News Corp's Cannes Young Lions winner in the marketing category, Nate Kwok, is the portfolio marketing manager at Commonwealth Bank. Sydney-based Kwok is part of a team representing Australia at the 62nd Cannes International Festival of Creativity and shares his views below...
Cannes is overwhelming when you’re in the thick of it. So this morning (Fri), I made the conscious decision to spend a good hour floating at a quiet beach. It was a great chance to stop and reflect on my time in Cannes – and how I’d fly out of Cannes a better marketer?
My biggest fear about this week is that I return to Australia, settle back in routine and lose the inspiration from this life-changing week.
So to keep the dream alive I wrote some promises for my future self to keep. For my last blog for AdNews, I’d like to share these promises with you. You may find them lofty or too philosophical – or maybe even useful enough to promise yourself too.
Future Nathan, you must promise to…
- Inspire your stakeholders to care about customers as much as you do – If there’s one thing you learned from Cannes, it’s that brands need to demonstrate purpose more than ever. To succeed in a world where advertising is clutter, you need to push your stakeholders to care passionately about humanity. Help them build purpose deeply in their products.
- Keep challenging your agencies to do game-changing work – To keep your agencies engaged (and producing award-winning work), you’ll need to embrace three things as a client. First, an openness to new ways of doing and thinking. Second, an ambition for work that is world class and media first. And third, bravery – an ability to survive doubt and bring uncertain ideas to life through the business.
- Be a champion for creative disruption in your organisation – As marketers, we’re uniquely placed to inject creativity into the business culture (especially when its been forgotten). So Nate, make this a core part of your role. Challenge your stakeholders on the status quo – and inspire them to think beyond the expected.
- Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening globally – Australia will continue to produce fantastic work, but so will the rest of the world. Elevate your ideas to the world standard. Compare yourself to the best. Keep track of how our global industry is chasing the universal truth – it’ll inspire your own search for meaning.
Before I sign off this last blog – I’d like to thank NewsCorp, AdNews and CommBank for giving me the opportunity to spend this last week in Cannes. And to Jemma Wong for being my partner in Marketing excellence. The experience has been life changing.
Your mate,
Nate