Saxo Bank wanted to matter. Fast.
In 2009, Forbes.com was one of the most-trafficked sites in the United States. Digital publishing was changing quickly, and advertisers were looking for ways to do more than buy standard display inventory.
I was a Creative Strategist and Associate Creative Director at Forbes, leading a creative services organization that worked closely with Sales to develop innovative advertising products and bring them to market.
Saxo Bank wanted to establish credibility with an affluent, financially sophisticated audience.
We couldn't simply make an ad for Saxo Bank. We needed to create something that would make people stop, pay attention and believe.
What we developed became an early example of the kind of branded content that would become commonplace in digital publishing.
- Role
- Creative Strategist / Associate Creative Director
- Company
- Forbes
- Year
- 2009
- Disciplines
- Creative Strategy · Branded Content · Advertising Product Development · Creative Direction
Forbes had something advertisers couldn't buy anywhere else.
Forbes had the audience and the authority. We also had the talent, technology and creative team to turn those assets into something an advertiser couldn't buy anywhere else.
Our job was to figure out how those assets could become something valuable to an advertiser.
Sales brought us the business challenge.
We helped invent the product that could solve it.
Saxo Bank had the technology. Forbes had the trust.
Saxo Bank was competing in a crowded online trading market and needed to establish credibility with sophisticated investors.
Forbes already had a relationship with that audience.
We saw an opportunity to put that relationship to work without turning the Forbes experience into a conventional endorsement.
We conceived a custom video featuring Steve Forbes communicating Saxo Bank's value proposition.
Turn Forbes authority into an advertising product.
Then we built the digital experience around it.
We developed new digital formats to carry the content across Forbes.com and give the program more impact than a standard display buy could deliver.
The result was something Forbes could actually sell: a custom branded experience built around our audience, our talent and our technology.
One product, assembled from what only a publisher had.
The trusted voice at the center of the experience.
A sophisticated financial platform that needed to build credibility.
A purpose-built story that made the product easier to understand.
Digital experiences designed to give the content greater impact.
A differentiated product the sales team could take to market.
Each layer only worked because the one above it existed. That is the earliest version of how I think about platform architecture.
Creative strategist + product developer
I led the creative team supporting Forbes' sales organization.
For this program, I was involved from the initial concept through the pitch and production:
- 01Concept
Developed the creative idea and overall direction.
- 02Product Development
Helped define the advertising experience and the new digital formats required to deliver it.
- 03Pitch
Created the visual and narrative materials Sales used to sell the program.
- 04Production
Directed the creative development and execution, including the Steve Forbes video.
- 05Launch
Worked with the team to bring the finished experience to market.
The work sat somewhere between creative development and product development.
That was the job I was doing at Forbes: helping Sales turn an advertiser's challenge into something the company could build, sell and deliver.
We created something Forbes could sell.
Buy advertising on Forbes.
Partner with Forbes to combine audience, brand, talent and technology into a custom experience.
The real value was that Forbes now had something new and highly valuable to sell.
We had created a new kind of advertising proposition: an advertiser could work with Forbes to combine our audience, brand, talent and technology into a custom experience.
That approach became increasingly common as publishers and advertisers moved toward branded content and more integrated digital experiences.
Award recognition
The best advertising products start with something the audience already values.
Forbes had credibility with the people Saxo Bank wanted to reach. Our job was to find a way to make that credibility useful without compromising the audience's experience.
That lesson has stayed with me.
Today, I approach cultural platforms in much the same way: understand what people value, understand what a brand has the right to contribute, and build something that creates value at the intersection.
The origin of the platform mindset.
- 2009Forbes
I helped create advertising products by bringing together audience, editorial authority, creative and technology.
- 2010s–2020sDIRECTV / AT&T
I moved to the brand side and began building cultural platforms around audiences, communities, creators, partners, talent and experiences.
- TodayHebert.Media
I help brands figure out where they can create meaningful value in culture and build the platforms to do it.
See how the platform thinking evolved
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