Rafik Belmesk

I recently had the chance to be a fly on the wall at the latest Tomorrow Awards Monster Judging. It was the first time I’d attended such a thing, so, cliched as this may sound, I didn’t really know what to expect. Award show judgings are by and by large held behind closed doors, and the only way to get a sneak of what really happens inside is to be part of the jury.

Or, as the case was, to start your own.

Needless to say the room was full of very smart people, all industry leaders in their own right having responded to our call to change the way award shows worked forever. Worldwide Chief Creative Officer. Global Creative Director. Chief Digital Officer. Executive Creative Director.  If one thing was clear, it was that I didn’t belong there.  I thought the least I could do, other than keep my mouth clearly shut, was to learn a thing or two.

So here are the five lessons/pieces of advice I picked from my Monster Judging experience. Hopefully they’ll shed some light into how some decisions were made, and help you win tons more awards in the future.

Don’t let your ideas down by going small.

A lot of the entries submitted seemed to fall into that category. Clever, charming ideas let down because they were executed on such a small scale. In most cases, the opportunity was there to go bigger and impact more people, but the seemingly easier option of going small and filming everything for the purpose of a catchy two minutes award show entry video usually took over.

As a result some entries felt manufactured and ideas that could potentially have solved real business issues for clients ended up as short-lived stunts that didn’t have much of overall impact.

Categories don’t matter anymore. They probably never did.

When we first launched the award show, this was our biggest claim. It doesn’t make sense to categorize work into pre-conceived silos anymore. Consumers don’t do it. The only people who think, or even know of categories are ad-people. Walking past a billboard, you would never think “here’s an Outdoor, Billboard & Street Furniture, Toiletries ad for Gillette razors”. Or at least, I hope you wouldn’t.

This wasn’t a new idea, but for some reason the industry seems to have a tough time getting rid of that old habit. Categorizing work is obsolete, but if we must there should only be two categories for us to consider : good and bad.

I was happy and somewhat relieved to see that our results mirrored this fact. Our winners consist of a music video, a tool to make us better drivers, a Firefox Add-on, a social-media powered event and an iPhone application. It’s okay to compare apples and oranges.

Don’t limit your creative thinking to your ad ideas.

For this one, I’m going to single out a campaign. Killzone 2 Webgame. It was the first time, as far as I know, that somebody had used Firefox add-ons as a direct way to advertise a brand.

It was a case of “outfoxing the media” so to speak. Online media is pretty traditional when you think about it. You buy your banner space, upload your video, launch your microsite, promote your Facebook group, whatever. You’re always going to the media, and as soon as you leave that website, you’re also leaving the advert behind. What Killzone 2 achieved, was that instead of the user having to go somewhere to see the ad, it was now following him wherever his online journey took him.

The idea is devastatingly simple, and was there for us all to see, but it took somebody looking beyond traditional online media options to make it happen.

Are heavy brand engagement websites really relevant anymore?

This perhaps turns a significant page in the web’s history. I’ve had these conversations with a few people beforehand, and I think Dominique Trudeau from bleublancrouge sums it up best, so I am going to quote him:

“We’re at the Google years and we want efficiency, speed and results. Tools that will help us get our stuff done. So our challenge today is not to do heavy experiences with high production value but very few results down the line.

Things move fast and you got to catch people as they go in this crazy mode. So I think we can do efficient communications in doing less heavy stuff and more things that can help them. We have to follow the way people live.”

This rings true for a number of things that were entered. We received a lot of beautiful, often very flash-heavy submissions that felt more like digital ghost towns than anything else. Branded utility isn’t a new concept by any means. Consumers’ time is harder and harder to get by online and if you want to grab a fraction of it, so you better be giving them something worthy in return. But you better give it to them, in a quick, slick and meaningful way.

If entry videos are to be believed, TV Stations, blogs, newspapers, and magazines must spend their time talking about advertising campaigns.

But I watch TV, and read blogs, newspapers and magazines, so I know that’s just not true. And the judges know it, too. A lot of entries made those extremely easy to see through claims, and only ended hurting themselves in the process.

I think we’re probably at the point in award entry videos history  where saying that has become obsolete. And truth be told, press coverage, isn’t much of a judging criteria for the Tomorrow Awards (and most others) and is usually a by-product of a great idea, rather than the other way around.

So just drop it already.

You can enter the Tomorrow Awards right HERE

You can watch the Monster Judging Documentary right HERE

I can tell you one of the things that keeps you up at night once you’ve reached the “heights” of Chief Creative Officer is, “Where’s the next job going to come from if this one doesn’t work out?” Actually, now that I think about it that was probably my wife whispering to me as I tried to fall asleep. It’s not like there are many openings for that title at any random time given the average number of years a person stays ensconced in the position, considering they define the agency’s style and voice. Well, unless that time is now, which, conveniently, it just so happens to be. (If you’re reading this in the future, then you should know it doesn’t apply to you so don’t look so surprised.)

According to recruiters and The Wall Street Journal, at least 10 major traditional US ad agencies, including Ogilvy North America, McCann-Erickson New York, Euro RSCG New York, and JWT North America, are currently in search of their lead creative strategy visionaries all at the same time; and rumor has it a few more will be on the prowl soon. Here’s the problem for these guys and the slightly smaller agencies or larger multinationals also looking for a replacement Global or Executive Creative Director (and, believe me, there are an unprecedented number of those also searching right now): there’s practically nobody out there who is qualified anymore. At least none that still want the job, he said modestly.

Yes, yes, it all comes down to digital as the reason that the creative leaders are being forced out or leaving because they feel the need to step aside or out of frustration for not being able to do what they’ve been screaming about for so long. The clients are no longer tolerating creative departments that operate in silos or talent that does not have answers that include smartphones, tablets, Facebook, and other non-traditional channels. The Boards respond with, “Off with their heads!” and “Get me a kid that knows something about this!” but good luck finding a kid with the acumen to run a large team of very experienced professionals, usually in several offices, and who can also manage humorless, prickly clients that see their bottom line dropping versus the amount they’re spending on media. Hey, good luck finding a kid who even knows about digital and real, honest-to-goodness brand strategy. It’s a skill that develops over many years of observing and doing.

Which is why the answer these companies seek is to open the minds of the highly trained and proven creative professionals that are already there in the traditional agencies. Their problem isn’t that they’re dinosaurs with no place in the new world order. The problem is the agencies haven’t invested any serious effort in training them while the creatives themselves have arrogantly ignored, dismissed, or otherwise been blind to the real way forward. They’ve paid enough lip service to “integration” to keep Wyeth’s ChapStick in business for a few more decades, but they have been absolutely closed-minded when it has come to understanding that they need to change their own mindset and approach to this new, sophisticated audience.

If agencies continue to explore “radical” approaches to replacing the talent that has sustained their half-a-trillion dollar industry for so long, like looking to comedy writers or people from completely irrelevant fields, all they will do is implode. There are many other types of companies rising up to supplant advertising agencies the way typesetters were replaced by technology, and if they are foolish enough to throw away what has made them so effective for so long out of reactive fear, then all of those fears will most assuredly come true. The answer was within all along, guys.

Brett McKenzie

To see what happened on Day One, click here.

To see what happened on Day Two, click here.

To see what happened on Day Three, click here.

The sun was shining bright and the weather was hot — but not too hot — when I stepped out of the hotel to head on over to the Brandcenter this morning. The concierge warned that the weatherman called for thunderstorms this afternoon, but I was in too much of a hurry to grab an umbrella. Besides, how bad can a little rain be?

Quiche and fruit salad were the fuels for this morning, and the fact that everyone had arrived extra early to get a jump on either the special assignment assigned yesterday afternoon or their four-minute presentations for Peter Coughter told me this fuel would be necessary. But before we could get to those projects, we had a number of guest speaker sessions. And the first speaker of the day should be no stranger to the ihaveanidea crowd.

Yes, that’s right, it’s our pal Nancy AKA Nancy Vonk, Co-CCO of Ogilvy Toronto AKA one half of the Ask Jancy column here at ihaveanidea. It was great to see her again, since we don’t cross paths nearly as much as we used to since we moved ihaveanidea to Montreal. But enough with the reminiscing, it’s time to get down to business. Nancy was here to chat about a topic that’s near and dear to both her heart and her way of running an agency: empowering juniors and interns — both agency and client side — to produce amazing results.

(approx. 55 minutes)

After a really cool and engaging brainstorming session with Nancy, it was time for another big-name guest speaker. This time around, we had none other than David Sable, Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer of Wunderman. Now David’s been at this ad game since computers had more weight in pounds than storage space in megabytes, what does he know about ‘digital’ and ‘new technologies’? Quite a bit, actually. After all, you don’t get on the Cannes Integrated and Titanium jury by being stuck in the past.

(approx. 19 minutes)

_________________________

Noon came, and after my favorite lunch of the week (chicken and steak fajitas for the win) the class got to experience another presentation on incorporating digital storytelling into your agency’s work. This time around, we heard from Joe Alexander and Brian Williams, The Martin Agency SVP Creative Director and Senior Art Director respectively. They stopped by (well technically Joe was the only one stopping by, as Brian was also attending the week long course as a participant) to talk about their Integrated Gold Lion winning campaign for the JFK Presidential Library entitled “We Choose The Moon“.

(approx. 12 minutes)

_________________________

As mentioned earlier, every attendee of the Executive Training Course had an assignment given to them before coming down to Virginia. It was a pretty simple one: create a presentation no longer than four minutes and present it in front of their peers. The subject could be about anything, and they could use any audio-visual aids they wished. And maybe, just maybe, they picked up a lesson or three in Peter Coughter’s presentation class yesterday to bring it to the next level.

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Now we could show you everybody’s presentations, but I’m not sure that all of the attendees would be too keen on that. Sooooo… I’ve picked one brave person and exposed his soul to the world, not only showing you all his four minutes of torture, but also the feedback Peter and the class gave him, as well as his post-ordeal comments (he actually did a pretty good job!)

(approx. 9 minutes)

Thanks Shane!

And as if my hotel concierge was some sort of prophet, mere moments after everybody finished and Peter excused everyone for the day, the sky opened up, unleashing a certifiable deluge, a monsoon that would render any umbrella inadequate. Fortunately the hotel sent over a shuttle to pick a bunch of us up, and everyone stayed dry well into the evening. Oh yes, the evening. You see, there was that final group assignment that everyone received yesterday. It was due first thing tomorrow morning, and this was pretty much the only time anybody had to work on it. I sense a rather late night for some…

_________________________

DAY FIVE

Finally! The weather I’ve been expecting to find in Richmond the entire trip: Sunny, hot and humid! Gone are the long sleeved button-downs, replaced with short-sleeved checks. I might only be in town for a few hours more, but dammit I’m gonna make the best of it!

I pack my suitcase, check out and hurry on over to the Brandcenter — they asked us to come a half hour earlier today, yo be able to accommodate the assignment. And when I arrive, not only do I find bagels with cream cheese and lots of pastries, but a whole bunch of weary faces. It turns out that everybody really put an effort into the project, with some groups not calling it a night until 2 or even 4 AM. That’s dedication! That’s commitment! That’s madness!

Now if you’re a Brandcenter or Executive Education for CDs alum, you’ll know what I mean when I say I’ve been sworn to secrecy about the nature of this project. It’s kinda like the first two rules of Fight Club, except that instead of Tyler Durden, you have the far more menacing Don Just running the show.

Once a bank president and CEO of The Martin Agency, today Don is a professor at the Brandcenter, guiding the Creative Brand Management program; he doesn’t just teach future suits and clients, but he also helps creatives understand and work in harmony with such beasts. And that is the goal of today’s project and subsequent lecture: Understanding the Client Mindset.

Overcoming flat tires, missed flights and even death, each group was put through the wringer by Don, and when it was all said and done, every single person in the room had a stronger appreciation for the issues that most concern Ms. Brand Manager of Company ABC.

_________________________

Here we go. After a long week of intensive learning, horizon expanding and just plain having fun, we have finally come to the final speaker of the Executive Education course… Kelly O’Keefe, Managing Director of the VCU Brandcenter, as well as of this particular program.

(approx. 14 minutes)

Entitled “Preparing for the Future”, Kelly’s lesson served as as summation of the entire week’s course, and was a perfect bookend to Rick’s presentation way back on what feels like a million mornings ago. No big formulas, just a lot of big truths to help the attendees as they prepared to go back to their agencies and start kicking ass.

_________________________

This long week of valuable knowledge concluded with sandwiches and certificates for the class of 2010. Some people had planes to catch and didn’t stick around for long, but before too many people did their final business card/Linkedin exchanges, I managed to grab a few of the participants for their final thoughts on the week.

And of course, it makes sense to talk to Kelly, to gauge how well this year’s version went.

Well that’s pretty much it from (finally) hot and sunny Richmond, VA. Time to head off to the airport — no weapons, no jokes — and make my way back to the Great White North. Many thanks to our friends at VCU Brandcenter for inviting us, and by extension all of you, along; I don’t know about you, but I’m just about ready to start being a digitally-minded creative director myself.

Brett McKenzie

To see what happened on Day One, click here.

To see what happened on Day Two, click here.

I didn’t really need that 7 AM wake-up call from the hotel front desk this morning; instead I was awakened by the pounding of rain against my window. Yeah, this weather is truly leaving a lot to be desired. Oh well, I’m only a block away from the school, so with umbrella in hand, I headed out for Day Three of the Executive Education course.

Bacon, sausage and eggs were the order of the day this morning, but most of the attendees had more than food on their minds. This is because that assignment they received from Rob Rasmussen yesterday was due in mere moments, to be presented in groups in front of the whole class and with Rob and Brian Collins on hand to critique.

While the entire class chose excellent products and problems to tackle, and everyone put forth a tremendous effort, there were those little problems that come up when you’re presenting new material in a new group on short notice. Fortunately those problems could be rectified after Peter Coughter’s presentation skills class later that afternoon.

The presentations took up quite a bit of time, and by the time everybody was finished, lunch was ready to be served. Because of the delay, our penne and salad was combined with an even tastier treat, in the form of our first guest speaker of the day. Jerome Austria, recently named co-ECD of Wieden + Kennedy New York (and past kickass digital guy at Razorfish, R/GA and AKQA) gave a lengthy, in depth and very candid presentation on what I would call the “digitalificatio” of W+K. After all, while they’ve been a creative powerhouse for what seems like centuries, Wieden + Kennedy has only recently been loading up their awards shelf with digital treasures.

(approx. 45 minutes)

Of course this wasn’t his full presentation; Jerome spoke at length about his own career, and how it went alongside the changing of perceptions about digital creatives, from being those banner making guys you tag onto the end of your traditional project, to an absolutely essential element to a thriving agency. But Jerome and I felt that was a story best left for ihaveanidea’s Creatives section (stay tuned!)

_________________________

The afternoon opened up to two first-class presentations from VCU Brandcenter professors. First up, Mark Avnat, the man in charge of VCU’s fairly new — and wildly successful — Creative Technology program. In his session entitled ‘Digital Engagement’, Mark spoke about the rapidly evolving digital landscape available to us ad people, but warned against using the latest technologies for the sake of using them. In what has become almost a mantra for the entire week, Mark reminds us all that being the first to use the latest gadget to come out of MIT means nothing if you don’t have a compelling story.

The final session of the day was certainly a highlight for many of the attendees: a spirited course in presentation skills by VCU prof Peter Coughter. Now some of you might be thinking “big deal, a class on doing presentations.” Well it certainly bears mentioning that Peter is internationally renowned for his presentation skills workshops, and when he’s not teaching at the school, he’s touring the ad world, showing the folks from places like Crispin, Goodby, DDB, Leo Burnett, Taxi and Dentsu Japan just how to turn crappy presenters into good ones, and good ones to stellar ones. Trust me, Peter knows his shit.

Now we couldn’t give you all of Peter’s secrets. In fact I’m sure we didn’t learn them all in the two hours we spent with him. But hopefully we’ll be able to catch the results of his session tomorrow, when each attendee must give a four minute (and not a second over) presentation in front of their peers.

This was the first evening without a group dinner, so attendees were free to go do their own thing… except that a group assignment was handed out at the door, a tricky, multi-page problem to be solved and presented on Friday morning.

No rest for the wicked, they say.

Brett McKenzie

To see what happened on Day One, including video of that day’s feature speaker, click here.

I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed that Richmond weather has been pretty close to Montreal weather on this trip. Sure, it’s still early in the day — and early in the week, which promises to end as a scorcher — but when your mind is set on bayou-like conditions, 85 degrees seems like a bit of a let-down.

Breakfast is served at the first full day of Digital Leadership and Management Skills for Creative Directors, with plates piled high with bacon, sausage, ham, egg and cheese croissants, fruit salad and yogurt, as well as a staple of the South, iced tea. Nourishment is going to be important today, as Kelly O’Keefe, Managing Director of the VCU Brandcenter says this will be one of the busiest days of the week.

Before the day’s activities got under way, we snagged Rick Boyko, VCU Grand Poobah, and ask him what he expects out of this week.

After taking the attendees on a tour of the Brandcenter facilities, Rick began a morning-long session called “The Creative Becoming a Manager”. Speaking from a career and a half’s worth of experience, Rick covered such a breadth and depth of topics that had every participant busily scratching bullet points and notes on their pads. He spoke at length about his time at Ogilvy, his past, present and future plans for the Brandcenter, and how he sees the role of creative director changing in the years to come. Rick challenged his audience to not only shape the storytelling of their client’s brands, but to take control of their own agency’s story. He spoke of imposing ambitious goals, and of being able to finance those goals. When it was all said and done, I think Rick may have scared some of the attendees, but it was that good kind of ’scared’, the one that inspires people to make the changes necessary to get things done when following traditional protocol simply won’t cut it.

Rick’s presentation was very extensive, and by the time it was over, lunch was being served. While everyone dug into chicken and roast potatoes, I managed to speak with two of the attendees about how the week was shaping up so far.

_________________________

The afternoon featured two presentations by some renowned creatives: first up, Rob Rasmussen, US Chief Creative Officer of Tribal DDB. Prior to this week, Rob invited all attendees to email him with the kinds of topics and questions they’d be most interested in hearing about, and this resulted in his presentation’s theme “Creating and Selling Digitally Centric Integrated Campaigns.”

(approx. 13 minutes)

Because Rob’s presentation was generated by the questions in the audience, it soon evolved from a lecture to a great big Q&A and discussion period, with many attendees bringing specific issues within their agencies to the table. And at the end of the presentation, Rob unleashed the very first assignment, to be completed by the next morning.

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The second presenter this afternoon was none other than über-designer Brian Collins, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the aptly named COLLINS. Brian gave a very passionate presentation about storytelling, covering everything from the 60s space race to soda, from prescription drugs to petroleum companies and everything in between.

Unfortunately we were unable to get Brian’s presentation on film, but hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to chat with him one-on-one tomorrow, to expand on some of his thoughts for you all following along at home.

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The long day was capped off by cocktails and dinner at the Jefferson, the crown jewel of the city’s historic hotels. The Brandcenter is only a block away from this institution, and in fact once served as the hotel’s carriage house many years ago.

By this time, everybody was familiar with one another, and there were plenty of excited conversations all around the room… conversations that eventually drifted to the exquisite food being served, from traditional Virginia peanut soup to various beef, pork, chicken, fish and vegetarian dishes. No complaints from me here, and one really big compliment on the white chocolate addition to a traditional carrot cake dessert.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the Executive Training Course without a fantastic after-dinner guest speaker, and they surely disappoint. Tonight’s guest was none other than John Adams, Chairman and CEO of The Martin Agency. Perennial creative leader and currently the hottest in the country according to Adweek, The Martin Agency has been a fervent supporter of the VCU Brandcenter since its inception. Tonight, John gave a passionate presentation about what keeps an agency CEO up at night. We captured his talk in its entirety, and you’ll find that you don’t have to b a CEO to share his concerns. You could be a Chief Creative Officer or an art director who just started at an agency a week ago.

(approx. 35 minutes)

Again, no late night shenanigans for this group of attendees. With two presentations due the next day, everybody went off to prepare.

Brett McKenzie

A long time ago, way back when the VCU Brandcenter was called the Adcenter and was located in a considerably less swanky building than the renowned ad school is found today, I had the great pleasure of travelling down to Richmond one summer to be a fly on the wall for one of VCU’s Executive Education programs.

Entitled “Management Training for CDs”, the intense week-long program was designed to help creatives who were interested in becoming creative directors to better learn the managerial aspect of the role. After all, most CDs get their jobs by being fantastic art directors or writers, not necessarily by being great managers and delegators. Surely a course like this would be valuable to many! And it was, not only to the few dozen creative attendees who came to Virginia from all over North America to participate, but it was also great for thousands of ihaveanidea readers, as I covered every aspect of the program. Sure, you all weren’t sitting in on all of the lectures in person, and you were missing out on assignments and projects throughout the week, and you didn’t get any of the delicious pulled pork sandwiches at lunch, but you got a real sense of what the course was all about via blog posts, photos and videos.

And in 2010 we’re doing it again for you all.

Now the Adcenter is the Brandcenter, the building is bigger and so is the Executive Education program. This year, the week=long course is called “Digital Leadership and Management Skills for Creative Directors”, and as the name suggests, it will take a decidedly more future-thinking tone than the one we attended so many years ago. But don’t worry, we’re still gonna do it up ihaveanidea-style, and have some fun.

DAY ONE:

No, it’s not the Deep South, but Richmond is considerably closer to the equator than ihaveanidea’s Canadian stomping grounds, and it is August, during one of the hottest summers on record. As the plane coasted in for a smooth landing at RIA, I was mentally preparing myself for a suffocating wall of heat and humidity to punch me in the face upon leaving the terminal. But then the pilot came on the intercom, announcing light rain and a mere 82 degrees. Doing a quick conversion to Canadian Celsius, I realized that it was only a tiny bit warmer than it was back home in Montreal. So much for the industrial sized container of baby powder I packed; looks like I’ll be able to stay so fresh and so clean (and so non-sweaty) all my own.

The weather might be similar who what we’re getting back home, but there’s at least one thing different: the airport signage.

I’m not sure if they mean they’re not joking about weapons, or if whoopie cushions and joy buzzers are on par with Smith & Wessons and Rambo knives, but to be on the safe side, I quickly stashed any levity I had on my person in a nearby trash can.

More to come once the event kicks off later this evening.

_________________________

One by one the attendees trickled into the Brandcenter, a look of anticipation and uncertainty across their faces. They knew they were in for one hell of a week, but they were a tiny bit unsure about how it would all play out. As with most social gatherings populated by strangers, the people mingled in small groups of two or three, introducing themselves and mentioning their cities and agencies. Throw in a little food and drink on the terrace — in this case, a super casual barbecue dinner consisting of pulled pork and chicken, baked beans, mac ‘n cheese, cole slaw, potato salad and apple compote — and the conversations got more lively.

Now the first evening of the Executive Training course is not meant to be too intensive, but rather a night to set the tone and get everybody excited. And what gets the creative heart pounding faster than the joys of dealing with the all-powerful client? The first guest speaker of the week does indeed come from the Dark Side, but luckily there’s plenty of Anakin Skywalker left in him to counter the Darth Vader-esque tendencies clients tend to possess (probably because he used to be a Jedi at Ogilvy) Our hallowed speaker: Ryan Anderson, Director of Global Brand Management for Westin Hotels and Resorts. Ryan’s presentation is entitled “Taming the Beast: the Beast’s Perspective” and we were fortunate enough to capture nearly the entire presentation for you watching at home — or at least as much as we could before we ran outta memory.

(approx 1 hour, 8 minutes)

After Ryan’s presentation, everybody called it a night. After all, tomorrow is when all the real work begins, and it’s worth being rested for the long haul ahead.

Hilton Barbour
Marketing Provocateur
hiltonbarbour.com

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about new beginnings, rejuvenation and their counterpoint obsolescence. Coupla reasons. Firstly, I’m leaving sunny England after 4 and a half years and returning to Canada. Tonnes of good in that, a few regrets. I’m also taking on a new role at a great agency. Tonnes of excitement, some trepidation. Like any “closing doors and opening windows” moment, it forces some reflection.

This reflection all came into sharp focus this week though when I was fortunate enough to attend a Master Class run by Hyper Island. Hyper Island is widely considered to be “The Harvard of Digital Creativity” and the course was fantastic. What was unique was the course location – Middlesbrough in Northern (and I mean waaayyy North) England.

Like much of Northern England, Middlesbrough has had a tough go in the last few decades. Once the center of global iron and steel innovation, Middlesbrough has fallen on hard times as industry has increasingly moved overseas and China has become the iron capital of the world. All the tell-tale signs are there; diminishing population especially youngsters, boarded-up shops on the Main St, relative high crime stats for a town of its size and, to add insult to industry, declining fortunes at local football club Middlesbrough FC. In the midst of this though, a massive Council undertaking to transform Middlesbrough into part of the UK’s Digital City with Teeside University, location of the Hyper island Master Class, at the epicentre.

Caught in this juxtaposition between Hyper Island and the down-at-heels landscape of the Middlesbrough docks, rejuvenation and obsolescence literally came into very sharp focus for me.

I won’t bore you with the personal rejuvenation epiphanies (less beer, more gym) but a here’s a few about our industry I did ponder. Some are old, some borrowed, some are increasingly topical.

So, in no particular order, some suggestions for rejuvenating the agency model. If you tick off the list below, congrats. If you don’t tick off any, take stock.

Get a certified procurement person on staff

This is the business equivalent of eating your vegetables. You might not like it but it’s better than the alternative. If no-one at your agency is certified (or highly qualified) in the “language” of procurement, you’re increasingly screwed. Your Finance Director has their certification. Why not add Procurement certification to the Agile or SCRUM certification of your production department?

Lose the “Creative is a Department” BS

Hyper Island reminded me we’re all creative and can all contribute to any ideation session. Those agencies that still rely solely on the Creative Team and the omnipotent CD as sole “creators” are missing the point.

Embrace Open Source creativity

Crowdsourcing is becoming more feasible, more robust as a means of unlocking true borderless creativity. To bring engaged people together to solve problems is no longer impossible. Check out GiantHydra and agencies like The Assembly to see how this gets done in the real world. Trust me, YOU don’t and can’t have all the answers.

Learn the business language of your client

This is a classic but still more the exception than the rule. Understanding what shelf velocity means to a packaged good client, ARPU means to a telco, average order size to a QSR client is critical but, too often, we delude ourselves into thinking we’re just there to be “creative”. Wrong! We’re there to impact the core drivers of their business. Surely being able to understand client-language is just commonsense.  We don’t all need MBA’s but having a few on your staff can’t hurt.

Networks built on shared values, not shared names, will win

Unpopular view perhaps but, in my experience, people work better together with folks who share a similar DNA or set of values. That often means working together with “near” competitors is more fruitful than collaborating with network peers in another office that merely has the same name on the stationery. Its not easy, its often hugely impractical (not to mention financially suicidal) but social networks work best when folks with shared values collaborate unabashedly. Networks forced together through acquisition and merger can’t compete with that.

Use our creativity to solve a really huge problem

This may run counter to my earlier client point but why don’t the wickedly smart folks in this industry join creative forces to solve a real monstrous problem? If the music industry could put ego and $$$ aside for Live Aid, why can’t the ad community? We all have a pro-bono account or two on our books. That commendable for sure. All I’m asking is why can’t we get together nationally, or even internationally, to devote time to truly enormous problem? Imagine if we each spent 10% less time drinking and “networking” at Cannes and put our collective heads together to brainstorm ideas for a worldwide issue?

Embrace life beyond advertising

This is a fun, vibrant industry full of smart, interesting people but there are millions of other fun and vibrant stimuli in the world. Love your industry, love your job but please, especially you young whipper-snappers, cultivate a balanced life outside the ad world. Your work will be better for it, your conversation (and chat-up lines) will be enhanced by it. Your life is not all about the latest work out of Weiden or MDC. It can’t b

I’m sure I’ve missed dozens of other deeper issues afflicting the ad world. Industry issues that need addressing if we’re to remain relevant and vital to our clients and colleagues. What would you like to see change

Ultimately, if I learnt anything from my Middlesbrough experience this week, rejuvenation is messy and painful. But it beats obsolescence every time.

You can find out more about Hyper Island here. Check them out. They’re incredible.

I hear it all the time. In fact, I’ve even done it myself and just recently a good friend of mine said it to me over a beer: “man, I had this great idea the other day but I didn’t write it down.” Sounds like a pretty shitty idea to me…

Ignacio Oreamuno

I watched pretty much every game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, waking up at 7AM to get in as many of the matches as I could. Even when the ihaveanidea team was in Cannes, I made sure to not book important meetings around Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Holland matches. I cried, I screamed, I laughed. I vuvuzelaed. And today when The Netherlands went down to Spain in the Finals, after an entire month of dedicating my life to this ‘peaceful world war’ I realized that like the kids from South Park, I also had learned something today. And everything I learned I could relate to everyday life in advertising. Let the game begin…

1. Shots on goal matter not.

Diego Forlán almost nailed the most beautiful, almost most dramatic, almost most curveous and gorgeous almost goal in the World Cup when he almost tied the 2-3 score against Germany at the last minute in the 3rd place game. In another example, Asamoah from Ghana almost put the entire African continent in the semi-finals ( if it wasn’t for that metal post that got in the way, or the Uruguayan defender that stopped the ball with his hands), and Brazil almost caught that self goal against Holland (if it wasn’t for the defense’s head that shot it in).

Your agency could win all the awards in the world, have the niftiest offices, and the smartest, funkiest ad people with the craziest hair-dos and it still won’t matter. At the end of the day it is only agencies that score, that get new business, that win the game.

Remember the Adidas ad they played incessantly at every commercial break with hooded ‘guru’ Eric Cantona and all the “superstars” looking mysteriously cinematic as a flying Lionel Mesci hovered over the field? None of the actual players in the ad made it to the final, and I think it kinda made the entire campaign look kind of a joke towards the end. Don’t get cocky with your superstars, your history and your old awards.

Spain played a very boring game, they didn’t score many goals and they made watching them play absolutely torture as they passed the ball between themselves and ‘caveman Pujol’ like a tennis game. But they won, and that is what will go down in ink.

2. It’s not a ‘fair-tale’.

Every time we have a World Cup the same thing happens, people bitch incessantly over the blatantly obvious mistakes the refs make. I admit Stevie Wonder could probably make better calls, but that’s the brutal reality of life isn’t it? My american friends who are used to the high-end technology used in refereeing decisions in american football argue that soccer should use a similar system to help them nail offsides, goals and other calls properly.

Are you mad? No, no, no! Soccer is like real life, it’s unfair. That’s the beauty of it. All you need is 22 players and a round ball. That’s why billions of people around the world are so passionate about. Hating the refs is part of the sport. Perfect calls would perfectly ruin the game.

So when you pitch, and the client goes for the shitty agency whose CEO golfs at the same club as the client’s CEO, then don’t feel too sore about it. The amazing work your agency does is not going to be enough sometimes. When you lose an award to a campaign that is obviously inferior, remember the no rules of the game. Don’t get sour about it.

3. The goal justifies the foul.

Players throw themselves through the air in Academy Award worthy fashion, landing on the tarmac, howling like little girls. And then when the ref is not watching plant every spike in their shoes in each other’s calfs? Because it might make or stop a goal, and that’s all that matters.

Paul Lavoie, co-founder of TAXI, once told me a story in which they pitched a client that had asked that all the agencies show creative work at the pitch meeting. All the agencies did. Paul and his team walked in with a white piece of paper and a pencil and said something to the line of “We’re not here to talk, we’re here to listen and solve your problems.” This move was as suave as Paul’s bald shiny head.

Then another creative director told me they were pissed at Paul because they did a pitch against him in which the client had instructed to NOT bring in creative work. Guess what Paul did? Bring in tons of work. And according to the story, he also won that pitch.

Ghana “unfairly” lost to a an Uruguayan hand ball, but on the same coin Uruguay moved on the semi-finals because of that same Uruguayan hand ball (and had their star player win the coveted Golden Boot as well). Nobody remembers the red or yellow cards, only the winners.

4. Your lineup cannot be just forwards.

Maradona’s Argentine lineup was composed primarily of strikers. Instead of balancing out with some mid-fielders specialized in passing and finding opportunities or defense to hold back the opposition, he basically unleashed pit bulls on the field which were only satisfied when they scored goals on the other side. This worked for a while and the opposing teams would break down after 1 or 2 goals. The problem came when the Germans started piercing goals on their offense, boom, boom, boom, boom. 4-0. There was nothing they could do and they were sent back crying to Argentina on the next plane.

If your agency is designed to pitch and win new business and you have your superstar creatives focused on doing “award winning” ads for the cool client and juniors doing the boring layouts for the big client, then you might find yourself with your pants down when the big client$ pull out and leave you with no money to pay for your superstars, by then it will be too late to try to get them to turn around and make work to please the client. Take care of your defense, take care of your existing relationships and your big boring clients. Defense is boring, but without it you won’t take that shiny trophy home.

6. It’s not about how good you play, it’s about how much fun you’re having.

The World Cup final, like every other final, was stiff as old oak. Nobody made any great plays, nobody smiled, nobody had fun. Essentially every player received a yellow card, and even the Queen of Spain and Prince of Holland looked bored out of their minds.

The “loser” game between Uruguay and Germany on the other hand was absolutely fantastic. It made me jump, scream and laugh. Why? Because they had nothing to lose. The players let their skills ‘flow’. All of the soccer players in all the teams are fantastic, but it was only the ones that were relaxed who had the best soccer.

So if you are in an agency, and you are not having fun, if you are stressed about your comps, worried about your ideas, furious with your partner, anxious about your career, it’s highly probably that` you won’t be fabricating your best work. Laughing it off, having fun at your job should not be a reward when things are going easy, it should be a mandatory activity when things are going hard.

6. Paul the Octopus is full of mussel shit

He ruined the World Cup for me and made all my teams lose. But Paul’s legacy lies in the fact he reminded me that a great advertising campaign these days cannot be predicted or planned.

I doubt that the people at Oberhausen Aquarium did focus groups to find out if Paul would be a good viral. Before I get my hands on him and make a great ceviche out of him I recommend you print his purple photo and put it your wall so you remind yourself that nobody, not even Octopodidae have the answer to clever advertising.

Brett McKenzie

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30th, A CAFÉ IN MONTREAL’S PLATEAU DISTRICT

Ignacio: Hey.

Brett: Hey.

Ignacio: …so?

Brett: … yeah. This is the first day I feel normal.

Ignacio: I can’t tell you how much I slept. Twelve, fourteen hour blocks.

Brett: I’m only now coming out of my house.

Ignacio: Wow.

Brett: Hear from Steph?

Ignacio: Yeah. She’s coming here later.

Brett: And Rafik?

Ignacio: He got his flight. He’ll be scarce on email, but he has a cell number.

Brett: Cool.

(long pause)

Brett: You know…. Cannes is like some kind of advertising succubus. Lots of fun, but boy does it drain every last drop of you.

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Rewind to a week and a half and a million years ago, and the ihaveanidea team was getting ready to venture back into the annual advertising Mecca that is the Cannes Lions Festival. Like many, we had taken the previous year off, citing “the economy” as pretty much as a catch-all phrase for anything and everything that plagued 2009.

And what a difference a year makes! For us, we were still basking in the success of our largest Portfolio Night ever, and knew we’d meet a lot of the people responsible for this on the French Riviera. We just wrapped up the first ever session of the Tomorrow Awards, and we’d have a chance to chat with not only some of the winners and shortlisters, but also with people who were definitely keen on the award show but didn’t enter that first quarter. And of course we had just officially launched GiantHydra, and we were ready to get the word out among the movers and shakers of the ad world. Throw in the fact that this gonna be the first time at Cannes for Stephanie Pellicer, ihaveanidea’s Event Director (and head of Portfolio Night), and Rafik Belmesk, our Director of Operations (and Tomorrow Awards lead) and we knew this was gonna be one important week.

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SATURDAY/SUNDAY

I don’t think we’ve ever taken a later flight on ihaveanidea business before, but here we were, straggling into Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport for an 11:30 PM direct flight from Montreal to not Nice, France (the usual route) but rather Marseille. A change of pace, if you will, with a plan to either take the train or rent a car and bomb it down the highway — both a two hour trip through the French countryside, not a bad idea at all. But first, getting on the plane, with me bringing about 18 pounds of excess baggage (hey, the outfits gotta get there somehow)

Steph and Ignacio just before takeoff.

A gruelling seven and a half hours later (the lady behind me was dead set against me reclining my seat beyond a completely vertical state) we arrived in Marseille during a small window of opportunity where there was no form of union strike. We grabbed a few strong coffees and wandered over to the Hertz rental, opting to go at our own pace in a car rather than the train. Picking out a comfy Eclipse Grey Renault Scénic to hold all our stuff, we were very soon on our way to Cannes.

Buckle up kids, or else Daddy’s gonna turn this car around and go back home.

What, you expected someone else to call shotgun?

Very quickly into our journey we decided that we were in no rush to get to Cannes. The fast way was really just your standard toll highway, and not a terribly picturesque one at that. So throwing caution into the wind (and turning on the livesaving GPS system) we instead headed south, intent on travelling along the Mediterranean coast. This was probably the best decision made over the course of the week, as we were treated to stunning ocean views and a relaxed pace that would prove to be a sharp contrast to the days ahead. We even pulled off into an seaside pizzeria in La Lavandou to grab a bite to eat.

This place would start a week-long trend where I would receive — and finish — my order long before Rafik would get his.

After looking at a few maps, we realized that if we hugged the coast too closely during our drive, we probably wouldn’t end up in Cannes until sometime the next day. A quick alterations to the GPS and we were on our way inland, unknowingly to a very long stretch that we referred to as… THE ROAD OF DEATH.

Honestly this little clip is far tamer than what we would experience. Imagine: 45 minutes of hairpins and switchbacks, almost no guard rails, 50 foot drops on one side, sheer granite walls on the other, traffic in both directions but virtually impossible for two cars to pass and stay on the road entirely… and this was on a sunny afternoon. I’d hate to think what it would be like at night or in the rain.

By the way, if you’re ever in that area of France and you feel adventurous and/or suicidal, I believe the road was Route de la Môle, just east of Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer. Happy travels.

The famous Saint-Tropez, as seen from just as pretty Sainte-Maxime

The sun was hanging low in the shy as we rolled into Cannes, and after fifteen hours of combined air and road travel, we knew we weren’t going to be up to much that evening. We got Stephanie checked into her hotel (she wisely opted out of staying with the boys) before making our way to “The Palatial”, ihaveanidea’s swanky digs a block north of the infamous Gutter Bar. A bite to eat, a quick tour of the town to get Steph and Rafik acclimated, and a quiet night of relaxing at the Majestic, watching Brazil beat Côte d’Ivoire and getting ready for the exciting week ahead.

The veteran and the rookie arrive at The Palatial

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MONDAY

You never know what each day of Cannes is going to be like, but one thing seems to always ring true: the day after your arrival is one where you just sorta dip your toe in to see if the water is fine. We were exhausted from our long trek to get into town the night before, and the first morning was spent just settling in, looking for adapters to plug our North American junk into French outlets and getting the interwebs up and working. Since ‘The Palatial’ is an apartment, that meant we needed to hit the supermarket for the essentials… in our case, beer, wine and rum. Cannes Tip #3269: the supermarket is your friend, the bars are your enemies. You can buy a 20-pack of Kronenbourg 1664 — the official beer of Cannes good times — for about ten euros at the supermarket, roughly the cost of a single beer at the Martinez or the Gutter Bar. And since our place is literally steps away from the Gutter Bar, it was very easy for us to go upstairs, pull a few frosty ones out of the fridge, and be back at the party in no time flat. Yeah, yeah, if you have an agency credit card, go nuts. In fact, if you have an agency credit card, could you pick up the tab for us at the Majestic?

Monday wasn’t too crazy for any of us. We arranged meetings for later on in the week, showed Rafik and Steph around some more — they were scheduled to have more meetings than Ignacio or myself, and they needed to know where all the little places were — and just lazed about.That evening, we chose a bit of an usual way to kick off our time in Cannes: we attended a rooftop reception by the Association of Quebec Advertising Agencies. Normally we find it a bit counterproductive to travel the thousands of miles to Cannes only to hang out with people from the same city that you can see any day of the week, but the way we see it, we can always get to know more people in Montreal — ihaveanidea is still kinda ‘new’ to the city. Our good pal from VCU Rick Boyko would be interviewing Bertrand Cesvet, Chairman of Sid Lee at the receptiion too, and that should be cool to watch. And besides, the party was being held on the rooftop of 67 la Croisette, quite possibly the best view in Cannes.

Rick Boyko asks Bertrand Cesvet a most pressing question — when is Sid Lee gonna hook me up with a new pair of adidas Superstars?

The AQAA reception turned out to be a lot of fun. We met a lot of fellow Montrealers that we hadn’t known before, and there were a number of guests from other parts of the world, including some Aussies who might prove integral to bringing Portfolio Night back to Sydney. Stay tuned on that one!

Our first real night in Cannes ended up the same way that most nights in Cannes end up: outside the infamous Gutter Bar. Not sure if they did it last year in our absence, but this year Yahoo! had branded the bar, with big purple and white Yahoo! signs where the name of the bar would be if it actually had a name. Yahoo! also wrapped the bar’s refrigerated trailer, where they keep the excess beer the joint will sell during this week — some message about big beer brands advertising via Yahoo! Will this branding effort work, or will ad folk be far too drunk to care? Although I didn’t see any passed out guys with piss-soaked pants yet (as I have every single year at the Gutter Bar) nobody was doing the Yahoo! yodel either.

While the crowds were decent, the Gutter Bar wasn’t the mass of broken glass and awkward propositions it usually devolves into by week’s end. Ignacio and I know what we’re doing; we gotta ease Steph and Rafik into the madness.

Don’t worry, it’s still early in the week yet

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TUESDAY

One thing that you learn very quickly about conducting business in Cannes is that schedules need to be a little flexible; you’re not holding a meeting in a Midtown Manhattan boardroom, but rather a casual chat over drinks in a Mediterranean paradise. Yo this end, I didn’t get too panicked when my first planned meeting didn’t exactly go down how I wanted. I had an 11 AM meeting with Lincoln Bjorkman, the North American Chief Creative Officer at Digitas. Lincoln had written a pretty insightful Super Bowl analysis on ihaveanidea, and I wanted to finally get to meet him and shoot the breeze.

But the clock hit 11:30, then 11:45 before Lincoln came running onto the Carlton terrace. It turns out that his digital calendar thingamajig didn’t sync with his scheduling whoozit (that’s why I keep my appointments in my head) But no worries, this is Cannes, it’s high noon on a gorgeous summer day. We didn’t get to do a proper interview, but we did have a few laughs and drinks, with plans to touch base after this week of madness.

I’ll get you next time, Mr. Bjorkman! BWAHAHAHA!

On the Tuesday night, Cannes still hasn’t erupted into the crazy bacchanalia it eventually becomes; even though it is the night of the official opening gala, those festivities are for people who shelled out the €2100+ for a delegate badge, not exactly in the ihaveanidea budget.

Luckily our friends at Apollo Studios seem to think the way we do, and so they had their own little get together in their apartment on La Croisette. This really isn’t anything new; this Canadian/European music workshop is known to have these little parties just about every night, every year in Cannes, usually a great place to stop in before you go to one party or after you come back from another. But this Tuesday was a tiny bit special, as it was Apollo producer Didier Tovel’s birthday, as well as the launch of his C4 Experiment with Christopher Walken… well close enough. At any rate, the vibes were nice, the people were friendly, and I do so hope to run into that Swedish girl I met here before the week is out.

We closed off the night with a few hours at the Gutter Bar; it’s hard not to when your apartment is almost on top of it. But I do have a statement to make regarding this evening. Dear Internet: I don’t know who it was out there, but one of you logged into DavidOnDemand and elected for the Leo Burnett online sensation to drink my beer. Not a beer. My beer.

Not cool, man. Not cool.

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WEDNESDAY

Wednesday wasn’t one of those “crack of dawn” days where we were scrambling to get out to our appointments. Stephanie had Portfolio Night business to discuss (was it about the possibility of adding Tokyo to next year’s list, or was it Istanbul?) Rafik had more Tomorrow Awards stuff up his sleeve, and Ignacio had a full day of GiantHydra work on his plate. As for me, I had a meeting set up with Richard Bates, Chief Creative Officer of The Brand Union in New York City. I had interviewed Richard over the telephone last summer, but it was nice to finally meet up with him face to face, and to find out what business a designer has at the biggest advertising festival in the world.

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ihaveanidea: You are a designer, and this is only the third year that Cannes Lions has design categories. What are your thoughts on Cannes’ efforts to include design?

Richard: Call me slightly cynical, but I still think of Cannes as an advertising award with design tacked on possibly to get more revenue. But because there is so much hype around these awards, I mean the agencies already think it’s the most important award out there, and I think this will trickle down to design firms.

It’s interesting to see so much of what’s in the design section of the awards is also in the advertising section, and agencies are just double-entering. But I think that’s kinda good in a way, because it’s also a result of what’s happening in the real world. Branding agencies are starting to do a much broader range of work. Nowawdays, when we pitch we might do brand positioning and identity, all the way to advertising. And the advertising agencies are doing the same thing. The worlds are colliding, and now so are the award shows.

ihaveanidea: What would you tell your fellow designers, the ones who might sneer a bit at the advertising world, about your experiences here in Cannes?

Richard: There are a couple of terms being bandied about here a lot. It used to be about ’storytelling’, but now people are saying it’s less about storytelling and more about ‘conversation.’ I think both are true, and can be taken back to the design world. As far as the award-winning work is concerned, as a separate entity from work that is effective, really clear, quick storytelling is what wins here. How do you communicate your idea in the most unique and simplest way that will resonate the quickest amongst the broadest range of people. That’s an age-old thought, but I don’t think that all designers really value that. To them, it’s okay to tell a deeper, more complex story, but you won’t have time to tell that story here. Crafting a project to win an award, and crafting a project for a client or brand are not the same thing at all.

(laughs) And the process of entering the awards is a craft unto itself. Look at how crafted case study videos have become.

ihaveanidea: But you gotta admit, with the short time span between judging and awarding, Cannes is pretty exciting.

Richard: (laughs) Oh I was thrilled when we found out we were shortlisted. And no, the design world has nothing as flashy or as sexy as Cannes. If you’re gonna go all out, the French Riviera is hard to beat.

____________

Wednesday evening had all of the ihaveanidea crew having a lovely dinner with Rick Boyko and his wife Barbara. I wish I could remember the name of the place, but the boeuf au poivre was devine… as was all of the chicken and bacon atop Barbara’s Caesar salad (hey, waste not, want not) But as usual, the buzz around Cannes on Wednesday night was for the MassiveMusic party. The Amsterdam based music company is renowned for its Wednesday night beach dance-off, and this year also marked the tenth anniversary of the company. Passes are hard to come by, but luckily I had an ‘in’ (good looking out, Scott!)

To kick off the tenth anniversary events, MassiveMusic brought out a ten-year-old axe handler. No word if he got any groupies that evening.

The King of Cannes with a little Turkish delight

While the party wasn’t open bar, and even though the dancefloor eventually became too crowded to bust my patented dance steps, we salute MassiveMusic for really getting the week going. It was at this point that Cannes Lions moved from ‘gathering’ to ‘paaaaaaarty’, one that carried right on over to the Gutter Bar and into the wee hours.

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THURSDAY

With no lingering effects from the MassiveMusic party or the Gutter Bar from the night before, we were all up and at ‘em with our daily meetings. For me, this meant a sitdown on the Carlton terrace with one half of the amazing sibling team that heads up La Comunidad, Mr. José Mollå.

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ihaveanidea: How is Cannes shaping up for you this year? I mean, last year, there was all this doom and gloom, entries were down, attendance was down, parties were more low-key. Is Cannes back this year?

José: Well I think Cannes is crisis-proof, at the end of the day. But beyond Cannes, I don’t think the economic scenario has changed that much, but I think people got used to the idea of it. They said “okay, this crisis is going to be around for a while” and they went back to doing what they were doing. (laughs) Then again, I was raised in Latin America, where we had a crisis every day.

But you see it in people’s faces here, they’re more relaxed, they’re not as afraid. So yes, Cannes is back, but only because people are adapting.

ihaveanidea: Could it be that this crisis affects the big networks a lot harder, leaving shops like yours out of the fray?

José: Well I will say that this is the best time ever for agencies like ours. It’s all about ideas, and even though budgets are down, clients’ expectations are up. That’s perfect for us, to have clients who still want incredible ideas even though resources are lower.

ihaveanidea: You have some really good stuff in the show this year, some Converse work as well as MTV. What do awards mean nowadays?

José: Well this is my take on it all. Awards used to be great for keeping up to speed in what’s going on in the ad world. Of course that’s not really relevant anymore, as you see great work all the time, coming at you from so many different channels. But I do believe that awards keep creatives motivated. Agencies run on motivation, and a motivated agency will do ten times the amount of work for a client than an agency that isn’t motivated. And awards are only one way of motivating an agency. A client can call up their agency and say “I just saw the latest thing you did for another client. It’s great!” That phone call costs nothing, but will motivate a team like crazy.

But awards can’t be the goal, they must be the consequence of creating great work.

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Each year in Cannes, a very lucky, very select group of advertising students from around the world get the education of a lifetime by participating in the Roger Hatchuel Academy. Imagine adding that extra shine on your education by participating in classes overseen by VCU’s Rick Boyko and Central Saint Martins’ Clive Challis, with heartfelt talks with guest speakers like David Droga, Tham Khai Meng and… Ignacio Oreamuno?

Yes, on Thursday afternoon, ihaveanidea’s president became an ‘unofficial’ speaker at the Academy, at a beautiful rooftop Q&A session overlooking the Mediterranean. So what could Ignacio bring to the table that would be of interest to a group of kids who have been rubbing shoulders with creative legends all week long? Nothing fancy, just about fear, about emotion, about doing things instead of just planning to do things, about not accepting things as they are. It was a very inspiring chat; even for me, who has been so close to the ihaveanidea project for so many years that it’s hard to see that it was started when we were nobodies, and here we were, holding court on the biggest industry stage of them all. If that doesn’t move some of these Academy kids to do their own thing, I don’t know what will.

National pride. Civic duty. Yes, these things come into play here in Cannes. You see, every Thursday afternoon for as long as time itself, there has been a Canadian beach party in Cannes. It’s not audacious or flashy — in fact, in past years it has been quite tame — but as a Canadian, it’s your duty to pass through and say hi to the people you normally don’t have to travel thousands of miles to see. So the ihaveanidea team sucked it up, put on our brave faces, and joined our fellow Canucks… only to find that this year, the party wasn’t half-bad. Better music, better food, more people, lots of Desperados tequila-flavoured beer (not very Canadian, but what the hell), I can honestly say that this was probably the best one I attended. But I still think they gotta put the word out and invite non-Canadians to the shindig if they wanna be as cool as the Brazilians or the Swedes. Case in point, we went to another Swedish party at Plage Goeland after the Canuck one, and the Swedes were welcoming everyone with little blue and yellow flags to redeem at the bar. We even met up with Tony Högqvist, CD of Perfect Fools and one of the champions of bringing Portfolio Night to Stockholm for the first time this year..

I may be the King of Cannes, but DDB’s Frank Palmer just might be the King of the Canada Cannes party

Thursday night was another big party night in Cannes (isn’t every night?) We didn’t have those elusive tickets to the annual Shots party, but we did more than okay by attending the Y&R beach bash. The drinks were flowing, as was the music, provided by the kick-ass French all-girl rock band Les Plastiscines. Unfortunately we rocked a little too hard, and my sunglasses, which have survived every trip to Cannes since 2006, ended up shattered on the floor. Yeah, they’re only ten bucks, but damn…

Mesdames et messieurs… voici les Plastiscines!

Everybody’s gettin’ down to the Y&R sound…

… including a slightly stewed Stephanie…

…and a downright wrecked Rafik

To be perfectly honest, there must’ve been something in those Y&R drinks, because the rest of the night was a bit of a blur. We all have the vaguest recollections of the Gutter Bar, and I think I ended up on some steps behind the Carlton, waiting for the street to stop spinning quite so much. Whatever I was up to, I did manage to miss Ignacio and Rafik’s sunrise swim sans swimsuit.

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FRIDAY

Friday was a rough, rough morning, the first one where all four ihaveanidea people would clearly agree with the statement “I had too much to drink.” Ignacio alleges that I phoned him at some point the previous night night, unable to find my way home, but apparently near “a tree”. Steph did make it back to her hotel in delicate but stable shape, and Rafik… well, read above.

But no time for remorse, we still had a day ahead of us! Going our separate ways, but with plans to meet up to watch the Brazil-Portugal game, I went off and had afantastic lunch at the Carlton with John Maxham, ECD of Cole & Weber United in Seattle. Cole & Weber was one of the agencies shortlisted in the inaugural spring session of the Tomorrow Awards, for their Olympics “Best of Us Challenge“, and we’ve been chatting with people behind all of the winners and shortlisters to dig deeper and find out more about their work. I’ll save John’s anecdotes for another day, but I will say one thing… Usain Bolt needs to slow down, and I’m not talking about his running.

The soccer game, viewed from the Film Brazil camp at Plage Goeland, ended up being a scoreless draw, but Ignacio got to break in his official World Cup vuvuzela, brought to him by a friend visiting the festival by way of South Africa.

One cool meeting happened that evening. After our prerequisite time on the Carlton terrace with the Boykos (highlighted by the sabotaging of Rick’s iPhone by Ignacio, and Rick’s immediate revenge) we headed over to the Crispin Porter + Bogusky/MDC reception at Rado Beach. No crazy parties here, just a private gathering of the Boulder crew and friends. It’s always wonderful to see Chuck Porter, and was great to finally meet the legendary Jeff Benjamin, but perhaps the coolest thing was running into CP+B interactive art director Rachel Wolak, one half of Team YouTube in the Young Lions competition. See, this wasn’t the first time I had met Rachel; she was a participant at Portfolio Night 6 two years ago in San Francisco, the year I was at the West Coast events. So wow, two years ago someone was shopping her book around at Portfolio Night, and here she is, in a relatively short time span, kicking ass at Cannes. Congrats, Rachel! And it makes me wonder how many more success stories we’ll run into.

Two Crispin superstars, one considerably more attractive than the other.

Traditionally, Friday Night in Cannes has meant lots of big parties, highlighted by an annual battle between DDB and Leo Burnett over the title of “Party You Wish You Had an Invite To.” But “the economy” got in the way and cancelled those two megaparties in 2009, and it appears that taking the year off made them reconsider the whole concept in 2010, because Leo and DDB were quiet on their traditional night. No worries, still lots happening, and for us that ended up being an almost as huge booze-up on the beach with CAB Films of South Africa.A tip of the hat to the South Africans; they may have gone out of the World Cup early, but they know how to party.

Of course, no evening would be complete without a trip to the Gutter Bar, but this one was going to be truncated a bit. It turns out that while the folks at Leo Burnett weren’t holding a giant shindig, they still had a sweet location on the Croisette, and were inviting people up to their pad and terrace above the storefronts to watch the sun come up. It was a motley bunch of people up there, from all over the world, and we all snacked on croque-monsieurs and cold Heinekens, lounging around and chatting. We even had a quick chat with David Perez during those rare moments when he wasn’t on demand. All in all, a sweet evening… er, morning.

Rooftop friends

A good time being had by all

The sun is starting to come up.

Okay, the sun is up, what now? Keep drinking? Sure!

Still going…

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SATURDAY

No rest for the wicked. The Leo Burnett sunrise party may have wrapped up at about 8 AM, but there’s no time to sleep, not when you have a sit-down with a top dog at the Carlton in less than two hours. We’re getting a chance to chat with Susan Bonds, President and CEO of 42 Entertainment, and I’m really looking forward to this. Why’s that? Well two years ago at Cannes I had met Susan, and back then she was a total newcomer to this world of advertising award shows, an outsider to this world. She had just won the Cyber Grand Prix for The Dark Knight “Why So Serious?” campaign, the first thing I believe they ever entered into an ad show. And here we are two years later, with another Cyber Grand Prix on the mantle (for Nine Inch Nails “Year One” project) and a two-time Cannes jury member.

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ihaveanidea: So how does it feel to go from neophyte to a big player in the game in a few short years?

Susan: It feels great! One of the biggest benefits that I learned by being on the Cyber Jury last year was that being involved in the process of looking at and judging all of the work is that you get a real appreciation for innovation, how things touch people emotionally, and so on. We’ve always approached this from the point of view of storytelling, content and pulling people into an experience. And as technology becomes more pervasive and connectivity has changed all of our lives, I think the stuff we were doing that was seen as new and edgy, a lot of people are looking at that and asking how it applies to their brands or clients. There’s been an evolution, and it’s evident in the work we judged this year.

ihaveanidea: What’s the biggest thing you learned while judging this year?

Susan: That the strength of an idea really has to be carried all the way through. Ideas are like kids. They need to be protected and nurtured and allowed to grow up. You can often see ideas where you can say they were onto something, but where they take it makes the difference.

The Titanium and Integrated category here at Cannes, well, can you think of a single thing that’s not really integrated? It’s become the norm now to be on multiple screens and platforms and to have a 360 degree experience around a brand. But you can really tell if someone is just checking the checklist in terms of elements versus really thinking about what that could do for our idea, our client, our story.

ihaveanidea: When judging something like, say print, you can know in an instant if something grabs you, if it’s good or not, then move onto the next piece. How do you judge something as rich and deep and meaty as some of these digital and integrated experiences? Something that doesn’t grab you immediately but could hold you for hours, time you don’t have on a jury?

Susan: I can truly understand that dilemma, having worked on a project like The Dark Knight which was a fifteen-month active engagement with an audience with a thousand different touchpoints. How do you sum that up in three minutes? But I think it call comes back to the strength of the idea. I will say that we definitely took our time and appreciated the fact that people who entered this category took it very seriously, and so we did as well, and looked at everything intently.

ihaveanidea: How does looking at all of this great work and awarding the best affect you when you go back home to do your own work? What do you take away from here to make 42 Entertainment even better?

Susan: I think the challenge we all face nowadays is that because of the World Wide Web, most of the campaigns we do have a global nature to them, deliberate or not. Every time I come here I learn more about the nuances that exist when you take ideas around the world. I think about how you can make something that’s relevant for everyone, no matter where they are in the world. A good story can transcend, but there are definitely people here who have clearly been thinking about the global nature of their work.

I also think that as technology becomes less about novelty, there are only so many “firsts” you can claim before flashy new bits have to give way to solid insight. I’ll definitely be bringing this thought back home with me.

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Susan Bond wasn’t the only person I chatted with two years ago who would have a new view of things today. Back in 2008 I also had the opportunity to speak with Tony Granger, who was then the newly minted Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of Young & Rubicam. Sitting in that sun-soaked opulence of the terrace of Carlton International Hotel, you’ll hear a bunch of creative directors from all over the world  backslapping and gladhanding each other, making wild predictions for the future of the industry and of their own networks. Tony was one of these people, and he had stated his goal to turn the creative fortunes of Y&R around in two years. Yeah, it was a lofty claim, but Tony has had the magic touch before, guiding a vision that brought hardware to Saatchi & Saatchi (globally and in London) and Bozell.

Two years later, here we are in Cannes. and I’m chatting to some Y&R people who get me to concede that Tony was right. With moments to go before the swanky final award show of the Festival, Y&R has won a network record 49 Lions, with thirteen coming from the flagship New York office alone. Unfortunately Tony isn’t here in Cannes this year — a daughter’s graduation is more important than a paltry award show — but you know me, I’m not gonna just leave it with quotes from PR.  A few minutes later I have Tony on the phone in New York, alking about his two-year mission, as well as his plans for the next few years.

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ihaveanidea: Well Tony, you said it, and it looks like you did it. But let’s go back to saying it in the first place. What was your true mission laid out two years ago? Not just to win trophies…

Tony: Even before I fully stepped into my role at Y&R, the first and most important thing I wanted to do was determine that my business partner Hamish McClennan and I could work as a true partnership, to have intimate decision making powers. and to set the tone for the network. Without that close partnership and shared vision with Hamish, I don’t think we would’ve been successful. In learning more about the DNA of Y&R’s 70-plus year history, I discovered that Y&R was the first agency network created by the pairing of a creative and a suit. So right in its origins was the mandate for the relationship Hamish and I enjoy today.

Back in 1923, Raymond Rubicam stated “resist the usual”, and that was like a bolt of lightning. I thought “what better time than now to implement this.”

ihaveanidea: But this success that you and Hamish found wasn’t simply bringing an old quote to life. What did you have to do to achieve this turnaround that you didn’t necessarily have with, say Saatchi.

Tony: Well one thing I discovered with Y&R that is different than some of the other networks is that Y&R offices tend to have more local clients versus national or global ones. This gave each office a little more of an entrepreneurial spirit, something that I wanted to maintain. The intimacy that each offices shares with its local clients, I wanted to infuse that throughout our network. All of our CDs know each other and get along and help one another. We all get together three or four times a year, to focus not only on the work but on the people and the technologies that will drive us even further.

ihaveanidea: Y&R New York is kicking ass. I hear it’s the only US agency to get a Lion this year in Press. Is it because you have your fingerprints on it more than others?

Tony: Hamish and I worked hard to establish New York as a flagship of the network. I focused a lot of energy there, making sure we built the right cast.

ihaveanidea: So what’s next?

Tony: We’re just getting started. One of the things we’re concentrating on is creating content with our clients. I’m confident this is a logical direction to go. And of course we want to build on our award show successes. We were Agency Network of the Year in the New York Festivals and ADC. We’re looking at moving up in the Gunn Report. It’s all about evolving. That’s what Y&R is doing.

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The rest of the Saturday was pretty low-key, as the weight of the week started to take its toll. We all sorta did our own thing that day, with my “thing” being to finally get in some beach time and send a few emails. Met up with Steph as she did some shopping, and while Rafik went to the final night awards, the three of us indulged in a Cannes tradition: dinner at Pizzeria Cresci. Keep your closing gala and fireworks, I’ll settle for the best pizza on the Riviera.

Of course Cannes wouldn’t be complete without one last go at the Gutter Bar, and as per ihaveanidea tradition, the last night is when the King of Cannes dons the white linens, this year set off with a dark orange shirt and matching fedora.

Care for a little rosé? How about a lot of rosé?

Stephanie doing her best ‘deer in the headlights’impression

Former Future Lion and current R/GAer Karen Gereffi, Ignacio and myself. Karen berated me for not cutting my hair in an elaborate pattern this year.

Rafik with 3D master James Stewart of Geneva Films

Now normally this is when I wind up taking a less than sober photograph hugging with David Droga, as I’ve done every year. Unfortunately our paths never crossed paths this year, but I think I did better off this time around.

The King of Cannes with the true Queens of Cannes

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SUNDAY

Can we even call the final Sunday a separate day from Saturday? Steph called it an “early” night on Saturday, leaving the Gutter Bar at about 3 AM, but Rafik had a very early morning train to catch back to Marseille in order to catch a holiday flight to Algiers. Ignacio and I weren’t much better; we didn’t secure a rental car back to Marseille, so we’d be meeting Steph at the train station to catch an 8:00 AM TGV. And so, the troopers that we were, we all stayed at the Gutter Bar until the sun came up and they were hosing down the streets. After our sort of week, they could’ve turned the hoses on us, to wash the figurative grime away.

If there was view to be seen from Cannes to Marseille via the train, we sure as hell didn’t notice. With plush seats and plenty of room to sprawl out, we slept the entire trip. The train was so fast that we eventually got to the airport with three hours to spare. Unfortunately sleep was hard to come by, as all the airlines were having a huge sale that day exclusively for parents with screaming, completely undisciplined children.

Plane. Lots of legroom thanks to Ignacio booking us into the emergency exit rows. Screaming babies. Earplugs. Eight hours later, back in Montreal. Searched by security, who completely ignored the fact that I was over the limit on alcohol — they seemed to be keen on finding illegally imported sausages and foie gras. Into car. Dropped off at home. Trail of clothes to the shower. Trail of towels to the bed. Sleep til Tuesday. Afternoon.