Day 2; Word of the Day is: Diversity

Guys, if I can let you in on some insight of the global Ad World, it's that Brazil is going to be taking over in a storm in the next couple years. The country's presence is almost unmatched at the festival. All of the work I've seen from the Brazilian agencies is stunning and the people I've gotten to talk to so far really know the industry from the inside-out.

Oh, and they throw the best parties after the festival hours.

Honestly the amount of countries represented at this festival is stunning. You know what might be even more so? In my mind, the quality of their work (save some film and integrated) in a lot of ways is superior to that of the United States. As I was thumbing through the different categories of work up for awards, countries like Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan, and the Netherlands really stood out. This was especially true for the Press category, which I am analyzing and covering for an assignment of my study abroad trip. The ads just seemed wittier, more attention grabbing, and more provocative. I don't want to hint at a lack of American talent within advertising but it sure seemed that way. Even as I was flipping through the Lions daily journal for example, there were roughly 1 American nomination for say every 10 Spanish nominations. SPANISH NOMINATIONS. Not for every nomination, just Spanish Nominations. It was striking to say the least.

Please feel free to debate me if you feel differently. I'd love to throw some pepper on this post.

That point brings me to my word of the day: Diversity. The Advertising horizon is truly one of globally dominated creative, not just that of US hot shops or mega-agencies.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and give you the run down of what I experienced and my opinions of said material.

I started off the morning with a session hosted by BBDO entitles "How Do You Get Your Next Billion?" Amazing session to start with. They described the importance of understanding the individual means of content viewing that people use (eg- tablets, laptops, TVs, and smart phones). The individually compared the screen archetypes with characters of Star Wars (Being a huge Star Wars Junkie, I loved this). The comparisons were drawn out as such:

The TV: R2D2 (The best friend, the everyman, the jester); The TV is always around the house making people feel comfortable and entertaining the family. Content geared for TV should be made to complement these feelings. Just look at him, what a bro.

 

The Computer: Han Solo (The older sibling, wise, competitive). The computer was described as being influential and always there to provide information. Content should be provocative and emulate the avatar of Han Solo.

The Mobile Phone: (A New Lover, Princess Leia). Described as being a close connection to the consumer. Has an intimate relationship and is always with you. The trust can easily be broken. The content should never be intrusive on a mobile phone because it leads to distrust. It should always have utility and be there to help.

The Tablet: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Does amazing things, like a wizard, previously unseen things). Content geared for a tablet should provoke action and do new and mesmerizing things. It should curate life and enhance one's flexibility.

Well That's probably enough about that seminar. I got a little carried away with the star wars references. I have one more gem of a picture I'll put up in the end for those real Star Wars fans. Great reference, I promise.

The next seminar I attended was one sponsored by Kraft Foods and was headlined by the world renown author, Malcolm Gladwell. He talked about why coming in first isn't necessarily as good as coming in third. He prefaced his statements regarding the Ad world with a reference to a battle fought by Israel and Syria, in which Israel was the third part of a scheme between the Soviet Union and the US. Israel ended up with the right technology assembled from US with the thinking behind the Soviets and ended up defeating the Soviets in one of the most lopsided battles in military history. He then compared this to Apple's rise in Silicon Valley against the dominant Xerox company. Very interesting analogy.

My next seminar was one sponsored by DraftCB and was headlined by the neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer, who described the science behind gaining creative insight. It was enlightening to hear about alphawaves, which enable creative insight, and how to gain them. Definitely some good pointers on an area barely touched on by the Advertising Industry.

The last seminar I attended was sponsored by AOL and it feautred Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL and Arianna Huffington, of the Hufington Post. They both were very well spoken. Arianna talked about the 4 pillars of the internet and how to release content geared for today's users. One interesting technique she uses with the Huff Post is titling the names of the articles in a fashion that's similar to the way a friend would email another friend. For example, when the Pope recently got his own facebook page, the headline on the front page read "Poke the Pope". I thought this was a very savvy way to connect with the reader on a more personal sounding basis.

Anyway, I'll let you all know how the second day goes. Thanks for reading!

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