Y&R Singapore’s Marcus Rebeschini on presenting to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the Cannes Chimera global challenge

A submission from Y&R Singapore was one of eight finalists in the Cannes Chimera global communications challenge, set by the Cannes Chimera Initiative. Here, Y&R’s regional executive creative director, Marcus Rebeschini gives a rundown of his team’s trip to Seattle to present to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a proposal for funding of up to US$1 million to implement the idea.

A free trip to Seattle to work with some of the world’s best creatives, suits, planners and clients behind Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning work, a Cannes Lions Chimera trophy, up to US$100,000 in grant money and the opportunity to win an additional US$1 million to make an idea come alive, all while doing some good for the world in a way that might just allow some of us to cross back over to heaven.

All we had to do to be amongst the lucky eight was to answer a brief on the Cannes Chimera website to help eradicate extreme poverty. And so, a few days before the deadline (as is usually the case with most briefs), Emir Shafri, Hisashi Matsui, Mervin Ng and myself pulled an all-nighter to attempt to crack the brief.

Fast forward a few months, when we had left hot and humid Singapore to arrive in cold and gloomy Seattle. It was just the beginning of Day 1 of the Cannes Chimera Workshop, when we were battling the jet-lag as we tried to soak in as much as we could from the Foundation experts and the Cannes Chimera (made up of Grand Prix winners from Cannes Lions ’13). Thankfully, Seattle’s the home of Starbucks, so coffee was on tap, to the point where our hands started to shake.

Two hours and four coffees each later, we found ourselves in a “speed-dating” session with the Cannes Chimera. My young rockstar team and I went from table to table whilst chugging on more coffee. After having quick brainstorming sessions with all the members of the Cannes Chimera, we spent the next day and a half holed up in a conference room taking apart and rebuilding the team’s idea. Pretty cool being part of an agency that’s made up of Grand Prix winners working on one idea.

Of course, my team learnt a great deal from each and every member of the Chimera, but as creatives, I thought it was particularly enlightening for them to work with Chimera members who weren’t, strictly speaking, creatives. Adrian Mills, the Group Account Director of Clemenger BBDO who most famously was the account person who sold “Dumb Ways To Die”, helped them get out of their creative bubble by seeing the idea through the client’s lens. That’s not to say he was a killjoy of course; in fact, some of the most outrageous ideas on their project came from our brainstorming session with him. Nick Doherty, Global Planning Director of Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, not only helped refine the idea in a way that would appeal to the consumer, but also in a way that would be palatable to clients and partners. I think they were also enlightened to work with Robert Lund, Creative Director of The Barbarian Group. While as creatives we sometimes lose focus on why people might want to interact with our ideas, he helped them stay grounded. Robert worked with the team on building a solid framework for the core platform, as well as helped them to think of targeted ideas that’ll spark conversations and get people excited about using their platform.

“It was really intense and exhausting, but we’d do it again in a heartbeat. We had the opportunity to work in a ‘super-agency’ filled with some of the best planners, account managers, clients and creatives in the business, who have all worked on ideas that we’re really envious of. We learnt a lot from their diverse perspectives, and we’re excited to apply that not only to our Cannes Chimera-winning idea, but also to bring back some of that sunshine to the way we work back home in Singapore,” shared Emir.

It definitely was a great learning experience, especially for young creatives like Hisashi, Mervin and Emir, who don’t get that many opportunities to judge with, and learn from these thinkers. Mervin likens the experience to playing alongside an all-star football dream team. “It was a surreal feeling being able to jam with the best communicators in the world as equals all working towards the same goal. It was particularly exciting to see first-hand how the minds of the Cannes Chimera worked, and we could see why those amazing ideas came out of these brilliant minds,” shared Mervin.

But we didn’t just learn about being better problem solvers. As Hisashi shared, “I found it really amazing that throughout the workshop, the Chimera saw us not as competition (just because we were from competing networks) or as lesser creatives (because of our lack of Grands Prix), but as partners. Despite all of them being advertising superstars, there was not an ounce of arrogance at all in that room; everyone brought an abundance of passion and enthusiasm to the table. Staying hungry and humble no matter how high you climb is probably the most valuable lesson we’ve learnt throughout this experience.”

Perhaps more valuable than the free trip to Seattle, the US$100,000 grant money, the Cannes Lions Chimera trophy and the chance to work on a life-changing brief, were the lessons the team took home with them as they learnt how to think like Grand Prix winners. I would definitely recommend for any creative director to give their team an experience like this.