Here's an ad festival that everyone should keep an eye on. The Emergence Creative Festival is held in the
Margaret River region of Western Australia, and it's right up there with the best of them. A packed program
of entertaining presentations from inspirational speakers followed by
masterclasses and workshops which all delivered real value to delegates.
To be honest the speaker sessions at Emergence are overall vastly
superior to what we see every year at most other ad festivals. Then
there's the social side of an ad festival in the wine, music and
surfing capital of Western Australia. If you are looking for a very
special experience, consider attending the Festival next year, and add
on a holiday in the south-west of Western Australia. Cooch Creative's
Ron Samuel (pictured left with
one of this year's top speakers Carolyn Miller) is a second time
attendee at Emergence. Following is his wrap-up of this very successful
Festival.
Day 1 - Wednesday 19th February
Emergence
was back with a blast this year and it seemed that the every person in
Margaret River was determined to make it a success. The workshops were
held throughout the day on Wednesday and led straight into the opening
night event at the Cultural Centre. The quality and diversity of the
local bands and musicians was impressive and they put on a fantastic
show to kick things off. The event was also open to the community who
supported it whole-heartedly.
It was a great to bump into some familiar faces and make some new
friends. The night continued at the Swing Taphouse with singers and
musicians giving impromptu performances. There was no shortage of great
talent and the night just kept getting better, which is a sure sign to
check your watch. Of course no one did this.
Day 2 - Thursday 20th February
Today
started with the Big Bang Breakfast at The White Elephant on Gnarabup
Beach. It was a stunning southwest morning and the beach looked
spectacular, which was in complete contrast to most of us. The sunnies
didn't come off for a long time. As always the food, service and welcome
made everyone feel very special. The overseas speakers couldn't believe
how beautiful the place was.
The feeling was backed up by the
main seminar location at Vasse Felix. "A creative seminar in a winery
where you can taste wine in-between sessions - are you serious?". Yep.
PJ
Bloom (left), who is the musical brain behind Glee, gave the keynote
presentation, moderated by 303Lowe Perth MD Al Taylor. It was a great insight into the
business behind a hit musical TV show. He also gave a great example of
how audiences are discovering new music via the brands they interact
with and how brands can build new audiences if they think about the
music as more than just a soundtrack and allow access to the story and
people who create the music. Discovering, using and building audiences
were a topic that ran through many of the speakers presentations.
Next
up was Evan Bregman (right) from Electus in the United States and he was
talking about creating online content and finding your audience. He made
the point that when someone shares your content they do so because your
content actually represents them. But this only works when you find the
right audience. He recommended targeting a very specific audience that
is underserved by traditional media.
He gave some great examples from
Electus where brands were involved with online shows that were created
then used as brand communication platforms with the full knowledge and
participation of the audience.
The very entertaining
Carolyn Miller (pictured top with Samuel) took us on a great ride through her thoughts on the
Digital Democracy and what the implications are for brands and people in
general. For brands it's the age of the small brand, which can be
introduced to a global audience in a click. Small brands are challenging
larger competitors who can easily outspend them simply because they can
have presence and communicate just as effectively.
She gave the
microbrewery industry as an example. This was very relevant, as most of
us had oversampled some of the local brews on the previous evening. She
added that any brand could now be tried and executed on the web if
enough people want to have a go at them. Carolyn also highlighted the
social implications of device addiction and shared her theory that a
counter trend of not sharing on social media is just around the corner
The
presentation from Ben Akers, from The Republic of Everyone in Sydney, was titled
'You Can't do That'. His company believe that 'doing good is good for
business' and they focus on sustainability. Ben (right) took us through a number
of case studies where budgets were small but the objectives were
challenging. In each case they took on the job not really knowing how
they were going to do it. The asylum seeker debate was great example.
The issue is a hot potato and they wanted people to see both sides of
the argument so they went on a national tour with their own hot potato
van. They gave away millions of hot potatoes and filmed comments from
Australians around the country to raise awareness of the plight of the
asylum seekers and the reasons why they come here. Ben's belief that you
can do anything, if you're brave enough and willing to take a creative
risk was the beginning of another thread which ran through the
conference.
Jonathan Kneebone from the Glue Society, Sydney decided
that he wanted active participation from everyone during his
presentation and creating a campaign to stop the shark cull was the best
way to do this. In the hands of someone else this session could easily
have descended into chaos but it didn't. Jonathan (left) set up an agency from
the participants in the room, detailed the steps from research to
implementation, put a time limit on each one and off we went. Credit to
the art director who was pumping out the work almost instantly
throughout the session. By the end of it all we did have a campaign,
just like Jonathan had promised and it went live on social media, just
like he said it would. Brilliant. I think that the point that he was
making here is that if you can do all of that in one hour imagine what
you can do in a day, a week or a month, if you know where to start.
That
evening I was fortunate enough to be invited to a very different kind
of dinner hosted by the Communications Council and Fairfax. It was
called a foraging dinner, a concept developed by the young
entrepreneurial food folk at Fervor. It's based around
sourcing natural ingredients from the bush before dinner and using them
to create the dishes. It's a great idea and a great way to learn more
about what we have around us. The problem was remembering it all after
sampling more fine wine and beer from the region.
Day 3 - Friday 21st February
It
was a 6.30am start for the Undiscipline Surf Competition. A group of
enthusiastic participants showed up but the surf decided not to,
probably hangover. It didn't stop us from jumping in and having a go
though. Once again the high energy Josh Palmateer made sure that
everyone stood up before they left the water. He must eat Energizer
batteries because he just kept going and kept everyone going with his
infectious energy. Those of us who could surf spent some time dropping
in on each other and catching up. It was a beautiful morning and a great
start to the day.
We grabbed a quick breakfast at Sea Garden in
Prevelly, where I became known as "The Small Mexican", I'll tell you about
that story another time.
First up was Mark Hebert from Warp
Productions in the UK. Mark and his mates have been described as the
punk rockers of the British film industry and they have made some great
films. They are definitely anti-establishment when it comes to
filmmaking and Mark took us through the way they do great things on
shoestring budgets. It was inspiring and refreshing, especially to those
of us who have experienced some of the frustrations. His attitude is to
go around the barriers and make the film any way you can. Mark's down
to earth personality was well received by everyone and his message
included the advice that you should always have fun and always have a
laugh if you're going to be working that hard.
Christiaan Van
Vuuren took us through his incredible journey that started with a life
threatening illness that turned into a major career change. It was
amazing, serious and hilarious all at the same time. Once gain the 'just
pick up a camera and make it' attitude came through loud and clear.
From the Fully Sick Rapper to Bondi Hipsters Chris shared the experience
and advice on creating content that attracts an audience, which then
attracts the dollars. Along with Mark this was definitely one of the
highlights of festival.
Next up was Eric Phu on User Centered
marketing. Eric's wealth of experience from south East Asia gave us some
valuable insights into what user centred marketing can do, if it's done
properly.
I know that we rarely have the budgets to create the kind of
content that Eric demonstrated in his presentation but just viewing your
prospects in the way that he suggested will give a you very different
perspective on how to engage them.
Glenn Bartlett (left) spends his days
creating fart jokes and inappropriate humour and he's proud of it. As
Creative Director of Turner International Asia Pacific he's responsible
for the Cartoon Network and Adultswim.com.au among other things.
Glenn took
us through a lot of very funny examples to make his point that
snackable content is king, short bursts that can be shared easily.
Again
he also pointed out that a great deal of creative bravery is require in
order to stay relevant and stay in front of the target and keep
building the audience. They have a lot of lawyers.
The final
session of the festival was a social media forum on destination
marketing hosted by Colin Mackay-Coghill from Marketforce Perth. The panel
also consisted of two other locals Ryan Malone from Blond Guerrilla and
Adam Barrell from Trilogy. Both of these guys were great, they shared
practical tips and advice, which the audience really appreciated.
Adam
did a fantastic job of explaining how to make the most of Twitter and
Ryan did the same for Facebook. People came away with things that they
could do immediately to improve the effectiveness of both social
mediums.
Lauren Bath made everyone jealous with her job description as
Australia's first Instagram professional. She goes to great places,
takes great shots and puts them on Instagram and she gets paid to do it.
She shared advice on how to take good shots and the most effective way
of using Instagram to display them and have them viewed and shared. Like
the guys, it was good practical advice. Everyone wanted her job.
The
final dinner was hosted at Leeuwin Estate and was the perfect way to
wrap up the event. Fine wine and great food was shared in abundance and
we all had a chance to share our experiences and thoughts about the
three days.
Once again organisers, Mat Lewis and Georgia Stewart, did an amazing job
of pulling it all together and attracting world-class speakers. The
Perth speakers and presenters who hosted workshops were very well
received by the small businesses and local business community, which
gave the event a good balance. There was something for everyone.
Was it worth it?
Tired
but inspired is the best way to sum up this year. The tiredness was all
self-inflicted of course. For me this year really raised the bar. The
presentations, master classes and workshops were very well thought out
and run. The selection of speakers really complimented one another and
the local business community were well catered for and appreciated the
support.
If you're an ad person thinking that there wasn't anything
in it for you, or that it wasn't relevant, then you really need to pull
your head out and see where the industry is heading. The future is
already here.
I'll be back.
VIEW THE SHORT HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO
Ron
Samuel is a founding partner of Perth-based regional creative
communication consultancy Cooch Creative, which celebrated its 10th
birthday this year. Previously he was Creative Director at Lintas
Singapore, Creative Group Head at Euro RSCG in Singapore and Creative
Director at John Davis Advertising Perth (JDA).
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