A friend of mine - Ben Therrien, who also happens to be a Cannes Creative Leaders Program Alumni shared this fantastic article with me. Its a brilliant read on how the big brand leaders regard winning creative awards.Enjoy.
By: Jonathan Mildenhall
Coca-Cola
had its best year ever at this year’s Cannes Lions, winning 30 awards
including two Grand Prix. In the wake of the event, Coke’s Jonathan
Mildenhall summed up the company’s creative performance for Coke
staffers and drew a line between awards glory and business success.
Here, a version of that article.
The global significance of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
gathers momentum each and every year. This year both official
attendance figures and advertiser entries increased in excess of 20%.
This is quite remarkable when you consider the broader economic
challenges that nearly every business and geography is facing.
So why does the Cannes Lions’ momentum keep growing? From my vantage point I see two main drivers of interest.
Firstly, no other award festival covers so many critical categories
for advertisers. Cannes Lions now boast 18 award categories, including:
Design, Film Craft, Outdoor, Branded Content, the Grand Prix for Good,
Media, Mobile, and arguably the most important, Creative Effectiveness.
The breadth is staggering and it will only continue to grow as more and
more genres of creativity are embraced to drive business growth.
Coke’s "Hands" won the Grand Prix in the Outdoor category
Not only are the categories increasingly broad but so are the
nationalities that Cannes Lions represents. The festival attracts award
entries and delegates from as many markets as The Coca-Cola Company does
business in. While this increasingly global presence at Cannes is
impressive, it is even more beautiful to watch the distribution of
recognition grow to these new regions. This year countries as diverse as
Finland, Peru, Guatemala, Denmark, China, Costa Rica, South Africa, India, Dubai and Turkey all picked up major awards. Long may this
distribution of recognition continue. It certainly makes the global
soup of creativity more interesting for the palette.
But an awards festival that focuses solely on breadth could be
destined for a dull and uninspired future. Cannes is not about volume.
It is absolutely, steadfastly and utterly, committed to quality. And to
me, few things are more important. Cannes Lions simply curates the
world’s finest strategies, ideas, executions and craft. To be recognized
at Cannes is to be recognized by the world’s finest creative minds.
Minds that are not only brilliant, but brutal in their critique of the
work. Winning a Cannes Lion builds careers. Permanently.
I have long been an absolute believer in the correlation between
outstanding creative success and outstanding commercial success. In this
year’s marketing (campaign) for Cannes Lions I am quoted as saying "If
Cannes has taught me one thing, it is that creativity drives
effectiveness. You can not have one without the other. That knowledge
has been instrumental to my career." I have been going to Cannes for
nearly 20 years and can’t help but notice that the the client
organizations recognized as Advertiser of the Year often enjoy periods
of historic financial success at the same time. Let’s take a brief look
at a few of them.
Volkswagen: Recognized as Advertiser of the Year in 2008, the same
year that its share price grew 89% to 283 Euros. This most prolific
period of stock market growth coincides precisely with its most prolific
period of creativity.
P&G: Recognized as Advertiser of the Year in 2007 when its share
price hit an all time high of $74.67, beating the S&P 500 by a
country mile.
Honda: In 2006 Honda was awarded Advertiser of the Year for brilliant
work like "Cog" and "Grrr." During this time, its share price was as
high as $38.50 and its U.K. sales were up 28%. Wow.
Playstation: Was awarded Advertiser of the Year in 2005. Now,
Playstation is a sub-division of Sony so we cannot isolate its share
price. However, what we can do is isolate its sales. During that year it
became the worlds biggest selling gaming console selling a record 100
million units.
BMW: Took the mantle of Advertiser of the Year in 2004. So rightly
deserved when you consider the lasting legacy of BMW films (still held
up by most as the breakthrough work taking advertising into long form
content). As a result of this work, which ultimately landed them the
award, BMW saw a sales increase of 12% and a stock price rise of 16%.
This is huge, especially when you consider the turbulent, post 9/11
period.
Nike: In 2003, the same year that Nike was awarded Advertiser of the
Year, Phil Knight, CEO and Founder, wrote ‘’We decided to cross the
threshold of 9/11. Eight months later we delivered a 14% increase in
earnings and beat the S&P 500 by 45 points. Advertiser of the year
was a defining moment. A Nike moment.”
Swatch: From 1999 – 2001 the S&P 500 did not grow a cent but Swatch reported its steepest growth period on record.
Clearly, the correlation between winning at Cannes and winning in the
marketplace is compelling. That’s one of many reasons why The Coca-Cola
Company places a premium on creative excellence. It is simply makes
sound business sense. The creative industries and client organizations
are in a co-dependent relationship--we need each other. As Phil Thomas,
CEO of the Cannes Lions, puts it: ‘‘The Advertiser of the Year award is
presented to advertisers who have distinguished themselves for the
inspiring, innovative marketing of their brands and who embrace and
encourage the creative bravery of the creative work produced by their
agencies.’’
If you still doubt the correlation between creative and business success, please check out the wonderful book The Case for Creativity,
by author James Hurman. We met in Cannes this year. Credit to James,
he actually spent years analyzing the data. His book is a compelling
read but I have also included a link to his presentation summary. Coke’s "Polar Bowl" won four Lions
I firmly believe that winning at Cannes Lions is important for The
Coca-Cola Company. Good, vibrant, creatively dynamic brands make for
good, vibrant, creatively dynamic companies. And in his beautiful words
of wisdom and insight James concludes his book:
In every case, the companies that have been the most tenacious in
their pursuit of great creativity in their advertising have been the
ones outperforming the stock market and enjoying historic periods of
financial prosperity. And in every case the leaders of those companies
had created a culture of innovation that advertising was just
symptomatic of, but which extended well beyond advertising and into
culture, the products, and the day to day activities of those companies.
A creative day to day that produced the most extraordinary results in
the history of the world’s most illustrious companies.
As I look forward with the above beliefs held firmly in place I am
incredibly excited about the future of The Coca-Cola Company. This year
we took home an all-time high of 30 Cannes Lions. This number is nearly
twice our previous record and included 2 Grand Prix and awards from 3
Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America and the Global team. We won
for Coke, Coke Zero and Sprite. We won across 9 categories and most of
our awards demonstrated a fusion of storytelling, technology, social and
executional excellence.
As for Advertiser of the Year, well that recognition still eludes us.
That said, Cannes Lions makes the call for next year’s advertiser early
in January and this year’s performance leaves me confident that we will
give the industry’s best a run for their money.
Jonathan Mildenhall is vp of global advertising strategy and creative excellence at Coca-Cola.
Would you believe that there was a famous incident where a creative director threatened to jump of a building if the client refused to buy the work. Jesus Christ!
We've all been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the badge when it comes to resenting clients for not buying our work. I remember a facebook post that I made recently bitching at how clients are biased towards certain creative types. I had just come from a bad day at work and was fuming at how a client could not see the logic behind my idea. Then some dude replied and said that maybe it was not the client but rather how I conveyed my idea to the client - well said.
Anyway, today was yet another insightful day at the Cannes Festival and i was fortunate enough to attend a session conducted by Jeff Goodby, Co-chair Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. This guy is a legend and is famed for work such as the famous Budweiser frogs campaign. His talk was on how creatives can sell work to clients. Here's what I learnt.
The key point he made was that sometimes creatives tend to live in a world of their own. We should strive to see work through the eyes of clients. Being over passionate about work can sometimes lead us to jumping way over the rationale of what we are doing.
Creatives should learn to build client relations way before the actual meeting. Try setting up time with the client as you go over the brief and try to learn their way of thinking, what kind of work they like, what they are trying to achieve with their business and so on. This way you will build a strong relationship and establish trust.Trust is built with time and when they see you understand their vision and thinking chances are that you will more than likely succeed in convincing them that your work will achieve their goals.
Clients can also be right. Yup, its true. We are often too quick to kill their suggestions thinking that they have no creative cells. The client can have good ideas and it is our task to find these gems then polish them up. Look for points where you and your client can agree.
Another great piece of advise is, do not be afraid to start over. There are often times when we compromise campaigns by agreeing to slice off this and that. By the end of it all, the work gets diluted and has little semblance to what it was in the beginning. The best thing to do in cases like this is to offer to start over and do something else. You just might come up with a better idea.
There is also the matter of persistence. If you have no shadow of doubt whatsoever that your idea will work. Try and sell it to the client again on another occasion. Coming back next year to talk about an idea that was rejected can work. It should be done with humility and a real sense of great belief. You never know, the client might just buy your case and opt to finally approve the work.
Finally, do not be afraid to ask for the big boss to be at the presentation. Sometimes the big boys can see through your idea and the conversation in the board room may completely change. You know the drill, once the big boss says he loves your work the rest of the team will follow and start showering your work with complements.
So there you have it folks, a few tips on how we can simply try harder. When all else fails you could always try and get the client kidnapped so that he is not present for the meeting and someone else signs off your work - just thinking out of the box.
I don't know if you have heard of an ad agency called Droga5. Well if you haven't it just happens to be one of the most awarded ad agencies at the Cannes Advertising Festival. Also voted Creative agency of the year 2011.
The work these guys do is phenomenal to say the least and their campaigns include; The Tap Project - a high-profile hoax for Ecko plus they also promoted Bing and Jay-Z by plastering the pages of the music impresario's book in the unlikeliest of places, including the floor of a Miami pool and the lining of a Gucci jacket.
I was privileged to attend a seminar conducted by Ted Royer their executive creative director. Apart from being a creative genius the man is humble and has a brilliant sense of humor. The striking thing is his simple techniques for doing great creative.
What I learnt was too great to keep to myself and just has to be shared.
Here goes:
1 - There is no formula for doing great creative work. Great work comes from that gut feeling.
2 - Be simple. If you can sum up your idea in one sentence then it is a big idea.
3 - Look for the simple truth in front of you.
4 - Assume your audience is lazy. Make it easy for people to figure out your message.
5 - Instead of restating the problem, be the solution.
How's that for a simple approach. Of course we don't have to follow everything we are taught and we can go ahead and write our own books - but sometimes a little advise from the worlds best does not hurt.
Today was yet another inspiring day at the Cannes Advertising Festival. Tonnes of seminars, forums and workshops to attend. Loads of excellent creative work to Marvel at. Myriads of people weaving from one end to the other - but most of all lots of learning's that could change the way we do things at home.
The Cannes Festival has grown by leaps and bounds, the entries submitted every year are growing bigger and bigger. This year alone has seen no less than 34,000 pieces of work submitted. I was lucky enough to attend a closed session with Phillip Thomas - CEO, Cannes Lion Festival. The man said that the one major reason entries have increased is ......ready for it?..........CLIENTS!!!!!
Yes, my fellow Kenyan.....Clients are encouraging agencies and creative partners to submit work.
The CEO pointed out that more clients are engaged in celebrating creativity. In fact you can't tell apart work submitted by clients and work submitted by agencies. Take for instance a new awards category launched this year called "Branded Entertainment". The first entry received was from BMW for work on the movie Mission Impossible 4.
Clients have become enlightened and have made a shift from where emphasis was only placed on measuring agency work effectiveness by data, research, return on investment and so on. They want more creativity. They are enablers for agencies to win awards.
Now, I am sure we can go into the age old debate on what choice a client would rather make. Return on Investment or Great Creative? Well Mrs.Client, here's the deal. Its simply a balance of both.
Now you may say that Cannes awards are for more developed markets, but I say that we are not trying hard enough to put our country in the spotlight. Look at the new countries that are scooping gold.....Romania, China, Venezuela, Guatemala, Kuwait, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Columbia. And you tell me that Kenya cannot be on this list. I mean some agency from Tunisia today scooped Gold for an activation campaign. Come on guys!!!!!
Its time for Kenyan clients to start pushing for greater creative output. The world is doing it. How can we be left behind?
Goodness, its been ages since I found some inspiration to write. I tell you blogging is not a walk in the park as pointed out to me by a lot of people. Nevertheless I thank everyone who has asked me to get back to writing; and what better place to find inspiration than where all creatives gather annually. Yes, thanks to the grace of God, I am at Cannes Lions.
This place is buzzing with creatives from all over the world. Creative Directors, Art Directors, Clients, Media Houses, Production Companies, you name it. Its creative Mecca.The list of speakers is also amazing including Former President Bill Clinton giving a speech.There's so much to see, so much to hear and so much to learn; but I guess at the end of the day the cherry on the cake is seeing all the great entries and ultimately who walks away with Gold.
There has always been a great debate on how to judge creativity. Many awards ceremonies create joy and on the other hand great resentment from those who feel the Judges may have done better. Its something that has always confused me. So how exactly do we judge great creative work? Well, today I found the answer to the question via a really inspiring talk by a man called Michael Conrad - President, Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
Here's what I learnt:
Judges look at work based on a criteria of 10 things. 1 - 4 is bad, 5 - 7 has potential, 8 - 9 is great.
10 - Is it the most inspiring work in the world?
9 - Does it set a new standard in communication?
8 - Does it set a new standard in the category
7 - Has is got excellent crafting?
6 - Is it a fresh idea?
5 - Is there innovative strategy? (Are you saying something about something we all know in a new way eg "Got Milk"?
4 - Is it a cliche?
3 - Is it non competitive?
2 - Is it destructive? (Read: Bad casting, bad quality, etc)
1 - Is it just appalling (No humanity whatsoever?)
I found this information too precious to be selfishly stored between my ears. Its a great criteria for all of us in the creative realm to set for ourselves not only when entering work for awards, but also raising standards in what we do daily. And remember, at the end of the day advertising has to inspire peoples lives and make them take action.
So ask yourself. Where does your work score on a scale of 10? I don't know about you, but I feel inspired.
