Claire Davidson’s Adfest Diary
By Claire Davidson, executive producer,
The Sweet Shop
And we’re off and we’re racing at Adfest 2014 in Pattaya, Thailand. With this year’s theme to ‘Co-Create The Future’ an exciting three day festival is in store for us; comprising of speaker sessions, forums, workshops, awards nights, and of course the Campaign Brief, Sweetshop, Fin Design & Effects and Gunnery Sunset Drinks last night (innocent self promotional plug)…
This year Adfest will examine the power of collaboration in a world where consumers can now define and influence the value of brands, products and services. We will be asked how we define our role in this brave new world, how we tap into consumer ideas and generate real value for brands, as well as determining both the benefits and the risks for this.
‘Co-Create The Future’ centres around forging new connections and partnerships. With the region’s leading creative and production communities having come together for this years festival, I think we’re already off to a good start here. We’re all aware that our future depends on greater collaboration within and beyond the advertising industry.
Adfest 2014 has seen 3,253 entries from 41 cities, with the majority coming from Tokyo, Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore and Manila. 56 jury members from 18 cities were brought to Pattaya earlier in the week to judge the work. We’ll find out the winners during the next few days.
I started the day, as I always do, taking in the seminars. First up was “Short Films by The Fabulous Four 2014”. The session was moderated by Diederik Van Middelkoop, CEO of Massive Music, and Stephen Douglas, Head of Business, Asia Pacific of Fin Design and Effects. It began with some behind the scenes drama – The Fabulous Four had quickly become The Fabulous Three…
24 film scripts by new directors, following the theme “Co-Create The Future”, were entered into this competition, and four of these were selected to be produced. The idea behind this is to make your script if chosen. One of the directors changed his script so dramatically that he had to be disqualified from competition. What he presented wasn’t the script that had been shortlisted (in fact it was something completely new) and so the director was asked to kindly pack his bags and go home with his fraudulent tail between his legs. Naughty, naughty…
So the Fabulous Three which we saw today included:
~ “Karen” written and directed by Adam Graveley (Perth, Australia)
Its focus was a guy in love with his smart phone. It’s something we can all relate to and reiterates exactly what we already know – that we simply can’t live without our phones these days, not even for a nanosecond. Um… Guilty.
~ “Deads” directed by Keisuke Kuroyangagi (Tokyo, Japan)
This is a zombie film about the living dead meeting the dead living. Its message was to tell humans to wake up. Through a beauty salon for zombies, the connection is possible for passionate people to transfer their passion to unpassionate people. Have you got that?
~ “A Man” directed by Tomoichiro Setsuda (Tokyo, Japan)
This was a complicated idea of creating the future, by creating the present time now, which then became the past. The film was a loop of beautifully compiled vignettes focusing on a couple’s life together through experience in the future, the present, and the past.
Next up was “Global Storytelling with Local Vision” brought to us by Christina Mateo-Yanuas, Director of Administration and Michael Moffett, Director of Production, from Production Service Network. Global campaigns today require local touchstones of familiarity for their consumers. Likewise national campaigns require fresh and value-adding contribution beyond the borders of the consumers’ country. And it’s up to us as clients, or strategists, or creatives, or producers to ensure that local input is told correctly and relevantly for the creative piece.
Mateo-Yanuas and Moffett are both based in Spain, and through numerous European case studies, discussed why we should consider taking our campaigns to their part of the world to be produced. Production Service Network have local production partners right across Western and Eastern Europe who can satisfy what your brief calls for.
Laura Jordan-Bambach, President of D&AD and Creative Partner at Mr President, next brought us “The Dirty Word”. Really, how did advertising become such a dirty word? (I know dirty words that are much more fun). How do we get back on track, regain our street cred, and of course, make the stuff that matters. So much of what we produce is of little value; it’s just filler with diminishing returns. But we want to work with a sense of purpose. We won’t change the perception of our industry unless we change our industry first. We have that opportunity as a collective. There are some fantastic changes we can make and thus produce. To show us how, Jordan-Bambach presented us with a number of entries from this year’s D&AD White Pencils. The entries were not just social pieces, charity and NGO work, but also corporate work. We saw pieces from the World Wildlife Fund, Nike, Lifebuoy, Superfomula, Unlock The Grid, and Rainbow Laces and saw first hand how just how much it really is purpose that is powerful in building meaningful brands. You don’t necessarily have to do things that are good, but that are good for your business. Although I think doing both would always help. Jordan-Bambach ended by imploring us to fix our reputation and work toward a better future for our industry. Let’s fix this, she said. Advertising will always be needed so let’s add value to it.
Minah Kim, UX Director of Cheil Worldwide, brought us “Let’s Build A Better User Experience”. More and more companies today are competing in the same markets and building similar products, so they need to provide more compelling factors to sell them. In the past, new technology itself was enough to beat the competition. However, in the digital era, exponential technology change is becoming the new normal. Products need an edge other than ‘ooh ahh new technology’. What gives a product an edge? It’s the product’s more relevant and valuable experience in the user’s everyday life. Users demand more and pay close attention to detail. Users want that experience of buying a product to be special. So building a better experience is a key factor to compete with similar products.
Traditionally, advertising agencies have created campaigns focusing on the products themselves – with an emphasis on quality and features. Now advertising agencies need to build product (service) ecosystems and create data-driven solutions to create that point of difference and get that one step ahead. Goodness.
When building an ecosystem:
~ Add more value than the value of the product itself
~ Give users a ‘total product experience’
~ Give ‘playgrounds’ wide enough for users to do as they would like
Great examples are Google glasses, the Pebble Steel smart watch, and Simon Signs game app using Samsung Galaxy Gear with AT&T Speech App.
Create data-driven solutions with big data. To do this:
~ Gather (Data) – Analyse (Data) – Seek (Valuable Data) – Present (Valuable Data)
~ Ideas – Build – Measure – Learn
Everything is connective. Everybody is connective.
Examples here are IoE – Internet of Everywhere, M2X – Motion to Whatever and Smart Mirror.
Data-driven services drive more relevant information. From that you can build better experiences.
Kim summed up by also adding that an advertising agency today has to evolve into a marketing solution company. I think Cheil is doing a pretty good job at that!
Last on the agenda for me today was “Welcome To The World’s Biggest Creative Department”. Presented by ADK the speakers were Toru Fujii, Senior Creative Director of ADK Tokyo, Joel Cere, Global Director, Insights & Innovation, eYaka, Singapore, and Rob Sherlock, Creative Innovation Advisor, Singapore.
It is predicted that by 2017 more than half of consumer goods manufacturers will receive 75% of their consumer innovation from crowd-sourced solutions. Even now, 72 out of 100 of the world’s biggest brands invite consumers to co-create content and campaigns. Today’s talk was about helping us understand the limitations and potential of crowd sourcing, and how to make it work for our brands as well as our agencies. As a production company producer I was listening very very carefully…
Two years ago when this all started to surge forward, Fujii was slumped over his desk at the agency. Many new ideas were coming to ADK from the consumer. Imagine the stress and the questioning from the entire creative team. But after experiencing crowd sourcing for 24 months now, Fujii is very proud to have embraced co-creation. Last year ADK – the 3rd largest agency in Japan – joined eYaka in a strategic allegiance. ADK has moved ‘from agency-born ideas’ to ‘consumer-born ideas’. The role of the agency is evolving from ‘creator’ to ‘curator’.
Consumers’ ideas reveal their insights. Selected ideas are then utilized as branded contents. Consumers think ahead of companies. Product ideas attract a wide range of clients. Crowd sourcing ignites agencies’ capabilities.
It’s easy to see why Eyaka sees itself as ‘the world’s biggest playground’. The company is a platform that organises creative competitions on behalf of its clients – be they brands or agencies. The marketing challenge is turned into a creative competition, entered by consumers who deliver fresh ideas and content. With their 275,000 creators from 154 countries, these people showcase their take and their interpretation of brands. Interestingly enough, chosen winners rarely come from the target country or the target demographic. Creativity certainly is not in limited supply! We looked at examples from such companies as KLM, Coke and Hyundai.
Crowd sourcing is evolving. It’s improving, and it’s not going anywhere. It’s a new reality and we can make it work. It’s the perfect imperfect. Do remember that you cannot control the crowd, so be careful what you ask for. Realise that single-source creative solutions are becoming redundant. Understand who ‘they’ are, why / how they do it, and why they participate. Understand their motivation. Embrace the perfect answer for the need for speed. Look at the bigger picture. Agencies should consider the notion of an idea factory versus a creative department. Be part of the inevitability of innovation in the co-creation arena. Know that curation is everything in co-creation. Become the leader of the benevolent dictatorship. Inspire the people and allow the agency to take a leadership role. Keep up with your client’s insatiable need for content, but don’t ask too much of your crowd. Crowd sourcing is overtaking research in research! Open your viewpoint. It’s here and it’s very real. It’s very clear – collaboration with consumers already forms a huge part in the future of advertising in today’s multi-faceted social and content-heavy world.
Wowsers.
Well it’s nearly time now for the Adfest 2014 Welcome Party and I need a refreshment. See you all tomorrow.
Claire Davidson, Executive Producer ASIA & MENA @ The SweetShop, reporting for Campaign Brief Asia at Adfest 2014.
