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Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59614
claudia batten Not Digital You May Not Be Relevant How one Kiwi woman in Colorado is rewriting the rules of advertising on a global scale CLAUDIA BATTEN POSSESSES A natural entrepreneurial flair. There's nothing she would rather do than start new businesses, primed by her previous career as a lawyer and her current career in advertising. However, playing by the rules is not part of her game plan, and she confesses that she's likely to change the rules to suit herself. "I feel like I physically buckle anytime someone says 'you can't do it that way'. I'm pretty headstrong; it's a strength and a weakness, and if someone tells me 'no' I just want it that much more!" Originally from Wellington, Claudia now abides by Mountain Time, living in Boulder, Colorado with her artist husband, Mark Castator. Her first foray into the advertising market was with Massive, the world's first network for advertising dynamically in video games. In 2006, after only three years, Massive was acquired by Microsoft Corporation for an undisclosed figure of between $200 million to $400 million (USD), and Claudia remained as Director of Partner Development for a further three years. A continued desire to take the road least trodden and meet the needs of advertising clients, Claudia co-founded Victors & Spoils. Launched in 2009 with Evan Fry and John Winsor, Claudia is the Chief Operating Officer of the world's first advertising agency based on the principles of 'crowdsourcing'. Instead of turning to an in-house team for creative input, Victors & Spoils turn to 6,000 contributors from 130 countries, all 12 | www.hermagazine.co.nz vying for the 'spoils'. The company, with clients such as Coca Cola, Unilever, General Mills and Harley Davidson, departs from the usual approach to creative development whilst retaining the good of conventional methods. "We actually have a very traditional way of approaching the development of advertising – a lot of things that are necessary to create great advertising already exist," explains Claudia. "What we do with 'crowdsourcing' is bring more voices into the conversation and into the ideation process. We're using 'crowdsourcing' and any other digital tools that we can to make sure our clients are paying the best price for great advertising." Claudia says that advertising agencies have got a little carried away when it comes to charging for their services and expertise. Fortune 500 companies are paying big, big dollars, believing that's necessary to get the best ideation, but that's not what they're getting. "We say that we are everything you loved about your agency before they became big and bloated and expensive. A lot of clients out there just want a lot of great creative thinking, and by using the fantastic talent in the crowd we can bring that to them. 'Crowdsourcing' is actually something our clients don't see. It's not really relevant to them except that, by using our model, we bring them bigger ideas from a broader group of people in a more cost efficient way." The world of advertising was a bit of a departure from her original career as a lawyer at Russell McVeagh. A seemingly rash decision to move to New York was based on Claudia's strong sense of intuition and organic approach to life and business. "I think it's really hard to know you're making the right decision at any given moment," she muses. "You just make a decision to go in a certain direction. Taking in what's going on, assessing that bit of information, reacting to it and then seeing what happens from there. That's how I look at it, rather than 'ah, I've got it'." Claudia uses the same decision-making