Pippa Berlocher.
Killer ideas, pushing it as far as possible, and the genius of a 10-slide deck. Pippa Berlocher, CEO of WPP Media agency EssenceMediacom ANZ, was a judge at this year’s Young Lions, and learned a thing or two.
This week I had the absolute privilege of judging the Young Lions at Cannes, and I can quite honestly say – it’s been a career highlight. Meeting 27 different teams of up and coming talent from 27 different markets and experiencing first-hand the incredible creativity, smarts and strategic prowess that this next generation within our industry possess has been genuinely inspiring.
The brief this year was from Ovarian Cancer Action – the UK’s leading ovarian cancer research charity, and what a cracker of a brief it was. They have 24 hours to tackle the live brief, and present back their response to the jury. All the Young Lions teams took it in totally different directions, giving us a real breadth of ideas and media activations. The responses made us laugh, made us cry and everything in between.
A highlight for me was witnessing the depth of thinking and strategic insight that was presented. All teams were able to clearly articulate the significance of the challenge, masterfully building the tension and then resolving it with their strategic platform.
The strategic capability demonstrated, particularly across teams with just a few years’ experience under their belt, was super impressive. And the creativity of the ideas! They ranged from turning egg cartons into a media channel to ‘crack the cure’, partnering with Uber to turn seatbelts teal in the charity’s colours, as they go ‘below the belt’, taking over public bathrooms (‘the forgotten flush’), turning dogs into doctors (‘dogstors’) and turning one tampon in a pack teal. Amazing!
However, as I sit in my glow of positivity and pride for the phenomenal work of all these Young Lions, I find myself with 3 key takeaways.
1. Nothing beats a killer idea.
What got our jury most excited were the ideas! We loved them, it’s what we talked about at lunch, it’s what supercharged the energy in the room and it’s the great ideas that I am still thinking about as I make my way back home. Pure and simple - the ideas won our hearts.
2. You’ve got to sweat how the idea comes to life
It was clear to the jury which teams had really sweated their ideas, pushed and pulled them as far as they could go, giving them as much stretch as possible through their media activation. The strongest teams pushed things further. You could almost hear them asking themselves ‘where else can we take this?’ over the course of their 24-hour brainstorm. If the ideas won our hearts, it was the depth and interrogation of the ideas, pulling them as far as they could go through the media activation that won our minds.
3. The 10-slide presentation is genius.
The Young Lions presented their research, insight, strategic platform, media activation and implementation to the jury in a maximum of 10 slides (and just 5 minutes!)
And honestly – we could all learn something from this. The clarity of thought required to communicate a big idea and complex execution in a 10-slide framework forces the simplification of the narrative and focuses on the imperatives. Our industry has a habit of over complicating things. We want to showcase every bit of smart work we’ve done, not a stone left unturned, which often means taking clients on a “fun-filled” 100-slide journey. We need to stop – the brutal truth is, if it can’t be said clearly, and powerfully in 10 slides – it’s probably not the right message.
So, as I begin the long journey home, I’d like to thank all of the Young Lions teams. Not only did you significantly educate me about the perils of ovarian cancer (300,000 women are diagnosed every year!), you taught me a valuable lesson on communicating ideas, and you’ve left me feeling inspired and energised about the exceptional work that you do and that is still to come. I can’t wait to see it.