, Tech Breakthrough- Life Unpaused, SickKids

“We're thrilled to have been recognized in this way at the Shopper Innovation Awards. Congratulations to our amazing client partners and teams at the agency,” says Daniel Shearer, Cossette EVP and GM.

The Shopper Innovation Awards are produced by Strategy, Canada's national marketing industry magazine and news site, published by Brunico Communications. The Shopper Innovation Awards inspire innovation and collaboration across Canada's shopper marketing industry by showcasing breakthrough achievements spanning the retail and consumer packaged goods program front.

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Cossette won :

• Gold, Best Cause, Charity Marketing or Public Sector Campaign, Amnesty International “Barbed Wire”
• Silver, Best Small Budget Campaign, Amnesty International “Barbed Wire”
• Order of Excellence Certificate, Best Marketing Discipline Campaign, Perfetti Van Melle – Mentos “Mentos Amazing Journey Contest”
• Order of Excellence Certificate, Best Product Launch or Re-Launch Campaign, SAQ “SAQ Inspire”

MAA Worldwide Globes entries are judged online by over 150 marketers, including agency heads, creatives, brand owners and academics. The winners receive a prestigious Globe award in recognition of their status as the very best of the best in the world. Every marketing communications campaign that has won an award in its country of origin is eligible for entry.

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Renseignements :
Roxanne Chaudier
514 985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

Their submission, “Please Pull Over” is a large-scale digital board created for Toronto’s SickKids Foundation. The board helps patients get to the hospital faster in an emergency. It uses GPS data to send the “Please pull over” message to all available digital boards ahead of ambulances en route to the hospital.

Carte Blanche for Creatives is an annual contest inviting creatives across the Canada to submit out-of-home pieces in their respective markets. The submissions are voted on by peers in the advertising industry.

“In our opinion, books are essential to building a better future. They can inspire children to learn, create and better understand the world around them,” said Antoinette Benoit, Senior Vice-President of Marketing at McDonald’s Canada.

To highlight this initiative, Cossette created a campaign for the Quebec market inviting parents to develop their inner storyteller and pass on the love of reading to their kids. Thus, a series of workshop videos (Animal Gymnastics and Mammal Linguistics, for example) featuring Quebec actor Jacques L’Heureux will appear on television and social media until June 12.

“Jacques L’Heureux captured the imagination of parents today—for many he is the ultimate storyteller! To watch him do one impression after the other brought us right back to our childhoods,” said Antoine Bécotte, Chief Creative Officer at Cossette. “He was exactly the right person to inspire parents and teach them to develop their inner storyteller.”

Credits:
Advertiser: McDonald’s Canada
Agency: Cossette
Media: OMD
Public relations: Weber Shandwick

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For more information:
Roxanne Chaudier
514-985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

“We’ve placed the rooster’s pride and a desire for excellence at the heart of our corporate values,” said Isabelle Drouin, Vice-President of Communications, Marketing and Innovation at Exceldor. “We’re proud to offer quality local products signed Exceldor : Beau. Bon. Poulet.”

The three 15-second spots feature The Rooster singing the praises of his chicken before signing off with a playful “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

We wanted to give the Exceldor brand and products a strong and distinctive tone,” Cossette Creative Vice-President Yvon Brossard explained.

The ads will appear on television and online in Quebec until June 4.

Credits:
Advertiser: Exceldor
Agency: Cossette
Production house: Morrison Films
Post-production: Studio Élément
Music: Les Productions du Gros Cornet Inc.

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For more information:
Roxanne Chaudier
514 985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

“I’d like to congratulate all of the agencies we met with during this process for their outstanding work—it shows that Quebec is a hotbed of talent,” said Sébastien Viau, Vice‑President, Marketing and Trade at the Alliance. “Cossette was awarded the partnership contract to promote Quebec as a tourist destination internationally because it distinguished itself by its vision and the way it demonstrated the expertise necessary to achieve our objectives. The agency has adapted to the new marketing realities, and showed us it had not only the tools, but the knowledge and resources to carry out our strategic vision. We found we had a lot in common with Cossette—together, we’re a winning combination.”

Cossette’s role will be to propose and implement a strategic plan that will include developing the QuébecOriginal brand and producing integrated campaigns designed for the target markets and clienteles identified in Quebec’s 2017–2020 strategic marketing plan, established by the Alliance.

“This mandate is perfectly in line with our corporate vision, which is based on our unparalleled abilities when it comes to both creativity and technology”, said Cossette Executive Vice-President and General Manager Louis Duchesne. “And under the Alliance’s leadership, Quebec’s tourism industry can set its sights high. It’s very exciting!“

Cossette has considerable expertise in tourism, having previously worked with some of the Alliance’s partners, including the Québec City Tourism Office, Tourism Montréal and Destination Canada.

As a partner in the success of the industry, one of the Alliance’s main objectives is to drive up tourism income by 5% annually. “Quebec has a tremendous opportunity to position itself as a world-class destination. Thanks to the new marketing business model outside Quebec, we now have unprecedented resources at our disposal,” noted the Alliance’s president and CEO, Martin Soucy.

About the Alliance
The Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec is striving to make Quebec a world-class tourist destination. As a partner in the success of Quebec’s tourism industry, it brings together, coordinates and represents tourism-related businesses and associations. By supporting and participating in the development and marketing of Quebec’s tourism offering abroad, the Alliance is helping to raise the province’s national and international profile and increase the economic spinoffs throughout all of its regions.

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For more information:
Roxanne Chaudier
514 985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

“We are absolutely thrilled with this news,” said Daniel Shearer, Executive Vice‑President and General Manager at Cossette. “D&AD Awards are notoriously hard to win and, alongside our incredible clients, we’re honoured to have been recognized amongst the world’s best.”

 Cossette was awarded for its work with SickKids and Easy:

• Yellow Pencil, Film Advertising, Cinema Commercials 61–120 seconds – SickKids VS “Undeniable”
• Graphite Pencil, Film Advertising, TV Commercials 61–120 seconds – SickKids VS “Undeniable”
• Wood Pencil, Digital Marketing, Online Video Adverts – SickKids VS “Undeniable”
• Wood Pencil, Outdoor Advertising, Poster Advertising Campaigns – Easy “No Shame”

 D&AD celebrates outstanding work in the design and advertising industry each year with its international creative awards. D&AD Pencils are recognized around the world as symbols of the very highest creative achievement.

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For more information:
Roxanne Chaudier
514-985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

L’Oréal, in partnership with Cossette and Automat—a leader in the field of artificial intelligence—has developed an intelligent beauty products discovery and transaction bot. The service helps users find the right beauty gift based on a series of contextualized questions that define their giftee’s beauty profile, and determine which L’Oréal brands and products suits the user’s budget. “This first concept allows the smart bot to learn and evolve in order to create other services, such as beauty consultations,” said Martin Aubut, head of digital at L’Oréal Canada.

“We’re proud to be taking this first step into the world of conversational commerce and artificial intelligence. The consumer experience is our chief focus, and we’re confident that this product will respond to our customers’ expectations,” added Stéphane Bérubé, CMO of L’Oréal Canada. The company was recently recognized as a pioneer in the field of conversational commerce at the unveiling of the service during Facebook’s annual developer conference,

“In our work as technologists and conversational marketing specialists, we’re inspired by L’Oréal’s attentiveness to its customers and ongoing quest for innovation, be it in terms of beauty or digital products,explained AndyMauro, CEO of Automat.

Cossette created Beauty Gifter’s visual identity, taking design cues from the Facebook Messenger platform. With a current emphasis on Mother’s Day, the Beauty Gifter will be adapted to various special occasions throughout the year. It’s available across Canada, but only in English for the time being.

“We find conversational marketing extremely interesting, as it represents the natural evolution of products we already offer. We’re therefore delighted to have had the chance to collaborate with Automat and L’Oréal, who constantly pushes us to innovate,”explained Malik Yacoubi, head of digital development and strategy at Cossette.

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For more informations:
Roxanne Chaudier
514-985-8255
roxanne.chaudier@cossette.com

Beauty Gifter by L’Oréal
http://m.me/BeautyGifter

Practical example
First of all, atomization is a concept I use to describe a phenomenon caused by two correlated factors. The surge in mobile devices and the explosion of social platforms have literally atomized (in the sense of vaporized) our actual presence and our state of presence, resulting in an unprecedented ability to now be in several places at one time.

Let’s take a hypothetical—and I mean completely hypothetical—situation. Say you’re in a meeting. It’s dragging on, and seems to be going nowhere (still hypothetically speaking, of course). Then just when you’re about to add a couple of emoticons to a Facebook conversation or send a text message… Poof! You’ve been atomized—without even lifting a finger (because technically, you typed those texts with your thumbs)!

Quantum experiment
Your now fragmented presence illustrates a phenomenon described in quantum physics—the superposition of quantum states.  The best-known example is that of the cat-in-the-box thought experiment devised by Austrian physicist Edwin Schrödinger. This involved a cat, a box and a mechanism that snuffed out poor Whiskers, two times out of four. Based on the principle that it is absolutely impossible to know what’s going on inside the box, Schrödinger wanted to demonstrate that the cat had to be considered both dead and alive. It revolutionized our way of thinking, by showing not only the limitations of the “Classics” realm, but by simply pointing out at the many aberrations and oddities caused by the functional failure of determinism.

It’s no accident that I used the quantum physics analogy. On the contrary, I chose it to illustrate where we are today—at the same point as Schrödingers of the world when they were discovering the conceptual and physical limits of classical physics. Like technology, all-encompassing digitalization has atomized the traditional marketing communications model and, more importantly, has allowed us to shake up the way we see things.

The Millennial mirage
Now let’s take a concrete example—good ol’ Millennials. We always need them. In fact, I asked for some for my birthday. What’s troubling is to see the amount of time, energy and resources spent trying to understand them and put them in neat little boxes.

Why? Well, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, although Millennials now surpass Baby Boomers in terms of numbers in the U.S., they are the generation that identifies the least with the label society has given them (79% for Boomers and 58% for Gen Xers, vs. 40% for Millennials). Plus, this is a growing trend driven by an astonishing rate of negative growth as well as the fact that two out of three Millennials do not identify themselves as such.

The end of gender
Digital atomization is just the tip of the iceberg—conventional determinants like age, employment, ethnicity or country of origin have gone out the window. Our previous notions of gender, both literal and figurative, have been forever transformed. All within a dynamic and volatile model where action must always be supported by a sense of awareness that is both renewed and renewable, and information gathering that is both sensitive and sensible.  

So I say to you today, let’s become our own version of quantum physicists, atomic communicators. Let’s leave behind pre-conceived notions of social groupings and other so-called “normal” principles. Let’s stop thinking only in terms of persona. Instead, let’s think about what’s happening at the atomic level, about the individual—their interests, influences, passions and problems, and what makes them who they are, instead of what we want to make of them. About what they say to us, rather than what we want to say to them.

Because putting a cat in a box may seem like a funny thing to do. 
But putting people in a box is no laughing matter.