These were words from Bruce McColl, global chief marketing officer of confectionary major Mars. In a brilliant session today with David Lubars, ad agency BBDO's global chief creative officer, on the penultimate day of the Cannes ad fest, the two outlined the reasons why a vast majority of the creative work we see around us, is terrible. This even as the two peppered their talk with some outstanding examples of creativity from Mars brands across the world.
It is not hard to see where this is all coming from. The mutual honesty and belief between him and his agency partner BBDO was amazing as they went through work from Mars which they felt clicked and didn't click. McColl also spoke about how the biggest risk today is to put out sub-standard advertising work and why clients need to be told when they're taking a wrong decision. On his part, Lubars spoke about how agencies should not become award junkies. It is doing "real work" for brands that counts, he said. The spirit of the session was inspiring, something I wish could be beamed into every agency and client's conference room.
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Another such session today was with Procter & Gamble's global marketing and brand-building officer, Marc Pritchard. Every time I've heard him speak, I've been inspired to push myself to produce better work. He spoke about why brands need to stay away from the 'content crap trap' - the overbearing need and urgency to join the rat race and produce advertising content that does little or no good to the brand. Instead, he advocated making a 'creative canvas' of sorts where different elements on a palette came together to paint a brand's picture. As a starting point, he suggested that brand managers should first take a long hard look at their brand's 'Hall of Shame' and then move on to create magic that can keep a brand alive and fresh. Of course, all this demands that one work with creative people of the highest talent and integrity, who have a genuine desire to build the brand.
These are some of the strong themes that emerged after listening to top advertisers today. When you expect the most compelling work, conventional ways of arriving at it go for a toss.
Then there was Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of Wired magazine, talking about the inevitability of virtual reality. In the not-so-distant future, the biggest companies will be those who invest in Big Data significantly and use it to make marketing and advertising calls, he said. Many of them are doing it already, but the scale may just go up over time.
The author is chief creative officer, Grey Group India