Advertising Week 2013 - The Visual Revolution and The New Creative Director

Advertising Week 2013: The Visual Revolution and The New Creative Director
By Edward Arredondo

Dear friends and colleagues:  

Late last year I had the opportunity to attend Advertising week which ran from September 23 to the 27th for the first time.  Sitting in the Times theater, surrounded by hundreds of professionals well versed in and passionate about their craft, I felt fortunate at being able to witness in person the many intelligent observations from several distinguished thought leaders in the field of Marketing, Advertising and even Design. 

Two sessions that resonated with me were the "The Visual Revolution" and "The New Creative Director".

The Visual Revolution

Panel:  Ari Lewine - Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer,Triple Lift
            Doug Scott - President, Ogilvy Entertainment
            John Cantarella - President, Digital, News and Sports Group, Time Inc.
            Steven Spurgat- Managing Director- Big Human
            Vivian Rosenthal - Founder and CEO/Snaps!

The first session, paneled by in part by industry players Doug Scott, President of Ogilvy Entertainment andVivian Rosenthal, Founder and CEO of /Snaps! the photo driven ad platform, centered on the transformation of the Internet/mobile/Social Media landscape via the emergence of user generated content versus traditional high end Brand generated content.

The proliferation of mobile technologies and multi-channel platforms now allow anyone to express themselves visually and curate those experiences in a highly distributable format.  The massive amount of image based user generated content is helping to form a visual collective.

Ms. Rosenthal, a Designer and highly influential Entrepreneur provided some of the most juicy nuggets of insight when she expressed her belief that "the language of the future is a visually based one". 

A few takeaways:

The Visual Revolution allows for:

-Authenticity - user generated content is now seen by many as more "real" than traditional high end imagery.

Higher engagement - and higher click rates, which leads to higher conversion (i.e., sales).

Fast accessibility - mobile technologies which help users quickly and conveniently digest visual based content. Platforms  such as Vine and Pinterest are designed specifically around generating visual content.

- A thousand words - In many cases, an image may better encapsulate a spontaneous, unadulterated experience than a lengthy blog or news article. 

An Immediate Emotional Response -  powerful imagery transcends language and culture.

- Good Content which Rises to the Top - with so much fractured content being generated daily on various platforms and channels, beautiful, immersive imagery, regardless of the source, will grab an audience. 

Ms. Rosenthal et al acknowledged the shift from a consumer behavior to that of a creator behavior.

"If everyone has something to say, who in my world has something to say that speaks to me?" it is through this conversation that many are choosing who they will "follow" on the Internet.

Doug Scott, President, Ogilvy Entertainment, lent the conversation some gravitas and veteran experience by observing that while imagery can no longer be trusted do to many photo editing technologies, imagery will always serve to add dimension to the story which Brands want to tell, and that users are now able to craft an aspirational personal story which aligns with their chosen brands. 

The New Creative Director


Panel:   Diane Jackson, Director of Integrated Production, DDB Chicago
             Joe Alexander, CCO, The Martin Agency
             Paul Lavoie, Chairman + Co-founder, Taxi
             Susan Credle, CCO, Leo Burnett
             Ty Montague, Co-CEO, Co-Collective

With recent changes in the creative landscape, what are Creative Directors now looking for?
How are new technologies changing the way these individuals contribute to their agencies?
At the "New Creative Director" session, these were a few of the topics discussed in earnest.

- Producers and Creative Directors (CD) are now more than ever involved not only with the creative shaping of ideas at the back-end, but immersed in strategy at the front-end of the process to better connect with consumers.

- While older, more experienced Creative Directors are still guiding the direction of many creative departments, they are no longer operating within a vacuum, but actively taking cues from younger staff underneath them that are more comfortable with emergent technologies and untested but intriguing ideas.

-Diane Jackson noted that CDs are actively looking at new platform ideas, assessing different channel options, and asking themselves "When and where can we start a conversation, and how long is the Brand going to live in it? 

How many places can a conversation be expressed, and is the conversation valuable enough to enter into? It is through this exploration an application that some of the best creative work is realized.



Observations:

More Integrated Collaboration - Good Creative Directors need more than ever deep collaboration with Planning and Media.

Larger, More Diverse Skill Sets - A good CD must have each foot planted firmly in excellent Creative and also acquire a talent in Persuasion and Marketing, they must display informed, well developed Consumer Intelligence.
   
- Be less Precious with Ideas - Creative Directors, who by nature are prone to be highly competitive and fierce individualists, will need to find more productive ways of lowering the tension between other parts of the agency, this tension to hold onto an idea before it is adulterated can often become a obstacle to collaboration.
     
- Go Back to the Brief (and Dig Deeper) - When Creative Departments encounter challenges in  cracking a difficult idea, they will need to go back to the brief and ask the right questions.  By asking these questions they will eventually discover the right strategy and hopefully, the right solution.

Creative Directors need to ask themselves "Why are you creating something? and who is going to show up to participate in what you've created?"

Paul Lavoie, Chairman + Co-founder, Taxi  provided an interesting commentary on poorly executed strategy many agencies fall victim to by expressing that "It's like getting in a taxi and not telling them where to go. It's very expensive and it takes time."

When asked by a student attendee how young students wanting to enter the creative industry should present themselves, Mr. Lavoie indicated that young people nowadays are exactly the demographic that advertisers are targeting. Who better to understand and engage this demographic than young people themselves? that in itself is an asset which new entrants to the industry can leverage.


Popular posts from this blog

2020 Adobe MAX Conference | Shadiq Williams

Brand Film Awards and Workshop 2020 | Starley J Sandez

AdWeek 2018, 1 Year Later | William Howard