Claire Davidson is back in Cannes
taking in the seminars and reporting for Campaign Brief Asia. Here's her
round up of the speaker sessions on Day 5 of the Festival.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
The
hallways of the Palais Des Festivals were a little empty first thing
this morning, which is not surprising after all of the official parties
really kicked off last night. It seems that every single Cannes Lions
delegate was out in force at events ranging from the Finnish Sauna
Party, the Location Guide / PSN Soiree, the Rushes Party, the Facebook
Awards, the Swedish Pool Party, the Pitstop Party and of course the
culmination of the massive massive Massive Music / Media Monks
extravaganza. I hate to think how much rose was drunk by all last
night. Happily, we all woke up giggling with our smart phones reading
about the couple caught on camera having an amorous romp on our very own
red carpet the Palais Des Festivals at 4.30am this morning.
Today was Creative Talent Day in the forum room. I caught
"Retaining Young Creative Talent With Purpose, Technology and Dragons"
brought to us by Chris Pearce, Joint CEO of TMW Unlimited and Natalie
Price, Creative Production Assistant of TMW Unlimited.
Great
people are the one thing that an agency's success relies upon. Gen Y now
officially outnumbers Gen X in the work force. They make up 44% of it
and are statistically between the ages of 18 to 34. The needs and
attitudes of these people cannot be ignored. They must be nurtured.
They have very itchy feet compared to other generations. Is it due to
money, power, status or even wanting to go somewhere else where an
office might have an enticing hot tub? It's most likely that they want
to build their own thing, working on products and services that people
actually want to adopt, and using today's technologies to do so. They
want to express themselves.
Is the chance to do the best creative work of your life enough?
People
need an environment to work in where they feel safe and can take
risks. They need to feel they can grow. They want their opinions to be
listened to and matter. An agency needs to give its staff a sense of
purpose. It improves morale. People want to feel valued. There's more
to work than work. There's life.
We heard today about Project
Iliad, which is helping provide solutions to this problem. Project
Iliad has been set up to allow entrepreneurs to pitch their tech based
ideas, which will secure financial investment and agency backing. Price
showcased her low-cost technology product that assists carers to look
after patients with dementia. We also looked at ideas from It's
Complicated, Chit Chat, Immersive in Train Experience and Magic Touch.
Price left us with the following takeouts:
~ The idea is just the beginning. Put passion and energy into the idea.
~ You need everyone to believe in your idea. It's a team effort.
~ Don't waste your time trying to find solutions to problems that don't exist.
The
idea is just the very beginning. Protect and nurture embryonic ideas.
Sir John Hegarty believes we're all artists, but only some of us should
exhibit. With innovation Pearce believes that it's slightly
different. When it comes to raw product and genuine ideas, they can
come from anywhere. Innovation is also a remix. It doesn't have to be
something completely new.
I next checked out observations by
Bobby Hershfield, Partner & Chief Creative Officer at SS+K "Making
Work Better: Lessons from Leap - Account to Creative". Hershfield
started his career in account service where he spent eight years
working, but yearning to jump the fence to the creative department.
When he plucked up the courage and approached Dan Wieden about it, his
reply was 'Why would I take a great account guy and make him a mediocre
creative?'
We heard today what Hershfield learnt on his path,
actually accomplishing his dream, and becoming a very well awarded
creative to boot. He told us to be bold. Have the heart to go for it.
Dream big. A key for Hershfield was to maintain the integrities of
both the account service and creative disciplines. They must be
interrelated and interspersed. Working hard equates to great work.
Great work matters. Make it everything. If you are part of a team, be
part of a team. His big ta da was perspective. Stand behind the work as
well as in front of it. Have a point of view. Make the work
personal. Make it have value to you. Embrace the process to create
work. Don't say 'can't' or 'no'. Get excited about hard challenges.
Allow for accidents and every once in a while be unrealistic and
illogical. Focus on the work. Give everyone a role in creativity.
Give everyone a voice. Give everyone a part of your success. Stay
curious. Be focused. Be sympathetic.
Next up was "How To
Rebuild A Creative Culture When Everything's Fucked" with Al Mosely,
President and Chief Creative Officer of 180 Amsterdam. Mosely joined
180 Amsterdam in July 2010. A week later Holland played Spain in the
World Cup Final and lost. On the same day 180 Amsterdam lost their
Adidas client, which was the agency's founding and biggest client.
Mosely
today talked to us about rebuilding. You have to believe in yourself
when no one believes in you any more and everyone starts to question
you. Some of the greatest people in history have been struck with
disaster but they always come back with belief. Take Mohamed Ali. Have
power to silence your doubters and have emotional intensity.
Remember
why you are here. 180 Amsterdam was founded on a quote by Francis Ford
Coppola, "Whenever you get into trouble keep going. Do a 180 degree
turn. Turn the situation halfway around. Don't look for the secure
solution. Don't pull back from the passion. Turn it on full force".
The powerful spirit fuels everything. Raise the bar. Have self belief
amongst the chaos.
You need to downsize in the right way. You
don't want to lose the talent and the people driving the work forward.
Rethink the way you work. What 180 Amsterdam did was to behave like a
start up. Start ups have energy. They want to work. They went from
hierarchy to flat. They made everyone equal and responsible for the
company. They went from 160 employees to 50 leaders. So empower
everybody and give them a reason for wanting to be there. Listen to
everybody. Give them a voice. Ricardo Semler, DCEO of Semco Partners
believes 'if we do not let people do things the way they do, we will
never know what they are capable of and they will just follow our
boarding school rules'.
Work in a collaborative way. 180
Amsterdam needed to keep the right people in the room. We are greater
than the sum of our parts. Elon Musk tells us 'if you're trying to
create a company it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the
ingredients in the right proportion'.
Hold your line. If you are
good at something keep going. For 180 Amsterdam it means to create
cultural value for brands with global impact. Walt Disney said 'do what
you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their
friends'. People need to do what they do well.
The same
challengers are there on the way back up. It's about always making sure
you have the right people. Grow properly and in a good way. Find the
right clients to drive your business forward.
Mosely left us with the following final advice:
~ Keep in mind why we exist.
~ Empower people to grow.
~ Keep the right people in the room.
~ Let them do what they do well.
~ Go where you can win.
Today's
Ogilvy & Inspire lecture was with Social Activist, Writer and
Public Speaker, Monica Lewinsky. Monica was joined on stage with Tham
Khai Meng, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, of Ogilvy & Mather.
In
the 90's we all knew Monica Lewinsky's face. The person behind the
face wasn't so well known. She became patient number one of viral
online shaming. The internet allows hate to be unlimited. The audience
has the power. The phenomenon of online shaming is growing and
growing. It's terrifying and it's killing people.
Lewinsky has
shown amazing courage, bravery and compassion in getting her message
out. The haters in this world make the biggest noise, but they are
outnumbered by the good people.
If you were a brand, what brand
would you be? Lewinsky was asked this in a job interview a few years
ago. When you're Monica Lewinsky that's a loaded question. We're
familiar with what it means to nurture, grow and shape a brand. We also
know what it's like to experience a brand crisis. When that brand is
you personally - you name, your likeness, your values, your soul - and
you experience a brand crisis it can be terrifying. Lewinsky was
publically silent for a decade due to her own brand crisis. Only
recently has she spoken out publically.
At the age of 22 Lewinsky
fell in love with her boss and at the age of 24 she learnt the
devastating consequences of that mistake. We all make mistakes that we
regret. She fell in love with the wrong person. Lewinsky became caught
in a political, legal and media maelstrom. In 1998 her story broke
online, where news for the first time was seen with the click of the
button. She was publically humiliated worldwide. She lost her
reputation on a global scale. There was the real Monica, and then there
became the publically known Monica, who was branded and constructed
with a little fact and a lot of fiction.
When this happened 17
years ago there was no name for it. Today it is called cyber bulling
and online harassment. Lewinsky lost her reputation and her dignity.
She almost lost her life. The landscape now has become populated with
instances like Lewinsky's. Today people often learn of people's
sufferings when it is too late. Lewinsky was fortunate enough to have
the exceptionally strong support of her family and close friends to get
her through her dark days. Others are not so fortunate.
Bullying
has been found to be more damaging the child abuse. From 2012 to 2103
there was an 87% increase in calls related in cyber bullying.
Humiliation is a more intensely felt emotion than either happiness or
anger. Cruelty is nothing new, but the shift in the degree of cruelty
at these online levels is staggering. It's loud. It's public. It's
global.
Think before you think out loud and online. Online the
more shame, the more clicks. The more clicks, the more advertising
dollars. We are helping to drive this. We need to bring about social
responsibility. Also the more we click to this type of gossip the more
numb we get to this type of suffering. We co-create content by our
clicking behavior. Clicking is a public act, and Lewinsky believes a
moral one too. Humiliation is a symptom of the culture we have created.
Having your narrative stolen can be devastating. Changing this
behavior and this culture begins with evolving our beliefs. Lewinsky
believes we need a revolution. We need to return to a value of
compassion and empathy. There is power in small numbers. Be an
up-stander, and not a by-stander. Use positive comments. Support
organisations that support these issues. We have a responsibility to
freedom of expression. Speak with intention, not attention. Showing
empathy online shows examples to others. Click with comparison.
Lewinsky
reassures anyone suffering from cyber bullying and online harassment
that they can survive it. You can insist on a different ending to your
story. Have comparison. Compassion can radiate positively. Compassion
can reduce the shame of public humiliation. We need to build a more
compassionate society. If people are compassionate, brands will be
compassionate too. We can learn from our mistakes and be more
resilient.
Every one of us at Cannes this week is a creative
engine driving forward our culture. Lewinsky asked us to help her.
With that we all stood and gave Monica a very long and very strong
standing ovation. This is a great opportunity for us to stand up and
fight for this cause.
We've seen plenty of buzz generated this
week around the first Lions Innovation. Taking place across today and
tomorrow and situated in the Rotonde Lerins (next door to the Palais Des
Festivals), Lions Innovation is a celebration of all things pioneering;
dedicated to a fusion of data, technology and ideas - all sitting
pretty under the Cannes Lions umbrella theme of Creativity.
Previously
recognized within the festival in the form of Innovation Lions, the
eruption of platforms and content - along with the accompanying consumer
engagement and industry insights - have demanded the category be
promoted to a stand alone event; thus Lions Innovation's debut this
year.
Our organisers here are touting it as a 'two day
exploration of the newest forces enhancing and enabling creativity, and
dramatically reshaping the communications landscape - data and
technology.' Comprising a dynamic speaker programme, product
demonstrations and hands-on experiences, the object of the game is to
ignite ideas and kickstart the partnerships that could bring them to
life. Trailblazers in creativity, marketing, technology and data will
be thrown in a room with some of the most exciting start-ups from around
the world; all learning from and presenting not only to each other but
also to global brand and agency leaders. The Chemistry of Creativity
will be charging the atmosphere and inspiring all who attend.
Part
think tank, part show & tell, part live experiment and with a
healthy dose of crystal ball gazing into the future, the inauguration of
Innovation Lions also sees an awards ceremony and sparkling new
Creative Data Lions up for grabs.
Fire up your devices and get
online (or find some tinfoil and get your robot suit on) the future is
here and exciting times are ahead.
Claire Davidson, Managing
Director & Executive Producer - ASIA + MENA @ The Sweet Shop,
reporting for Campaign Brief Asia at Cannes Lions 2015
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