Day 5
Friday in Cannes was amazing – after powering through a hangover Charlie Sheen would have been proud of, we made our way down to the Palais to soak in all the work that had been put up over the course of the festival. We were then treated to an amazing meal by News Limited so big thanks to Joe Talcott and co for the fantastic night out – let's do it again next year.
Here are our top three plays of the day:
1 – Crafty cuts
Browsing through the world's best print, outdoor and cyber work really makes you appreciate the absolute amazing level of craft it takes to succeed on an international level. Heading back to Perth in a week or so, we're inspired to step up our game significantly.
2 – Be different
We attended a lecture by Sir John Hegarty on the importance of creating work that is different to everything else. It's something we'd all recognise as blatantly obvious, but the articulate way Hegarty framed the issue and brought in the opinions of psychologists who described how we're biologically tuned to notice new things and ignore the old really struck a chord. One issue he described was that of measurement, about how we are forced to justify 'creativity' through focus groups and ROI figures - "we spend a lot of money being precisely wrong than approximately right" and that if "you ask the same people the same questions in the same way, you'll get the same answers".
This is something that has always bothered us – the preference of choosing a 'safe' idea over something perceived as more 'risky' when it's obvious that the safe approach is the most risky imaginable because absolutely no one will notice. We tweeted that we need to 'push harder' for difference – both on a personal and agency level which sparked a small debate with Gavin Bain (MD of Meerkats). He rightly pointed out that it is all about the client/agency relationship – and that selling great ideas shouldn't be a struggle but come naturally through trust and shared goals. Spot on Gavin.
3 – Big names
Talking our way into the Google party was probably the highlight of our night as well as attending the closing hour of the Ogilvy party. True we didn't get to meet anyone famous or score a role as 'new innovation officer of good times' at Google, but being around such fantastic energy (and a bar made of ice) was really great.
Today we're going to attend the last few seminars of the festival and the closing ceremony and gala.
Tim Seddon and Gene Brutty are the Australian Young Lions Cyber Team. They are from The Brand Agency in Perth.
The Young Lions: The Cannes Experience [Day 5]
27 June 2011