REAL TALK: Pushing Creativity Outside your Lane

give me stuff we're good okay fantastic so good morning Friday Inkwell grab a drink grab a seat so we have got a great panel uh in my humble opinion it's probably the strongest panel of the whole of the week and you guys are the heart there you go there you go and you guys are the real crew you're the real ones that stay to the very end so I appreciate all of you and I appreciate the panel so we're going to talk about creativity obviously we're at Cairns we understand the agenda but we're going to talk about specifically how we push creativity right there's so many makers out there technology is now normalized there's so many opportunities brands are getting involved in creating different experiences what are the creative leaders of our Industries thinking about this so we're going to have that discussion my name is Justin Thomas Copeland I am a founder and CEO of multiple agencies but it's really about the crew so I'm going to ask everyone to just say a couple of words their name and what they do over to you hola good people my name is Danny Jackson Smith I am the founder of a creative management agency called the creators I represent artists that are rooted in culture and social impact and so that's where I thrive and I'm excited to be here on this panel with everybody today hi everybody I'm Tiff Ralph I'm the chair and Global CCO of RGA which is more of a oh yeah I I brought all of my agency here to support me um and I actually I'm excited to talk about creativity I've been coming to Canada this is my 20th year which is wild and um and it's been interesting to see all the changes and new technologies and shifts in how we do work so we're going to talk a little bit about that today and I'm passing the mic good morning everyone my name's Oriole Davis lines um for the past five months I've been Chief creative officer of mother New York uh before that I in previous lives I was at Spotify I was uh did some time at droga and also at IGA um so uh yeah hello all hello old friends hi hi I'm Andreas um I brought some people too I'm the global CEO at gut I used to be at ddb Chicago Sachi New York before that and I'm really excited to be here thank you for inviting me morning everybody I'm uh Etsy Davies I'm the Chief Operating Officer across dentsu's grave agency Network for Europe Middle East and Africa hello good morning my name is Olivia Henry I guess I'm the only French here so welcome in France I feel a bit alone because I'm the only French but yeah I'm creative director at BBC Sport and I used to work only in France on in Paris come to Paris beautiful city excellent all right let's get into this so as we were thinking about the panel um and we were thinking about creativity I think that one of the things that we can all agree on is it's time to really and continue to push the creativity that we develop into new areas there's too much opportunity there's too much Tech there's too much desire um for us to stay where we've always been in order to push anything and to evolve agendas you've got to be brave and one of the quotes that was really sort of driving some of my thinking was this from Maya Angelou my favorite author and she speaks about courage she says that courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently if we're going to be creative and continue to be the epicenter of the creative industry we have to be brave so we're going to look at that across Talent products in the boardroom and also technology so let's just get into it we're going to talk about talent because Talent is always the most important thing I think without the people in the talent you don't have anything I'm going to ask this question to um Oriel given your background with the one school I know you're looking at me like I can't believe you called me out but I did um so when you think about creativity and you think about the talent that you have how far do you think we've come in created in your creative department and ones that you've worked of bringing the right type of talent to really drive and fire up new types of creativity and evolve the creative product how how do you think we're doing I think we're doing better than we were right um I'd say three four years ago I look around I had lunch actually at the beginning of the week with uh 12 young people young professionals um who are coming up through a program called the creative ladder right and that is a program that didn't exist or it was launched a year ago right at Khan um the one school which I co-founded with the the one club is three years old and now some of our first students are here and winning gold Lions um shout out Barbara so there is progress right you can you can see it just here as you walk up and down um there are ways into the industry that didn't exist previously right and we need as many doors as possible right and we have to make sure that once people are in they're able to kind of flourish and Thrive and I think that's the kind of next step of the conversation that we probably need to focus on is okay once this Talent is in the industry and in the building uh how are we building you know the systems the environment for them to thrive knowing that they're not necessarily coming from uh traditional Avenues right and I think that's probably the work that we've done less of you know as an industry I think we've been very focused on the very first part of the pipeline but I think the shift now needs to happen is okay how do we make sure that pipeline goes all the way up to you know this stage right great actually I'm going to pick up on something you just said you spoke about non-traditional people getting access to the industry Danny I'd like to for you to take this one to start you've got a fantastic proposition I Met You in Chicago you took me through some of the talent that you manage um talent that I had never come across before and I think your idea is Super Fresh and needed in the industry to do just that bring different types of people can you tell us a little bit about the types of talent you have how you attract them and how they Thrive to Orioles point yeah um look my background is in production so I've had the luxury of working with a variety of types of people and we understand that art and culture are languages it's how we connect with people if you don't have connection you don't have work you know um and so that's sort of the standpoint that I take how do you want to connect with people we connect through our senses this is a central industry so sight touch taste sound and I look at folks that are at the top tier of what they do and how they connect with people so I've got folks from directors and photographers um one of my photographers Danielle Austin shoots for Gucci but we I met her as an intern at Leo Burnett through a program that I helped curate called blink canvas where that whole purpose to do uh that recruiting process was throw a party invite a bunch of dope people to come you don't need uh to have gone to any particular AD school to get in but you are a maker right so you're a poet or a writer or a rapper or a painter and I've carried that same type of passion through to what I'm doing today so I'm not looking at folks that have necessarily all the alkalades I'm looking for the best talent that really speaks to people in a particular type of way and then I'm looking at people that really are committed to making a social impact so I have an artist named Shala akintunde who is a solar artist right so he creates monuments like the one he has in Chicago which is a solar pyramid that are not only beautiful right because art can be very beautiful and just having Beauty in a neighborhood can uplift the neighborhood but also pour back functionally into the neighborhoods that they serve I could go down a list of artists that I represent but I think the the main core threat is that culture and that commitment to social impact and creating some sort of change Tiff if I could uh pick up on something that Danny just said which is uh the different types of artists and creative products and when I think about RGA for many years RGA was bringing new types of Creative Solutions to Market were they ideas were they products were there platforms were there all three tell us a little bit about the talent that you've been bringing in um and how you keep them engaged to keep pushing your product and your brand forward how do you do that through a talent perspective yeah I mean from the beginning um RGA has always been about bringing different types of talent together that might not have normally been together I think that's you know both um has always been a strength but it's also the challenge right and that's what we're all trying to do is how do you bring together different kinds of backgrounds different kinds of skill sets um because when you when you put people together whether it's a you know a creator that was more of an artist background but you put them with a technologist or maybe you're just putting them together with someone that grew up in a different country it's really those different perspectives that is what leads to new what leads to new ideas it's the intersections of that thinking that that leads to new ideas and for me even though yes there's output of of what appears to be comms or a product I think where it gets most interesting is when you blend those things when you bring the thinking that you wouldn't have expected bring someone that has worked in comms into a product experience bring product people into comms because maybe the threat is that they're all an experience of some sort and I think we have to be looking at work through the lens of context especially you know where they find something where they come across you know work it's always got some different context a platform that it's on the culture that it's within that moment and you have to really think about things as a holistic experience no matter what the output is and so having those different thinkers to look at it through that a different lens is where I think you get the most interesting work and and I think that's a lot at least coming to RJ and I think why we all come to this industry is you want to learn from different types of people you you don't want to come in and kind of keep doing the same things you've always done it's about curiosity it's about learning and um and sometimes I think we can think it's easier to keep things clean and say you do this and you do that and that's more efficient and you know that's how we move things along to make sure things get done a certain way because they know exactly how to do it but that's where you lose the match right if you're not putting some people together that might not you know know it you come into it with a totally different look and view whether it's a young person coming into that process and I think that's what attracts will continue to attract people and and make them want to work in the business you know if we don't if we allow that that blend of of thinking the number one thing that people always say most agencies it's always the talent the people you come in you learn from others um and so for us it's it's really because we do all those things it's always been about very intentional intersection of thinking and that and and the kind of thinking it is just keeps evolving new technologies new types of work new people from different backgrounds I love it I'm going to pick up on something you just said the intersectionality right and you're thinking Olivier so Sports is now has always been a thing with Brands but we've had Decades of badging things and now we talk about experience with sports and sports personalities are connecting can you talk a little bit about some of the work you do how your talent helps you to understand how Brands can have a a relevant and a credible place with um you know Sports artists Sports personalities what's the role of a brand and how are you doing that and how's Talent helping you to do that with authenticity you know it's it's not it's not that that easy actually but I think that the key is just to make people think that don't do something for me don't do something for the client do something for yourself you know even in sports because you know Sports is about it's like music it's only emotions pure emotions but every kind of emotions it could be Joy it could be fear it could be angry do it do it you we always find a way to correct to re-adapt or to rewrite but do it and sometimes you know for sports because Sports now is massive but the problem is that we have a little problem here in France because we are pretty good in sports but when it comes to marketing Communications we're not that good I mean using sports or athletes so that's why I keep pushing my creative saying do something for you because you know looking at adenbape is fantastic so I'm not saying that you you need to be the next time but you need to do something so emotional exactly like the way you watch mbappe you know yeah it helps a lot it helps a lot got it beautiful so moving on we're going to talk more about product and some of the magic that's made uh and ete I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a bit of a run up my friend so uh you've got a few seconds but product is is obviously everything we think about and it's everything that we are awarded for I wanted to show you something from a friend of mine um you probably know um Marcus Marcus has written the book If you haven't read the book get the book but he talks about on the left don't do advertising create a cultural product right we hear a lot about culture in our industry and on the right are some of the examples that he talks about experiences music fashion film food content art the list goes on when you think about you run densu creative across the region Emir is of multifaceted region right so there is never going to be one product that will satisfy everything how do you think about the evolution of your product getting into culture being relevant how are you doing that at density what's your journey what are you up to my friend um I mean in truth we're still going through it the Network's only recently been built but building on the points that Tiff and Oriole made before you have I mean it's about people right and Danny said it before it's about um communication and connecting with people and understanding languages and you know sort of inherent motivations uh within culture I always think and a lot of the points we've been talking about is the creativity we make is it's a combination of imagination and collaboration the sort of imagination of the different perspectives different backgrounds different cultures and then them collaborating to make something new so what we are doing across Dental creative with Emir is we are essentially trying to remove the barriers between our different teams and you know different offices so drive more of that imagination and collaboration not just within the agency because there are some obvious things which is culturally you know some of the markets collaboration isn't something that is naturally leaned into there's a lot of process within the organization and they just don't know each other right so the connecting people around shared ambition interests passions and having them Define the product but also collaborating with people outside of the agency whether they are creators whether it is new technology platforms just encouraging experimentation and collaboration and then seeing how the products kind of evolves uh through that beautiful on on that point I think one of the things we should talk about is clients right what's the client's appetite for approving uh welcome in your push if we're going to go across the lines and get them to evolve Andrea I'm going to put this to you um I believe that I believe that gut may have had quite a good week um but the client is also part of that part of that uh conundrum right how do you get the clients to also want to push the the barriers talk to us a little bit about that from from your perspective Andrew so it's interesting because um I arrived at God I don't know eight months ago and they told me we were an agency that it was a brave Agency for brave clients so um the clients that work with us are pretty brave because we push them a lot and we make them do things that have never been done before in speeds that you know and in timing that has never been done before um some are you know it's a scale we always tell them it's a skill because they get very you know sometimes a little scared about bravery but we tell them it's at scale and so you can be at one and what we'll try to do and take you at three to three or five but we cannot do it if they don't you know want to play with us they have to be in the room with us so what I found um in the last eight months is we work very close with the clients we have WhatsApp groups with the clients right so it's WhatsApp groups it's like I have this idea and then interactive and then they feel part of the idea and then they build and if they build with you they'll they'll do it they'll do it most of the time they'll do it and clients uh do they co-create in those WhatsApp groups like are they is that where the process goes to yes work lots of groups with the clients they're in there a lot of the creatives and the clients have direct relationships which is different than I've been used to sometimes where you have you know an account person no you have to talk to me first this is you have to you have to find the space like what's happening what's happening right you know so I asked to be included in the WhatsApp group excellent Tiff I'd love to just build on that um what is your creative process and and how do you work with clients because from my understanding the range of solutions has historically always been broad at RGA so help us understand how clients are involved in that and how they become champions of that or if there are challenges what they are and how you overcome them um well I mean yeah we I think people most of our clients at least have a perception of RGA that we're going to bring them something new they're going to see some new technology that they haven't seen we're gonna show them you know how to how to build something that might not have been built so there's a at least a usually a base level of we're gonna we're gonna get something from you that is going to push us or help us you know see a new technology in a new way so there's there's at least that good and I think the point of like defining yourself as a brave Agency for brave clients you're starting to create a little bit of a filter when you come through the door so I think it's really important that you know when you're connecting in with clients you're getting the the right types of clients they understand what it means to work with you so there aren't surprises along the way um and and we you know we have clients that come in in a lot of different doors um because a lot of times people and clients are looking for a thing they need they think they need a you know I need a website I need a campaign um and and that might pull them in but I think what is interesting Dean and what they see you know when they work with us after that is that it is looking at it differently right um we'll look at a you know Communications a campaign but we have experienced people that are going to help you think about what that journey of the of experiencing that campaign might look like or a product that actually operates as as a brand expression when typically you know maybe they they needed it for this one user utility um and so you know but that's a learning process and and part of it is the you know sharing along the way I think the point of bringing them in is really important there are no longer there were times you know when I was starting out in my career and it felt a little bit like we would surprise the clients I think Mad Men train people badly too it's like it's just a Madman going away to a coffee shop or having a whiskey and a cigarette and coming back with the brilliant idea and I think like you know that's not how it works anymore like things things are so much more complicated you know and there's all kinds of different Technologies needed you need even the tech now is as much talking to Legal people and you know we're dealing talking about ethics issues and HR is involved in a product thing and I think the you know you have to bring people together bring people um in the room together understand the process fewer surprises but still delight and excitement along the way um and part of it is that it it's not it's never a finite idea I think we talk about ideas as this finite thing like I had this idea and then I made this idea but ideas are never like I want to do a whole presentation I talked to someone about this yesterday on just showing what the first version of every idea was because it never looks like what it ends up in some and it it often gets better if you're not careful with understanding at the core what is that idea trying to do what is it solving then those ideas can get lost and that's when I bad ideas can happen so you have to really understand what the core is without it being the actual a little literal execution because it will change and it needs to change and it's having you know being in the process and changing with the clients um and you know and trusting each other that you're going to make these decisions along the way to get to the the best outcome um and so that's what you know we try to do is open up that that experience and that Journey To Build Together got it got it so as you think about the possibilities of creativity and again I refer to some of the lists that Marcus gave does anything scare you guys as creative leaders in terms of keeping up understanding it being able to sell it it having a business impact any of the above or anything else what makes you nervous around your product and the breadth of your product I'm going to start with you Danny because you've got a collective so maybe we'll start there and maybe Olivia if you could follow on just to talk to us about any fears anything that's preoccupy in your mind with your breadth of creative portfolio and product yeah I think right now nervous isn't the feeling that I have you know um I'm excited I think it's a very exciting time there are a lot of opportunities on the table not just around the people right and the creative that can be made but with the technology as well um and also looking at when we connect to what the needs of people are it opens up the languages that we can speak and so like here what I always get excited about is what's the experience what's the experience that we're wanting to connect what's the collaboration that we're wanting to bring forth um with our clients so we try to do a lot of listening and understand like where our clients in their mind where are they in their bravery you know as was said earlier like some clients are at a one some clients are more so out of ten and then curating the right Partnerships to help our clients actually connect to the right experiences so that they can actually make an impact on people so that's what I get excited about it's not you know let me throw every artist at you it's like let me listen let me learn how to meet your needs and understand what's the best artistic strategy to help both of us win yeah maybe there's something I can add is just don't forget the fan because you know will be sad we're doing things you we know we'll keep taking thinking and thinking and thinking but don't forget the fun it has to be fun and fun for you first so that's why we use how can be how can we have fun by making this living this sharing this explaining this fun because you know it's only advertising we're not supposed to you know bold people I love that I love that fun we were actually talking about this before we came on um I'm gonna ask you to pick up an Andrea this is definitely one for you so so fun right I believe that part of our role is to get the clients excited make them feel fun get the teams to feel that energy around the work talk to us about how you create that environment of fun right we're not just internally with the clients and Andrea I want you to to share some of your jewels as well in that area good question I'm glad you came to me first on that one um well I actually want to go back to the point you said before around um what's terrifying me in the topic of fun yeah not necessarily terrifying but problematic particularly in Europe is that um when we're making work a lot of our clients are very obsessed with research and how things perform in testing and to a certain extent that ends up being who you are crafting the work with or how the creative work evolves rather than the kind of clients uh leaning in um so sort of bringing it back to the point of kind of finding Olivia's Point around pushing bravery through that and actually bringing people back to the point of um what we're making is advertising in part of it is to deliver a message or create an experience but it should be enjoyable it should be something that kind of connects people it should be using hope as a motivator as opposed to sort of you know fear and pain because we know we have to address those things whether we're creating an experience but you will compel people to do things much more for your brand if they're inspired and you know if there's some hope or magic in it and so within our teams a lot of that is bringing people out to to can obviously enjoying the parties and the rest of it but seeing the work and seeing the ambition and the potential that's kind of out there because when you're on the grind trying to get the work through particularly if it's through testing or whatever challenges it can get demotivating to your point if where the idea started and sometimes where it ends isn't exactly where you wanted it to end but I think you know even if you're not making yourself reappointing people to what is possible you know and not losing sight of the fact actually great work can be made it can be an enjoyable experience to do it and then taking that back into the clients going look what we what we can make really shapes culture it makes people connect with each other it you know useful products you know Services um and just makes people smile and you know you can go back and be proud about it so it's a lot of that sort of replaying people back to what is enjoyable about this industry um in terms of the work that we make the people that you get to work with the things you get to learn I love that Andrea talk to us about your book of fun how do you do that so listen I think the world is so complicated and the clients are so complicated and the businesses are so complicated that if we don't have fun we're all just gonna die that's what I think so um I think that what gets in the way of fun a lot is I I have two two things that I would say is one what gets in the way of fun is worrying and is the most useless like useless feeling that you can have because you can't do anything about it it's gonna happen or it happened already oh you lost a client all right what do we do next so in action versus worrying is is better right so and that helps you have more fun so if everybody's worried at the agency you know then you don't have fun so that's one thing and the other thing is that we celebrate everything everything thank you day off everybody goes crazy two we want to count yeah you know it's it's it's the celebration of everything that gets everybody it's contagious funny is contagious and people are having fun you attract Talent you keep Talent people want to work with you clients want to work with you I mean clients come to agencies to have fun their work I don't think their work is as exciting as ours I I don't think so maybe it is but it's they come to us to have fun and if we're going to be like them oh awful so we try to to have fun and laugh all as much as we can and not take everything so serious like you don't know if you're going to be here tomorrow right so at least you die laughing right love that love that so so Oriole um the counterbalance to everything we just heard which I completely subscribed to is there's a serious world of business right and the accountability of creativity talk to me a little bit about how you balance those worlds right having amazing Creative Solutions that are driving business how do you as a creative leader where's your focus and how do you inspire teams to make sure that you don't lose the business element of whatever solution you're creating how does that work for you I was going to talk about fun but now business is important too um no I think I'm you know I I do want us to have fun but I want us to make an impact and I think you know for me um I think the best work kind of exists at the edges right you can be kind of loved or hated but I think the worst thing is to be forgotten so for me I'm kind of always filtering the work as like you know will this make it into someone's feed will this make an impact because I think if you can if you if you are if you're kind of organically showing up where people are already looking and in places that people care about then I think the business impact is not far behind that you know but I I do think um you know that the hardest job to do is to Aspire or to kind of try and Achieve levels of creative Excellence right that also uh shifts you know like make meaningful shifts for for businesses I think like I've been judging uh for two I was judging for two days and the work that we were looking at and the work that we awarded the highest uh was I think the the main reason was because it proved that you can be exceptionally creative with two of the oldest mediums actually it was an outdoor campaign that became a radio campaign um and it was for a business that I think most people would struggle to find something new to talk about right and I think that kind of as a level to Aspire to for creatives is really important you know um because sometimes I think we can we can we can say it's it's it's too difficult right I can take a I can aim for a creative Target that's closer to me right but I think when you can hit that Target that does it all um it's a great feeling so I I want to hold up those examples you know I want to hold them up uh internally you know for us at mother um and just prove that it is possible but um I think it's it's always on my mind right how will this really make an impact tool who will give a you know and and as we think about sort of the impacts and clients and what they're asking for technology has come up all over this week I'm not going to refer to uh gbt but I do want to talk about technology broadly right how are you guys integrating technology how is it helping you to drive better work different work how is it helping you to stay connected to communities that's come up up here if you're going to be pushing outside of your Lane I believe technology can help in a number of ways right as well as being business accountable because you can create business models from direct connection with consumers how are you guys leveraging technology to really help you push out into new areas what does that look like in your respective agencies I want to start with you Tiff um and then let's say if you wouldn't mind just giving us a voice in that as well um yeah I mean it's it's pretty much core to what we do I I personally believe technology and creativity are kind of inseparable I mean even if you just like go back to the beginning of time you know it was like our creativity always had some sort of tool for expression because we have this insatiable need to either personally Express or Express stories of our culture um you know from printing press to TV to what you know it just as new technology has always come out it's always been this opportunity for humans to figure out how to leverage it to push the creativity um and to do new things and so um it's just never even been a question in my mind that like as a new technology comes out it's like our job as creative people to to figure it out you know to experiment with it to play with it um and to and to build new things with it um and so you know our job especially where I am at RGA is we have to be always out in front experimenting it I personally I know there's fear around technology I've I'm a um someone told me I was an optimistic futurist um I guess and part of that is I believe that it's our job as creative people to to make the technology into the thing we want it to be I mean you know when you're afraid of tech and you just want to wait to see what happens I guarantee you it's not going to turn out probably the way you want and so I think it's our um it's our you know obligation as as creative people to find ways to make it this amazing human expression and tool to do a lot of different things um and we have to always be experimenting it's you know you you go down paths you you don't know what it is yet and you see that with technology there's like a there's a curve where you know initially there's a lot of rush to it um and maybe speculation and some things we saw you know we've seen different Trends over the years whether I remember when I've been in this business a long time and I started out as a web programmer designer you know internet the 90s when everyone thought the internet was a trend and it was you know one thing and it became another thing and it led to new Innovations and you know that's the exciting thing is we don't know what they are yet as they come out but part of our job is to play make mistakes um you know do a bunch of nfts that maybe no one uses or whatever part of it is that experimentation and then we find the things that are really meaningful with the core of of that technology can be for people and then build from that and that's you know that's what I think my job is every day and that's what we we try to do consistently I agree with Tiff encouraging um experimentation and building a culture around that um at the network level there is an unhealthy obsession with particularly Ai and how it's going to deliver scale and profitability um can I just ask on that is that an efficiency discussion or is that a creativity discussion a question it's both a little bit um and what it is creating is a slight panic I think across the creative community and ultimately the people right because it is the whole is AI going to take our jobs the rest of it and so a lot of what we're trying to do is the creative leaders within the creative service line of dental is actually trying to again repoint the conversation to what the creative potential of the technology is yeah okay the efficiency productivity thing is going to happen and the business is always going to look at that but how do we actually use it to make better work for our clients that it becomes that Force multiplier to Orioles point in terms of the effectiveness of work for their business and how it gives them you know category shifts and you know ongoing kind of success and in order to do that and also not just say or do the same thing that everybody's doing with the technology we're really sort of focusing on looking at like underserved groups or underserved communities because they're already hacking tons of systems and using Technologies and interesting ways to do that so if you plug into those groups and you collaborate with them and you get ideas you actually start to take your creativity particularly with technology to new use cases and new places which are not which are beyond the obvious but that is that sort of 10 Innovation space that actually works for everybody so that's what we've tried to push the teams to do a lot more and our clients as well Andrea I don't know if you you do this but I'd love to get your perspective being an independent you probably have a different conversation than maybe a network a creative leader in terms of what you can do with technology how flexible how quickly how much you can play how are you got an oriole I'd love to get your perspective at mother another independent how are you thinking about technology how is it enhancing your work can you just share anything you've done recently um as just uh an example of how you guys are embracing it or not if you see differently listen I it's it's a tool like any other right so um I think when I don't understand our technology I say I don't understand it and so I go to a young ones because I'm like their parents take their age more or less of their parents so it's like hey I don't understand this and I sit with the young kids and then they explain it to me and it's really exciting right they're using it every day so you know it's it's it says we were talking before right how do you keep up I have to keep up if not I can't be in the conversation I just can't be in the conversation I won't understand the ideas so to the question of are we using it everybody is all our you know all our creative Talent all our young Talent is using it every day and if you don't use it you're not you're not going to keep up simple as that and sometimes we train clients on it sometimes clients train us on it sometimes we bring people to train us on it um and I try to go to all the trainings just to learn a little bit too got it Oreo what what are your thoughts um yeah I agree I think we we're already using it um we're investing in training right we want to get everyone to at least the same level of like proficiency um do you have groups in your agency that do that do you have people that are who are accountable to train and there's real accountability or is it more organic we well no we can bring in like external Partners like people who kind of can help run those you know and facilitate those kinds of those kinds of trainings um and then we talk about it a lot but I think uh the conversation that you know we have internally is that it is just a tool and in fact it puts a premium I think back on creativity you know so for us it's it's now the time is to figure out how to use these tools but also double down on I think the original Source right of of creativity and for example if you're an art director and you know you've really invested in your craft and and you have a deep well of references to pull from then you know you will be able to get to more interesting things on Mid Journey right uh so I think for us it's about actually doubling down on what it is that makes us unique which is our ability to connect dots that you know AI wouldn't right it's our it's our cultural awareness right that uh chat gbt can't understand you know so as much as we talk about the tech and we use it um we spend I think more time talking about what is the original source of creativity and what are the human insights that are going to drive how we use that Tech got it beautiful Danny your Collective tell us a little bit about how you are resourced and how you stay connected to what is new what is fresh how do you stay inspired because you've got a group of people that are sort of living in subcultures all the time right uh you could potentially fall prey of the shiny object because you've already seen new how are you understanding what's new and will drive great Creative Solutions for clients how do you stay inspired and filter what's the next thing or the thing that you should focus on how does that work for you yeah I think it's a nice balance of uh as we say keeping your ear to the street but also understanding what is really meaningful and what creates meaning and so there's always going to be some new technology some new thing that you can pick up and try or somebody's gonna say you know this app is out this out app is in or you know something of that nature um but what is it actually doing for the people that we're serving who are the communities that we're actually trying to talk to and communicate with and and what's our goal and that always makes the difference maybe there is a moment where we want to jump on the shiny new trendy thing because it actually makes an impact um but other other times you know the tried and true Arc of Storytelling is what's most important who are the people what are the stories we're trying to tell um and I think it's been said here I try to keep a nice roster of young people I'm actually going back home to Chicago this week to tutor Elementary School uh children right um and it's interesting to think about like how much I can learn in an internship with someone that's in eighth grade because what they're seeing uh at that level is very different than the Gen Z crowd that's you know in high school or you know in college or Millennials X Y or Z so I just try to stay really in tune with a variety of people young older you know intergenerational relationships all of that matters in poison to the storytelling and it also matters for my curation of the talent that I work with so I don't like when you look at our roster it's not just like hey it's the you know latest tick tocker you know we do have influencers that are very influential on Tick Tock Instagram things of that nature but we also have seasoned veterans um in Fine Arts we have seasoned veterans um my artist John Jennings is a New York Times best-selling graphic novelist known for adapting Octavia Butler um Series right Kindred and Parabola the sower that means it takes time right to grow some Perfection um and then being able to really find those nuggets across Generations I think makes the work better and helps us to serve our clients better I love that I want to go back to the community the effect of our work I know you have a very social socially driven agenda for the work you do I want to talk to you Olivier about sports because when we think about creativity I think it should affect the communities in a positive way Sports is a definite vehicle for doing that and it's growing the amount of tie-ups the amount of investment is just ballooning how do you stay connected to the communities how does the work that your teams do have an effect on the communities how do you see that through the through the lens of sports and the work you do uh because you know there is something really interesting about sports let's say for instance that football not soccer guys football uh it's like you know a Common Language so you can unify you can express yourself by using you know football for instance but even if it's not football it's Sports so when you think about a community and when you think about people who are you know really passionate about the sport I'm not saying it easy but it helps a lot it helps to you know bring people together because for instance we lost the last final you know over the Argentina it was sad it was sad but I know what Argentinian people will get think I know that how French people think and you know it's the same actually so when you think about community and when you think about sports there is something interesting because it's people cheer people chant people do something really human so you know basically for instance in Paris if you think about I mean the football club yep it's easy to to to start a conversation because you have people who like the club and people who dislike the club but anyways they're talking you know so it's for me it's it's the it's a pure joy of working with sports and and for uh Brands like you know uh sponsors or stuff like that it is my opinion got it so as we finish up I wanted to ask you all and we can go one by one if you think about pushing creativity in your respective agendas coming away from can being inspired not by the not just by the work but hopefully by the young Talent that's here there's so much talent what is the one thing that you're going to commit to as you think about pushing the creative agenda for your respective organizations with your teams what are you going to do what are you taking back what are you pushing forward help us understand that we'll start with you Danny yeah my main goal coming from here to push the work forward is uh authentic connection right and so again as you said like there's a lot of amazing talent amazing people and so when you think about the authentic connection we're looking beyond our titles we're looking beyond the places that we work or where we're from and looking at what makes us tick and how we relate to each other and elevating those things elevating those commonalities um and I think that's what makes the work better and that's what makes Society better you know it creates a space for us to actually um build Bridges so that's what I'm taking away yeah there there's a lot happening right now in the world our clients are under intense pressure around economics I I'm you know personally really freaked out about some of the things that we've been seeing with marketers getting targeted and attacked for taking risks around their values um which means it's much harder to be brave if there's personal you know your life's at stake in some way maybe we will die Andrea but can you just stay on that point though that's a really important point what's your what's your feeling on that right because as much as we want to push outside our lane there are the world's different yeah right and energies build up really quickly that are not always for the good yeah right and clients are humans that sometimes can be targeted what's your what's your thought on that I mean I think we have to be this is where we we as creative people and we didn't get too much into this but like we have to understand the business we have to understand what the clients are going through we under have to understand what's it at stake because risk is always about some sort of sacrifice and some sort of risk where something's at stake and I think you have to go well you know what are the stakes that are worth it and then how do you not you can't just throw a wild idea out there and put all the risks and ex you know it's a lot on a client to make that call and it comes back to them it does come back to us but it even more comes back to them and I think you have to be you know even closer you have to not be you know not do it out of like oh I just wanted to win an award but like not really think of the outcome and then how do we partner with clients partner with each other so that we can still do those Brave ideas push to really represent you know the values and stand for something but I think we have to be really aware of like what's around us in the world and the context what like even an idea that might be fine yesterday might not be fine tomorrow the real time of how we have to think about our work and and it can't be in a bubble in a vacuum you need different people looking at it you know it's important we do this a lot where we when there's any kind of flag and work along the way we we bring people together who are people that are especially knowledgeable about about that or have a background from you know a culture and we bring it together and we talk about it because we don't all always see all the things and so that's where I think just us working across bringing different people and thinking and really trust building that trust through understanding of what what's happening and also um what the clients are are giving up by taking on some of these Brave ideas and and how we help them through it I love that excellent Oreo what are you pushing what are the things that you're going to be taking back um and the considerations I wanna I wanna keep building you know mother mother New York mother the family um into a platform for a new generation of creatives and creativity right um I want it to be a place where people can come and kind of reach their fullest potential in a way they maybe can't otherwise right and you know my role is to kind of set the bar of what we like consider great creative great you know creative excellence and how people get over that bar is then up to them and uh you know for me it's kind of the journey I'm on and now uh it's the journey that mother's on um and hopefully uh other people will join us so I love it Andrea so isn't I there's there's many ways to push creativity I think that what I try to focus on personally and with the agency is I think you have to have a balance of um how the young Talent is thinking but also what has happened in the past right so I can you know it's you have to study the world of communications and advertising like I really sit and study what happened 20 years ago I remember every year after I come from Canada I look at everything that one and everything that didn't win and and because it inspires you and it gives you a lot of knowledge so yes the young Talent come up with really good ideas and really new ways of doing things and if you mix that with what we know um and what has happened before it's magic you can create Magic right so it's like an idea pops up and it's simple and the Simplicity of it comes maybe from it's something that's been done before many many times it just has a little new thing that you put from what's happening today so I encourage people to be curious I guess is is you know learn about everything that is around you but also what happened before right and and understand that so and then you can push it because you can talk about it and push it love it I'd say um probably doesn't sound that exciting but uh equitable Equitable collaboration um which I think is really important right there is so much conversation here across the industry about the Creator economy there is uh so much conversation about how we collaborate across you know different partners you know whether it's technology media you know whatever else in the past that collaboration particularly from agency industry side and just truth has been exploitative not necessarily Equitable and then we also have an approaching challenge around IP can we can we talk about exploitative yeah exploitation what do you mean by that just I want to pick up on that this is real talk Friday I mean how much time do we get just I guess Top Line into several points um misrepresentation or an absence of representation right right um in the work in credit of the work right um and not just in the listing or the awards I'm talking also about the commercial and the financial side critically which actually stops people from progressing their own creativity and collaborating further right we need to get better at that we're still not good enough at that you know and yeah I'm not going to labor about the Creator economy and Danny will do a much better job talking about that than I will but I do think agency side I do think Brands we need to think more in a more considered way about Equitable collaboration yeah um and again as I said we are now approaching a point whereby you know we've all seen it in the news recently and you know uh well I was talking about it on stage we're going to face challenges with IP which is only going to be even more challenging for the creators yeah so I think there's a responsibility particularly for us in the big agency groups working with the brands to make sure all collaboration is equitable yeah just a quick response because I really love what you what you just said because for me it's like you know keep listening to others because in a way when for the young creative of course I'm I'm the boss but I just won't explain to them that I need you I need to listen from you and you need to descend from the client and you need to listen to the viewers for the people because if you keep by you know um if you keep a dialogue it's good for everyone yeah for me it's key beautiful well we're going to wrap it here what I hope is that you all and you represent for me the full gamut of creativity I hope you guys in the next year to stay connected learn from each other I think if this can become a powerful conversation that continues you will spark creativity without even trying so that's my only wish of you all I also want to thank you for being here it was inquiro it was Friday it was real talk you guys are amazing thank you very much thanks [Applause]

Channel: Cannes Can: Diversity Collective

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Id: svuvxboKTfM

Length: 54min 19sec (3259 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2023