Emir Shafri finds inspiration in Sin City: Day 4
Young & Rubicam Singapore’s Digital Lead Emir Shafri (pictured) was one of 100 young creatives at the recent London International Awards’ Creative LIAisons mentorship programme. Here’s his take on the final day.
If there’s one thing that I hate about the Creative LIAisons programme, was that it has to come to an end. So this is it. Day 4. The last day of the Creative LIAisons programme.
As much as I dreaded the end of this day, I was definitely looking forward to one of the highlights of the programme: a keynote speech by Daymond John, Founder & CEO of FUBU and one of Shark Tank’s sharks. Before Daymond, we also had a few other talks, which I enjoyed a lot as they weren’t strictly talks about advertising.
Ripple on a Second Shot at Creative LIAisons
We started the day with an introduction to Ripple, an app that uses fandom for a good cause, by founders Eric Maybaum and Mikko Passananti. They issued us a challenge to help tell the story of Ripple, in return for a seat at next year’s Creative LIAisons.
One thing about the Creative LIAisons is that no one gets to do this amazing programme twice, unless a past participant happens to win this newly introduced challenge. So all the young creatives in the room were certainly all ears.
Faith on Licensing
Shark Branding’s Head of Licensing and Retail Development, Faith Wall, taught us about the importance of protecting our ideas. A very relevant talk, given that the industry has been flirting with product development, and yet, for the most part, our existing models aren’t fully equipped to protect our IP and capture revenue from said IP.
Faith took us through the steps of licensing our products, distributing our products to consumers, the royalty system, the importance of having a solid licensing agreement and the merits of hiring a good licensing professional to negotiate on your behalf. But the most important step? Ensuring we use our experience as advertising professionals to understand what the consumer really wants, and creating a product that’s designed around that want. Because there’s no point in licensing a product no one would buy anyway.
Emad on Doing Technology Right
Technology can either be your enemy or your friend. Use it poorly, and it can come across as gimmicky. Use it well, and it can help you tell an amazing story. Emad Tahtouh, Director of Applied Technology at Finch, gave us some great tips to help us develop amazing tech solutions that help tell great stories.
He started by saying that we should always be prepared to fail early, fast and hard. He shared the story of how The Most Powerful Arm decided to not work at the eleventh hour (turns out it was a problem with the streaming camera), to show that you should always think through every possible way your idea could fail, and have a solution planned.
He also suggested that we share work with our technology partners early on, even while it is still in the conceptualisation stage. Not only would the partner be able to foresee possible implementation problems before it would become too late to turn back, but they’d also be able to propose better ways to execute our ideas.
Daymond on Being a Shark
Here we are. The final talk of the Creative LIAisons programme. We were face to face with the Shark himself: Daymond John. He shared with us his amazing story of how he started FUBU with just $40, and eventually turned it into an empire worth billions. This man is a living testament of how with the right ambition, you can achieve anything.
Daymond shared how he succeeded, and how we can too, with his S.H.A.R.K. formula:
1. S – Set Goals: Know what you really want to achieve.
2. H – Homework: Always research before you launch an idea. Daymond shared that he planned to originally name FUBU, BUFU, which turned out to be an acronym for butt sex.
3. A – Adore: Adore what you do, and the people you’re talking to. Daymond credits FUBU’s success to his love for and deep understanding of hip-hop culture.
4. R – Remember, You’re the Brand: Personal branding is extremely important. He suggested we start by figuring out how to define ourselves in 5 words or less.
5. K – Keep Swimming: No matter what life throws at you, just keep swimming.
And there you have it. We swam with the Shark, and survived. With that, the curtains fell on the Creative LIAisons programme.
All in all, it’s been an inspiring four days in Sin City. My notes will definitely not do justice to the wisdom of the brilliant speakers who took their time to talk to us, but I hope you found a few interesting nuggets in there.
And while I didn’t leave the blackjack table with a lot of chips, I certainly left Las Vegas with a lot of lessons that’ll help me become a better person at work and in life. I’ll certainly take every lesson with me as I head into the next stage of my career very soon.
And for that, I’d like to thank Barbara Levy and her team at London International Awards for making the bold decision to stop having an awards festival and ceremony, even though an award show would have plenty of opportunities to earn sponsorship money, and instead invest in young creatives like us who aren’t even the ones in control of our award show dollars. I’d also like to thank Marcus and Y&R, as well as Kim Shaw and Campaign Brief Asia for selecting and sending me for this career-changing programme. Thank you so much for investing in me.
Needless to say, whatever happened in Vegas, will stay with me for life.