#Great minds think unalike
- Steel & Feather
- Mar 22, 2017
- 4 min read
The corridor is narrow and the light is soft while I open the door to enter the Lyric Theatre, where the “Thriller” musical normally plays. I sit in the comfortable red chair attending the European Adverting Week in London. This morning the “Town Hall Series” with the headline “Business Without Borders” starts the four-day event. Nicola Mendelsohn from Facebook leads this first debate and claims that nearly 1/11 people working in UK works in the creative industry. Today London is one of the leading global cities to grab talents and businesses, especially in creative industries. According Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King, “art and science go together”. A point of view shared by different people presenting and debating during the day.
The program of this year has many good events, but it is difficult to attend all on my wish list. The information during the seminars and workshops is inspiring. However sometimes to understand the speeches fully, your brain needs to have them on a distance. Therefore, some of the events might be more similar with each other in an aftermath rational. For the first day, the events “creativity of the criminal mind”, “does the future belong to the content pioneers?” and “visual brand responsibility in an increasingly xenophobic world” can be argued to supplement each other with a focus on creativity, strategy, brand identity and storytelling, driven by research, culture interest and pondering.
In the workshop “creativity of the criminal mind” by professor David Lawrence, Planning Director at Brave gives his 10 examples or headlines into how creatives should think differently. His examples driven from different bank robbers exemplifies how creatives and robbers should think alike when they create campaigns. Most bank robbers are left brainers and hereby are more strategic. Therefore, many robbers build long-term strategies to be successful with their plan.
One of Dr Lawrence’s headlines is “#6 Think Big” as the robber A.K.A Dan Cooper did by hijacking a plane in 1971. He got 200.000 dollars from the airline. After letting the passengers go, he ordered the plane to fly to Mexico. On the way, he jumped out of the plane. He has never been seen ever since. For 45 years FBI looked for him investigating his disappearing until last year when the FBI stopped the investigation. If it was a smart move or suicide will always be an unanswered question but it showed how he thought differently than the rest. A point that goes align with Dr Lawrence #8 point “Reinvent to stay ahead”. A claim that might be easier said than done and a claim that questions why stop if you can keep moving? This workshop made it clear how “advertising need to be brave and to think long term” to be successful.
By having Dr Lawrence’s points in my head I am heading to the “Campaign Media Roundtable” event, where Iain Jacob, CEO for Publicis Media comes with the statement “Bad advertising well target is a bad ad”. This statement aligns very well with the discussion where the panel containing: Gideon Spanier, from Campaign & Media Week, Catherine Becker, CEO for VCCP, Jason Gonsalves, CEO for Mcgarrybowen and Nick Hurreell CEO for George & Dragon agree on how content, context and meaning are important for advertising. Especially, they are arguing that the context and the placing of advertising are important since trust between the brand and the consumer is a key to success in the future. Furthermore, the understanding of how brands can create cultural vibes is important for driving brand success.
Content and context are also the key themes in the event “Does the future belong to the content pioneers?” with the panel members: Jackie Stevenson, Founding Partner and Global Managing Director at The Brooklyn Brothers; George Bryant, Founding Partner and ECD at The Brooklyn Brothers; Vivek Rampal, Global Marketing Director at BP Castrol and Alex Jenkins Editor at Contagious. They argue how content can lead the way for brands to build success since pioneers can build brands. Additional, it is important to have in mind how marketing and pioneers intend to create culture from a creative perspective. Therefore, the creation of a story for a brand is important as Alex Jankins says “Stories resonate with people” since people want to engage. Therefore, to build brand success it is important to see the possibility of engaging brands into cultures. A point that Vivek Rampal pointed out very clearly by stating: “if you (as a brand) want to be a pioneer, you need to do content”.
Storytelling and content are in this discussion important for brands but as creatives in the industry you need to think further, because as George Bryant says: “creative need to know the output before they start their work”. He claims that not only is it necessary for the creative to get a proposition, but they also need to know which headlines are expected. Hereby, they can build the right creative ideas and stories, which resonate with their targets. It’s a combination of finding the right insight both from a strategy and creative perspective that resonates with culture.
Understanding of culture is important, since this can help building a brand story and a brand identity as the event “visual brand responsibility in an increasingly xenophobic world” is touching. Even the approach at this event might be touching CSR more. However, this event makes it very clear how people today expect brands to stand for something. Hereby, as a brand you can lose yourself and customers if you do not show where you stand in relation to political or cultural issues. However, authenticity is extremely important because people can see it if brands do send a message through their communication but those do not resonate with the experience the customer has with the brand when they buy their product. Therefore, stay authentic.
Throughout the first day of the Advertising week the main elements to build successful brands is: build a brand story and identity that reflect the world we are living in, but do it with the brand personality in a creative and new way.
Comments