WPP AUNZ launches ‘big’ – a new product development company headed up by Giles Day

In a first for WPP worldwide, WPP AUNZ has launched an innovative new offering aimed at fostering growth in the Australian market – through new product development (NPD).

Called big, the new company will create new categories, new markets and most importantly new revenue for clients, using data to define the opportunity, an understanding of people to create desire then using all that intelligence to build a real product or service.

Says Giles Day (left), founder and chief creative officer, big: “Many Australian businesses and organisations have exhausted cost-cutting measures. And while it’s important to always review the cost of operations, it’s also important that organisations also look at other revenue streams to drive top-line growth. That’s where big can come in – with NPD.

“big reduces the risk within NPD by first proving a commercial opportunity, then establishing what people desire in this opportunity then making that idea real. Ideas that are actually wanted by consumers. We don’t just build on hunches. We use data to define where the opportunities are. We use our understanding of people to create desire, then make useful new things that create new revenue.”

Says Jens Monsees, CEO, WPP AUNZ: “big is an excellent example of where our company is heading; using our vast data and tech talent teamed with our creative depth to innovate and develop new business models. It’s also about putting the client at the centre of what we do. By collaborating with clients through NPD, we are providing a true partnership that meets their changing needs in a fast-changing market.”

Day said big’s team comes “from the worlds of engineering, design and technology” and includes serious design prowess in Clara Klaassen (above right), head of industrial design, backed by WPP AUNZ chief strategy officer Rose Herceg who will provide the strategic backbone to the business, along with a an impressive network of business leaders, entrepreneurs, psychologists and inventors.

He said the team has previously worked together to develop innovative new product categories including MilkLab – a product developed in collaboration with Freedom Foods to create new revenue from new consumers for a commodity product; UHT milk. Day said we used data to establish a white space for “barista milk”, a category that didn’t exist before. Once the opportunity was identified, the team worked with baristas to co-create the product now known as MilkLab, a useful product with cultural capital that generates well over $50m of new revenue per year.

While Day admits that “good innovation costs money”, big will operate under an entirely new business model which will see it partner with businesses for a success fee or royalty based on ROI and agreed key performance indicators. This business model will focus on creating NPD that includes tech solutions that can be both scalable and provide recurring revenue.

Says Day: “In this way our success is our client’s success. We have created big to launch profitable products and services. We’re going to try harder and we want to be rewarded for that.”

Sasys Herceg: “This is all about innovating innovation. We are not just looking to improve products in categories that already exist – big is about creating categories and ideas that don’t exist yet.

“Put simply, we use our vast data pool to define where the money is, we use our strong understanding of people to create the product desire, then make really useful, really wanted products that create new revenue. It’s like nothing our industry has ever tackled before.

“That’s big thinking,” Herceg concluded.