AdWeek 2018, 1 Year Later | William Howard

I fully anticipated attending ADWeek 2018 as soon as I moved to New York. I did not expect AD Week 2018 to come to me. I was living on West 70th Street and AD Week 2018 was a short 3 minute walk from my bedroom, so I had the privilege of attending multiple sessions and dropping in and out as I saw fit, able to return home with ease.

I attended sessions each day of ADWeek, but attended the majority on opening day. I wanted to get a wide perspective of the industry at that very moment, and was not disappointed. The first session I attended was hosted by Fer Machado, CMO of Burger King. I was sure to live tweet his session, as his focus was on the power of creativity for brands that are not the leader in their category. I left with a refreshed understanding and appreciation of risk, and the necessity of risk with regards to creativity, you cannot be a cautious creative. If your brand wants to stand out, you have to be willing to take creative risks, to get the attention your brand needs, with respect of course to the business goal. I left this session referring to this specific risk as “strategic risk,” and a new twitter follower, Mr. Machado himself! 



The next session I attended was an interview with Ari Weiss, CCO of DDB who was speaking on creativity in advertising. To sum it up, what we do as advertising creatives boils down to creativity and standing out. Ari was able to sum up what I believe are core to what creatives must do for businesses and I was sure to capture in my live tweets. Ari’s understanding of the importance of storytelling, the need to understand that tech and media is how we get stories to people and not the story itself, and never being lazy in discovering insights will stay with me.



I concluded my first day at ADWeek 2018 with two sessions that were brand side. The first was led by a panel of CMO’s who encouraged us as advertising creatives to be more aware of consumers, and do a better job of getting into the mindset of a consumer. The CMO’s also laid out what their top 5 greatest desires are from agencies, which I shared in my live tweeting. My last session was all about Cannabis marketing, and the soon to be $100Billion+ CPG Cannabis market being developed. It seems like a tremendous opportunity for brands and agencies to stand out, with the use of cannabis becoming more and more accepted. That said, nothing about the product of cannabis changes the fundamentals of what we as advertising creatives must do, make cool things that stand out and get the brand attention.

I could not have asked for a better first ADWeek, it being so close to my home and 2018 being packed full of such awesome sessions was a great welcome to the NY AD scene. ADWeek 2018 got my energy high to tackle BIC and get started working in this industry.

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