Hello Future

Today everyone arrived at the festival a bit later than usual. That probably had a little something to do with the Microsoft Beach Party last night. I did however manage to catch the 11:30 Saatch & Saatchi New Director’s Showcase and it was like nothing I could have ever expected. There were lights, an electronic music performance, and futuristic digital narrations. The theme was “Hello Future.” Some of the work that was presented was really sharp, but some of it mainly aired on the strange side as opposed to brilliant. My favorite film showed a priest walking into a bedroom where a girl was pressed against the ceiling screaming as if she were possessed. It then clipped to the apartment above her where a woman was vacuuming; which made clear that the force of the vacuum was pulling the girl against the ceiling. The spot was for Dirt Devil, which I thought fit perfectly with the tone of the ad.

I attended my first workshop today, which was interesting, but would have been more relevant if I was actually a part of the global advertising business. I didn’t have any experiences to share with my table.

Our guest speaker was Amr Salama who blew me away with stories of how he began his directing career and how he played a serious role in the recent revolution in Egypt. He also made clear to me the vast importance of social media vehicles like Facebook in making messages (especially important, revolutionary ones) travel faster and accomplish more in a shorter period of time. He was truly inspirational and I admire him greatly.

The story you could be watching is better than the one you're in. (commercial critique 1)

One of the campaigns I watched was for HBO Go. It contained several different ads, and contained two different taglines. The first tag was, “The story you could be watching is better than the one you’re in.” One of the spots featured three individuals standing in an elevator discussing how their weekends were. They each keep finding ways to restate that they wished that their weekend had been longer. Then, the tagline appears, “The story you could be watching is better than the one you’re in.”

I thought the spot was incredibly clever, and the writing for the tagline was effective at explaining the message of the commercial. As far as production techniques, the elevator scene was most likely filmed on a small set, since the setting was not incredibly detailed. The spot mostly focused on the boring and worthless dialogue going on between three individuals in an elevator who really had nothing to say to each other. It then highlighted how HBO would make your life better and entertain you instead of getting stuck in boring scenarios.

As far as ways to improve the commercial, perhaps the message would have been more effective in a setting where someone would realistically be watching TV on a tablet. Most people aren’t watching a program when they walk into an elevator. In two of the other spots for this campaign, the characters are in a waiting room and a bus, which I believe are more believable.

Middle of the Week

Today we spent most of the day in personal interviews that our (wonderful) professors set up for us. First was Jennifer Frommer from interscope records who actually made music marketing and promotions seem very appealing to me. I had never considered who matched brands with musical artists, but I was very lucky to have met someone who could give me a better understanding of it.

Next was David Simon who writes the shows the Wire and Treme on HBO. I will admit, some of his presentation was a bit over my head, but overall he came across as an intelligent thinker who understood how to match commercials with different television shows. He was interesting, but I think my father (age 63) would have been more on his level conversationally. I was afraid I’d ask a silly question.

Allison Adren gave the next presentation and shed some light onto the situation at Advertising Age. However, what I found most interesting was her discussion on becoming a successful woman in this industry. I dare say she sounded a bit more realistic about it than Martha Stewart did. She gave me hope of one day becoming a successful woman in the field.

Finally, I did manage to get into one of the planned seminars for one of my favorite agencies, Leo Burnett. They talked about sincerity and the language of advertising. Examples ranged from Gandhi to Fiat. All of their projects seem to keep very closely to the message their company tries to project – the importance of purpose and acts.

Living the Young Lion Dream

Today I attended many seminars, the first three including prestigious names such as Fiat, Martha Stewart, and Robert Redford. On top of that I was privileged to hear from some professionals from Porter Novelli New York, Fitzgerald and Co., and Fleishman Hillard.

Overall this was my most memorable day so far. Martha Stewart explained the importance of viewing a job merely as a job, and not one for women or men exclusively. Robert Redford introduced the idea of originality and the value of storytelling.

The speakers from Porter Novelli were interesting as well, even if one doesn’t care to pursue a career in public relations (and I don’t). However, they did impart some useful advice about being knowledgeable about many different subjects. Afterwards, Noelle from Fitzgerald shared his story and how he came to be where he is today.

At the very end of the day, we attended presentations from Coca Cola and Hill and Knowlton representing Angry Birds. Though the Coca Cola presentation was visually stimulating, it didn’t really teach me anything new. Also, while the Angry Birds presentation was interesting, I had already learned much of this information from Peter Vesterbacka the night before. He seriously recommended standing out and focusing on having fans rather than consumers.

To sum up the evening, we headed over to the Young Lions Party (three free drink chips upon entry). There we danced, I finally got to interview someone from Spain, and we took a Mercedes limousine home to Juan les Pins. As it would seem, we’re living the dream down here in the French Riviera.

Angry Birds.. maybe

Today, I attended the BBDO Worldwide seminar first. It was much more interesting than I would have expected, since the description said it would be about making a billion dollars. It ended up focusing on how different screens affect different people in their different lives, depending on age and nationality. I especially found it funny that they compared a cell phone to a lover, but really it’s true. A cell phone is the first thing most people reach for in the morning.

Next, was Malcolm Gladwell’s talk about not being first, but third. He was an excellent storyteller, but I actually already knew the story he told. His talk, however, gave me a better perspective on how unconventional principles relate to advertising. Speaking of unconventional, the phd presentation talked about a lot of far-fetched futuristic ideas. It was interesting, but too much at times.

Eventually after touring Microsoft, I ended up at the Google beach party. This was probably the highlight of the day, considering I got business cards from people at Google and from Angry Birds. It was much easier to network with people in a friendly setting like that. The Angry Birds people came with us to another party, and Peter Vesterbacka actually ended up being a speaker for tomorrow.  They may or may not have offered me an internship as well. We’ll see how it plays out. In any event, it will surely be a very interesting connection…

First Post/Day at the Cannes Lions Festival

Well here goes the first post, which happens to coincide with the first day of the festival. Though I didn’t get there as early as some, (cough... Whitney) I arrived in Cannes bright and early, ready to start off the day. After checking out the Young Lion Zone and tagging UGA rather obnoxiously on the wall of the HP white space, I headed into the first seminar of the day.

Goviral gave a presentation that stressed the importance of long term branding, and compared it to football in an analogy used throughout the entire presentation. It was an interesting presentation and a good start to the festival. A second speaker then compared good branding to religion. Apparently, the same area of the brain is activated when a loved brand or a religion is thought about. That was definitely interesting to me.

After the first seminar ended, we talked to Susan Lilley from USA Today about how to make the most of the festival. She also shed some light on women’s situation in the advertising world and recommended Martha Stewart’s seminar (one I had already planned on attending).

After that, I grabbed a panini and headed into another seminar; this one was given by UM, Loreal, and BMW. Overall, the panel was very hard to follow, and at times it felt like the speakers weren’t really answering the questions. It was definitely overshadowed by the presentation that followed.

The Independent Agency Showcase was really interesting, and I honestly wish I had caught up with the speakers after instead of staying to hear one of the Jonas brothers speak. All three of them stressed making people nervous, steering away from “looking like an ad,” and above all, where big agencies focus on pleasing the client, independent agencies focus on making great ads. They all showed examples of their work, and I was truly blown away. I got some contact info, so maybe we will meet again during the festival.

After that performance, the imc² presentation couldn’t really measure up, and I was very tired by the time I made it to the Fleishman-Hillard seminar. I did, however, think that the use of mobile to help vaccinate African children against pneumonia was a very innovative idea. I also admired the enthusiasm of the speaker from livingsocial.com.

Overall, it was a successful day, and I am officially exhausted. I think tonight will consist entirely of relaxing and preparing for another exciting day tomorrow. I need to save myself for all of those agency parties later in the week that I’m somehow going to find my way into.