During the opening keynote of Campaign Live 2024, hosted in London earlier this month, Publicis CEO, Arthur Sadoun set the tone for the next day and a half… “Creativity has to be in everything we do”. On one hand this is a really obvious statement, the attendees in the room are in the business of making the ordinary extraordinary. But at the same time it also made me stop and think. What does creativity really mean and with so much disruption in the industry over the past 12 months how do we ensure we turn up every day and harness the power that lies within a great creative idea?
Let’s break it down.. my takeaway from the event is that there are three main things that ensure success:
- Talent
- Capabilities
- Creative
Talent
It is no longer just about attracting top tier talent, but it is more about retaining that talent, giving them space as individuals to grow, to learn and to thrive in the industry. We need to ensure that our team’s are made a part of the narrative, that people have a safe space to be seen, to be heard and to be understood. During Naomi Walkland’s (CMO, Motorway) session she shared the following extract from Bain & Company ‘Inspired employees are 125% more production than those just satisfied.’ As leaders it is our responsibility to create a culture of mutual respect across the organization that will allow the best work to come to the forefront. A supported team is a successful team.
Capabilities
This is an area of constant change, with new technologies disrupting the industry almost daily. It would be impossible to not reflect on this and include a discussion around AI. AI is most definitely a buzz word and something that comes up in almost daily conversation, but how as creative industries can we harness the power of AI, not to take away people’s jobs (which is often the fear in the creative space), but instead automate mundane tasks, those bits of the job that no one enjoys. Daniel Hulme, Chief AI Officer, WPP and CEO, WPP Satalia, looked to define AI in his session and I have to say it was the best definition I personally have heard. Intelligence is ‘Goal-directed Adaptive Behaviour’. The thing I liked about this definition so much is that for AI to be successful you have to have a final outcome in mind. Success will not come if it is tool that is used sporadically and with no real purpose. The key to enabling positive business impact with AI is to set a clear outcome and to be critical of the information provided. As Hulme stated Satalia’s vision was ‘to create a future where everyone is free to live beyond themselves’.
Creative
By the end of Day 2 I left 155 Broadgate with one very big question… What if it is time to redefine the word creative? What does creative mean to you personally or to your organization or to your clients? Has creative reached a point of saturation? Perhaps most importantly, how do we truly showcase the value of creative in a world where the word is quite honestly over-used (writing this with the word Creative in my very own job title)… The Cambridge Dictionary lists creative as ‘producing or using original and unusual ideas’. How many ideas these days are truly original or unusual? Inspiration is taken in many forms and I know I am often inspired by the work I see around me, the people I speak to and the natural world. Does this mean my work is not creative? I don’t think so, but to land on a true nugget of a fully original idea is few and far between. The second part of the definition is actually the part I think we can have a true impact on and that is the ‘unusual’. I have been to many pitches were the ‘unusual’ idea has been put on the back seat, it’s been labelled as ‘too much of a risk’. I think it is time for us as an industry to push for the unusual, to be bold, to stand up for what we believe in and challenge our clients and ourselves to go with the unusual, to drive a cultural shift in the ecosystem and be brave. There are two key stand outs from Campaign Live that really lived and breathed this philosophy. KFC UK & the Mother team with the ‘Believe in Chicken’ campaign and Shelley Smoler, CCO at Droga5 sharing the Dramamine campaign ‘The Last Barf Bag’. Both these ideas are big, bold and ultimately in my opinion, the highlight of creative, but back to the original point, they both took a risk – but boy, did that risk pay off.
Reflecting back on two engaging, thought provoking and inspiring days I believe it is the combination of the three elements which is the power of one and the bridge to success both today and in the future.
