Claire Davidson on day 3 at the 6th Dubai Lynx: The rise Societal Communication – The past showed consumers, the future will show citizens

By Claire Davidson at the Dubai Lynx

The morning of Day 3 at the 6th Dubai Lynx International Festival of Creativity and we’re off and racing with the big hitters – presidential addresses from Tom Beckman (ECD, Prime), Erick Vervroegen (International CD, Publicis Worldwide), Sylvia Vitale Rotta (CEO, Team Creatif Group) and fourth but not least, a wrap up by Ian Haworth, Global CCO and UK Chairman of RAPP.

Beckman claims that ‘people want to be part of creating a new world’, stating that social media is coming to an end (cue mad scurrying in the audience as everyone races to wipe Facie off their screens) – it’s just an interface, it’s just a tool.  It’s about creating value and content for a time.

15 yeas ago Integrated Communication was all the rage; 5 years ago it became Social Media, and he believes the next five years will see the rise Societal Communication.  The past showed us consumers.  The future will show us citizens.  Beckman finished by telling us that it’s not about thinking outside the box or thinking inside the box, but about the box itself.  Big ideas are about courage, and the ability to define reality and act on it.

Vervroegen feels that today – more than ever – is the most exciting time to be working in our industry.  Five years ago there was a real divide between traditional and digital teams.  Today we’re all officially integrated and digital and new media is at an all-time high.  We have new tools for a different kind of consumer engagement, and we’re chatting with our audience in a much more intimate way – predominantly of course due to social media. As technology revolutionizes our industry, we (as the clever and cutting edge admen that we are) must not only keep up, but be one step ahead, thinking harder and smarter.

Vitale Rotta kicked off her lecture with a winning trilogy for a long-lasting client-agency relationship – deep understanding and sharing, shared passion for creativity and the power of design.  (Plus you should probably always keep consumers in mind too).

She went on to focus on design during her talk and the star system should that should be based on five mandatories: i) logotype, ii) colour branding, iii) brand icon, iv) brand structure and v) product specification.  Picture the branding of Nike, Nestle, Apple, McDonalds, Coca Cola, Starbucks.  Instantly recognizable, long-lasting brand imagery that translates across countless countries all around the world.

Haworth discussed the possibility of pushing the boundaries in creativity these days.  It’s hard.  Everybody’s nervous, some countries are faced with ever-declining economies and it feels like all our brands are scrambling to occupy the same space.  There is hyper competition for accounts.  Fear of not making sales figures is becoming paralyzing.

Ah – sounds dreadful.  So how do we navigate our way out of this?

The fundamental underpinning of it is trust.  And now how do we get trust in advertising?  In terms of ‘trustworthy industries’ listings, we don’t tend to rank terribly highly (understatement much).

Hawoth suggests that knowing your client’s business as well as they do is a must; being a genuine creative business partner to your client – listen, then co-create with them.  Involve your client in campaigns early on.  There are brand truths, production truths, market truths and human truths – and these should be the focus for how you sell your thinking to your clients.

He concluded with the idea that there is a lot of marketing lingo that no one understands – much like this piece of writing – break it down into interesting language for your client to get them on side.  The case studies presented included the Absolute Unique campaign, Curators of Sweden with Twitter and the London 2012 Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games.

In the sessions after lunch we heard from speakers representing Facebook and Google themselves – two of the largest, most influential brands and business forces in the modern world

The first speaker though was Sonal Dabral of DDB Mudra discussing India:  A Colourful Palette of Creativity.  Indian advertising brings with it a richness, unique to the country, which Dabral (pictured left) defined as a cacophony of the following elements:

~>  The Daily Drama

~> A Riot of Colour and Chaos

~> Mother & Other Tongues (There are over 22 official languages and over 250 dialects in India, which affects creativity and the type of advertising produced in the country)

~> Avatars:  Remix, Reinvent and Reincarnate

~> Hero Worship – Religion, Cricket and Bollywood.

~> Just Jugaad

Next up was Mark D’Arcy, a highlight for me, speaking about Facebook and about people. He discussed the socialization of the web, the way in which the world is changing, and how these fundamental shifts are impacting the ad business – putting individuals at the heart of what we do.

We have a few superpowers (hmmm guess who?) that represent the empowerment of people all over the world.  We’re close to having the ability to access any piece of content created anywhere, on any device.  We’re in the creative content business and it’s competing against everything ever.  We have the ability to find out anything about anything.  We have an unlimited memory for the first time ever.  And the act of finding someone from our past or for our future we now take for granted.   There is an over supply of everything – data, choices, things we could be doing.

D’Arcy states that there are three big shifts in communication:

1. Moving from a landscape of description to connection with brand mass communication.

2. Moving from a world of search to discovery.

3. Moving from heavyweight to lightweight.

He likens the world we live in like a dinner party where people are deep in conversation bouncing around from topic to topic.  The role of the brand is not just to get an invite or get a mention, but to get in there and have a purpose at the party.  It should have some reason for being.

He discussed creativity on Facebook and to find your why; find your voice.  Why are you there?  What can you contribute?  Authenticity – be authentic. Be useful.  Manifest service from your brand to the people you want to connect with.  Be entertaining.  You can’t bore your customers.  Be relevant with your targeting.  Be timely and at one with culture.  Listen to what people are saying and what people are doing and address it.  Demonstrate you are a brand who is listening.  Sounds simple enough, no?

Page publishing and the ability for a brand to me
aningfully express itself is what you should be striving for.  It’s not about counting the number of your fans.  People are engaging with content at an unprecedented scale.  Great content leads to great engagement.  Strategic investment drives massive distribution.

Looking around the audience, D’Arcy was certainly right about over supply. Most of us had our phones out to check messages and emails ah… nanoseconds after he walked off stage.

Daniel Andrade’s presentation on Project Re-Brief for Google gave me goose bumps (Daniel is pictured in the bottom pic).  It’s worthy of it’s own article – or you might just prefer to look at it here:  http://www.projectrebrief.com

Right now, I’m off to attend the Creative Club Party, a preliminary party to tomorrow night’s awards show, at The Dek on 8 at the Media One Hotel.  Chin-Chin.

Claire Davidson (pictured in the top photo), Executive Producer, ASIA and MENA @ The SweetShop reporting in for Campaign Brief Asia at Dubai Lynx 2013