More and more people, from all over the world, many passionate by  advertising and especially by creativity,  are transforming the halls of the Cannes Festival Palace into a very crowded place, so crowded that you can’t move.
Today, 23 June 2011, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of David Ogilvy. The seminar dedicated to the advertising father, was held by Sir Ken Robinson, a real lecture about creativity sustained with humor and words of wisdom. The seminar ended with the entire crowd standing and applauding him. Sir Ken Robinson spoke about the image that changes depending on the cultural background, about how creativity is depending on imagination, about creating value, originality and innovation.
One of the questions posed from the audience was very interesting: how we manage to evolve from good to great. Sir Ken Robinson mentioned that is possible only if we do what we like, love what you do, have a personal attitude and not expect anyone help by taking the initiative ourself. We should not rely oninspiration. We have to work constantly to evolve.
“Transforming Technology Creativity” seminar of the McCann WorldGroup and MRM,brought on scene: Nick Brien-chief executive officer, McCann Worldgroup, Marc Landsberg-CEO, MRM Worldwide, Tod Machover-composer, inventor, educator, Johan Jervoe-director oc creative services and digital marketing, Intel and none other than Will I Am. They talked about what social media will become in the future, and how technology connects the execution-concept and about the collective consciousness which is twitter.
A day full of new information and passionate people.
Lia and Dana / Llama / Empowered by me.alchemy

An unquestionable prize, this year’s Grand Prix went to USA  for Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas.The opening of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve 2010 was one of the more highly anticipated hotel openings in recent Las Vegas history.

Digital Kitchen approached the portals as digital canvases and the entire resort as a curated art gallery. They  invented a narrative showcase incorporating elegant, fantastical and often poetic interpretations of life travels in an enlightened, lucid dream, blurring the lines of past present and future into one classic-timeless visual style.

The 2011 jury was composed of presidents and directors of design agencies and marketing directors and business communication. It was reward the best achievements of the year in all areas where design plays a role: corporate identity, packaging, product design, POS / merchandising, innovation, website, environmental / signage / museum, commercial architecture, design of edition, creation of brand name, sound design andoverall brand design.
Its ability to innovate, to shake up conventional wisdom, the design remains a key driver of growth and differentiation for companies.

Lia and Dana / Llama/ Empowered by me.alchemy

Super day! Day 3 of the festival is characterized by endless lines, overwhelming applause and many screams full of enthusiasm. A really impressive moment at the seminar cut out for the guest star at Digitas & Vevo. Who is the one that caused so much excitement? None other than Pharrell Williams. Yes, I said Pharrell. The artist spoke about the coexistence with brand music. He explained that advertising helps people to create  social networkconnections and not only that, by associating the brand with sound and music itself.

The day ended for us so full of vigor as it began. The Coca-Cola guys were proud to show us an aflawless presentation, which left people stunned. A presentation that brought a lot of joy to audience by the ideas presented, especially the design and the creative interactivity based on storytelling and authentic experiences.

It seems that Cannes brings us more and more joy and surprises.

Dana and Lia / Llama / empowered by me.alchemy

The second day of festival and many famous personalities of the advertising industry: Malcolm Gadwell, Mathew Willcox, Tim Armstrong  represent just a few of them.The BBDO seminar taught us the archetypes screens and DRAFTFCB talked about sience of creativity. A very interesting seminar with Matthew Willcox and Jonah Lehrer.
The awarding ceremony has brought us so much joy, bliss and especially pride. The chocolate ‘ROM’ promoted by McCann Erickson Bucharest, won two bronzes and tow Grand Prix in the same evening. An indescribable moment for us who support them and a wonderful evening full of excitement and joy. Hope today will be the same.

Lia and Dana / Llama / Empowered by by me.alchemy

How can we describe what we felt in the first day?Only two big words cross our mind: astonishment and confusion,a beautiful confusion.Cannes is more than a simple festival: it represents emotions.The magic of Cannes is created by a powerful bond between those who came all over the world to share their secrets from the background of advertising and the many of us who came to listen forword and learn from their experience.

One of the speakers who inspired this feeling is Martin Lindstrom talking about the power behind brands and the five senses used by brands. Most important, he communicate passion and professionalism, like today’s other speakers,  two things that construct the foundation of Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, two things which we will surely have in the future seminars that we will attend.

Lia and Dana / Llama / Empowered by me.alchemy

The Festival just started. It’s Sunday morning and I already feel like everybody is here to give and offer “tones” of experience, creative insights and fun. I’m here for the Young Marketers Academy so I’ll be your inside man when it comes to Young Lions and Young Clients.

The Academy started with everybody introducing themselves, so I found out I’m joining a group of young but experienced marketers from companies like Dell, P&G, Unilever, Kraft Food and so on. Big responsibility I’ll say.

The Goviral seminar was a direct intro into the atmosphere. We all talk about brands like some kind of religion. Actually, Martin Lindstorm talked about a research he made exactly on this issue. And the results are not that surprising, the people react in the same way, and the brain is using the same areas when they see logos or religious symbols.

The first Academy session brought us Matias Palm-Jensen, experienced Creative Director and former jury member at Cannes Lions. He walked us through the whole Cannes experience he had, and suggested things to see and do at the festival like going with the ferry, and attending the seminar with Sir Ken Robinson.

Then the famous (and still amazing) Michael Conrad from Berlin School talked to us and to our lovely colleagues from Roger Hatchuel. First he talked about the Quality Strategy Leadership. Things like “I hate the word <<consumers>>” and the 7plus scale he implemented in Leo Burnett where things I will assume from now on. Advertising, says Conrad, is not for “consumers”, but for “people”. After that, he illustrated what a Big idea is, by comparing it with Big Catastrophe. Some things have to happen in the same time for Big Ideas to become real. The most important of them are: Ad Idea, Communication Idea, Brand Idea and Business Idea. When you have all of this, you have Big Ideas (Apple’s “1984” size).

After this “grand” man of advertising, Patrick Collister, another experienced (and relaxed) Creative Director, now having his own agency – Creative Matters, presented the last Academy Session. Main insights: TV, print, conventional media is not dead, the way you use it is changed. We have to rethink marketing. And the best concept for clients all-over the world: forget about Return Of investment, adopt Return Of Idea!

That’s it! “Sunday was a bright day, yesterday” – Moby

Pascu, Brici – Empowered by Impression Graphics

Met a lot of new and interesting people close to our age today at the presentation. Got to see bits of their work and share interests and stories lateron.

Insightful seminars on quality strategy with Michael Conrad and mindscapes.

Ralu // IBRIC // Roger Hatchuel Academy // empowered by TEBA

The first day of the Festival also meant the publishing of the shortlist for the Promo and Activation, PR and Direct Lions. Only two Romanian campaigns qualified. These are Webstyler`s Youngest Higher, which can be found on  the Charity and Not for Profit list, at the PR category and BV McCann-Erickson`s American Rom. The last one qualified in many categories. It appeared in Consumer Goods, including FMCG and Household Products and Best Launch or Re-launch at the PR shortlists. Also, it was posted on the Food and Non-Alcoholic Drinks shortlist at Promo and Activation, and for Traffic & Brand Building and Fast Moving Consumer Goods at Direct Lions. Congratulations and the best of luck!

Dan / ontheroof / empowered by markmedia

Mild fragrances of  grapes, anchient harbours with glamourous yachts and chic boutiques crown this year’s ambiance at Cannes Lions, the International Festival of Creativity.

Simona – Brici – Empowered by me.alchemy

For me Eurobest experience is a “kebab story”  with lots of flavours. A last month of the year, full of new beginnings.

Inspiring people, awsome places, fresh and interesting perspectives in form of seminars, each one had it’s contribution to a spicy adventure in the world of international advertising.

Eurobest 2010, is all about stories, and because one of my favourite seminar was Fernando’s Vega Olmo speach about the creation of incomplete stories, I  have no intention to finish this one.

Briefly, Eurobest Academy 1st edition happened this year, and I was a part of it. Great adventure. Exhausting one, I might complete.

I met Clive Challis, a remarkeble man with huge amounts of energy, despite his age. It was our tutor for 3 days, during which he taught us many things and also partied harder then some of us.

David Lindemann from High-Resolution showed us how they had pitched for Nike. Very insightful seminar for us. We saw how to hook-up big clients. What more can I say ? High-Res knows how to steal anyone’s attenition.

We also learned what powerful communication means, presented our point of view and shared great pieces of communication between us. All this in company of Al Mosely, Executive Creative Director and Managing Partner at 180. Great guy. After two hours we were proud owners of does and don’ts of making conversation as great as it can be.

Besides other experiences, we had to meet our new teammates, designated by Clive, to make connections and work to establish Florena for Men products in german’s  guys bathrooms. So the fate brought me Marine from France and Tomak from Poland. Two very clever marketers, with whom I enjoyed working.

Beside hard work and long lists of seminars and work-shops, we had parties, in different locations (advertising agencies in Hamburg) where food and beer was endless and music just so good. A good chance for us to catch our breath again and have some rest.

As you can tell sleep was a luxury. I had a lot after I returned home.

The most important thing is that’s only the beginning of a greater then us story that will continue to be written, chapter after chapter. This is the feeling this Academy gave me.

Alex Haidamac (team Prelude)

It’s been a week already, but I still feel the enthusiasm of the competition and the Hamburg`s festive atmosphere.

Briefly: best professional experience until now, lot of joy, meeting talented young people from all Europe, one day at Miami Ad School Europe, first boating experience, the second-largest city in Germany… Hamburg,  2010.

It started with 18 peers of young competitors, copywriters and art directors from best European agencies, and a brief: “Hamburg, the city as a brand campaign”.

After we learned the brief, the local authorities did their best for us to discover the city: boating, a city tour, a visit to UNILEVER building, lunch at a great restaurant… live information – best way of getting Hamburg`s “feel and ways”.

The good part: we saw a lot of the City.  The “not-so-good part”: after visiting Hamburg there were 24 hours left to create an integrated campaign, using three different media.

We did our best trying to challenge young European talents to “Match with The Big City”. The competition itself was a mega-experience, relevant for me in an unexpected way: I discovered that I`m not a very good public speaker.  

After The Young Creatives Integrated Competition, the city hosted a night event: “Networking After Dark”.

Six of the city`s top agencies have arranged parties in their offices, giving us the opportunity to go inside the Hamburg advertising industry: Jung von Matt, Kempertraumann, Grabartz&Partner, Tribal DDB, Jung von Mat.

Each agency had a different theme and I must say that Germans know how to have fun whether it`s about a traditional party, with beer and Bratwursts or a DJ and MassiveMusic.

Vasi

Emerging from the concepts of generation X,Y and Z, Erich Bader and Kendra Hatcher from Initiative , have developed a research focused upon how the recession changed the young generation of consumers named Reset Generation.

The main aspect of the research was how did young people between 18 and 25 respond to the recession and how it changed them as consumers. They don’t want to be just the end consumer, they want to feel as a partner of the brand . A particular feature about this group is a return to traditional values. If the same age group in the past generation had concerns about self-esteem, they have more basic anxieties, like safety. You can see the difference only by understanding what success means to them in contrast to what the other generation understood as success at their age. They see success as the ability to provide for their basic needs ( accommodation, food, ), being able to be independent, opposed to seeing success as having the nicest house, designer clouds and the most expensive car. They are the people searching in life for an experience rather than a commodity.

Nico Ivascu ( team UberDots)

Exciting as always, Stephane made the   most interactive presentation of the day. If last year he showed us that engaging  ideas can’t be placed within a pattern using a smart computer program that managed to do mediocre campaigns using an algorithm, this year he spoke about the value of fighting for an idea.

Being creative is not enough, the real asset is being able to keep it alive. He made a very strong point using an interactive presentation, a kind of game that teaches creatives to fight for their idea.

It was like an interactive frame story where you could decide the next step of the script by voting one of the tree possible choices .He used it as a tool that helps creatives to practice fighting for their idea.

Nico Ivascu ( team UberDots)

Mark Tutssel and Alexander Schill spoke  about the best 2010 Cannes Campaigns. Mark  emphasized upon the power of an idea owned by people. He told us  about the brands that aren’t competing within their own category but with popular culture itself.

Check out:

1) Gatorate – “Replay”

2) Johnnie Walker –“ The Man Who Walked Around The World”

3) Old spice “The man your man could smell like”

Alex Schill  said it’s all about the idea , not the execution. He told  us about the importance of a strong idea  with and analyzed the best idea campaigns from Cannes:

1) Gatorate – “Replay”

2) HBO – “It’s more then you imagine”.

3) Young Director’s Award-“ Drama Queen”

4) Orcon BroadBand  “ Play live with Iggy pop

5) Heineken “Auditorium”

5) Bar Aurora  “73000 Bar Tab”

Can’t wait for the festival to officially start…

I have my eye on the Print Plus Workshop  and on Nick Brian’s How technology is democratizing creativity.Young creatives already started working on their brief and the Eurobest Academy Students  also started. I counted the  the hours until 4 PM.

Eurobest here we come!

Nico Ivascu-  team Uberdots