This april the hungarian marketing and ad community will have a unique opportunity to rethink marketing and it’s principals: Eka Ruola, Chief Creative Officer of Nitro Group will join us on our campus to hold a Masterclass on the new five P’s of marketing! Because today’s customers don’t just evaluate what brands offer, they care about what brands actually stand for. We asked Eka, one of Northern Europe’s most awarded creative leaders about the shift of the consumer behavior, about his proposed fifth marketing dimension (Planet) and about the upcoming Masterclass.
MOME OPEN: You argue that the classic 4P model is still valid, yet no longer sufficient. What has fundamentally changed in consumer behavior that makes this shift unavoidable today?
E.R.: The biggest change in consumer behavior is that finally customer truly is royalty. We’ve said customer is king for a century now, but it really happened. Therefore the rational 4P model needs a more emotional add-on, the new P’s.
Many brands struggle to translate purpose into actual business impact. Where do you most often see the disconnect between intention and execution?
The problem with purpose quite often is that is considered too easily to be something with what you save the world with. It naturally can be that as well, but it needs to be tied to the business, otherwise it’s just hot air or green-washing. Take Dove’s Real Beauty for example, it’s an amazing purpose with a strong business relevance.
You’ve long argued that creativity and business are not in conflict. In today’s climate of data-driven marketing, how do you prove that to skeptical stakeholders?
Creativity is the most important tool for business growth. And we should not see creativity only as a tool or talent in marketing communication. There’s strategic creativity and creativity in product development and design, naturally. The most creative companies are the ones who usually outperform the market.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Eka Ruola is one of Finland’s most awarded creative leaders and brand strategists. His work has received recognition at all major international competitions, including Cannes Lions, Clio Awards, Effie and Golden Drum. In 2015, he was named Agency Innovator by the Internationalist in New York, and in 2024 he was inducted into the Golden Drum Hall of Fame. Before joining Nitro Group as Chief Creative Officer, he served as ECD and CEO of hasan & partners. He is the author of The New 4 P’s of Marketing and has spent the past decade arguing — and proving — that creativity and business results are not in conflict. They are the same thing.
Your framework evolves from People, Purpose, Platform, and Passion to now include “Planet.” What made this fifth P impossible to ignore?
Companies need to make sure that they are good corporate citizens as well – and that we start to see the implications of our actions. Also, the new regulations not only forces us to be better, but there’s a lot of opportunities as well and they need to be seriously considered going forward.
EU regulations are increasingly shaping how brands communicate. Do you see regulation as a creative constraint or a catalyst for better marketing?
A huge catalyst for a great brands that have been paying attention to things already, way before it’s a must. I embrace these opportunities to the max.
For marketers and creatives attending your session at MOME OPEN, what kind of problems are you most excited to tackle with participants during the program and what mindset shift would you most like them to walk away with after the Masterclass?
I’m still working on the exact brand cases that we will talk about, but I will make sure that it will be a real thing. I love a challenge, so it will not be anything easy, that’s for sure. It probably has a lot do with customer experience. The mindset that I would like for them to abtain is: „I can do anything when I let my passion live strong.”
If you’d like to take a deep dive into the subject, join us on the Masterclass on the 15th of April!
// Application deadline: april 6.
// Start date: april 15.
Apply to the Masterclass here:
https://open.mome.hu/a-masterclass-with-eka-ruola/
