A week in Cannes
The Young Lions Creative Academy at the Cannes Lions festival is a six day-course, packed with the most inspiring talks, workshops and seminars, given by people you would not believe to ever meet. Guided by our dean Bob Isherwood and tutor Matias Palm Jensen, we saw, learned and experienced so much in just one week time. Because I don’t want to write a creative academy bible, here are some remarkable highlights of the things we took home.
Go extreme, fail extreme
Bobs and Matias’s advice. Go extreme, fail extreme. Learn to find your inner-self. It sounds a bit cheesy, but the men were right. And not just for advertising, but also in life a great lesson. People hold themselves back. A lot. So first thing we were told: drop the clichés. If you keep walking other people’s paths, follow other people’s mindsets and think in other people’s clichés, who are you?
You’re no one, and everybody will somehow find out. So have no boundaries, like a child. Think like a child. Do your thoughts feel weird and unusual? Good. Do you want to be out there? Be everywhere! Do you want to be crazy? Be super crazy! Don’t be it just a little because someone else did it before and you can never top that.
What’s so extreme about this? Well, what you’re going to do, no one ever did before. If you truly do what you want to do, there’s no one who will repeat it the exact same way. And off course, if you go extreme and you fail, you will fall hard. But don’t be afraid, it should always be part of the life of a creative.
No one holds the truth
Great lecture by Graham Fink (Ogilvy&Mather China). It was called “Throw away your brain” which directly caught my attention when I read the program. He asked us to think about a childhood memory we vividly remembered. “You were there, right?” We all were quite sure we were. “But“, he said, “Were you really? Because not a single molecule in your body was there, your complete body changed. So were you there or not?” Don’t think so much about what other people think, because it’s all subjective, especially human’s thoughts. Please do whatever you want, because no one holds the truth.
Improvise
No one will ever be completely in control of everything. Strange enough, some people look like they do. How? They are good improvisers. That why two actors of the South of France English Theatre joined us. They put us in the weirdest fictional situations, and let us struggle for a bit. In that way, they challenged our creativity to solve unexpected situations that might occur, and let us feel more comfortable about it.
Advertising is nothing but storytelling
This section started with Mary Lee Copeland (TheNextLevelStoryAcademy). Through the video “please please please” by James Brown, she showed us what storytelling is really about. Not just being enthusiastic or believing the story, no, you have to be the story. And as long as your not, no one will believe anything you’ve created. If you’re an advertiser, she said, you have to practice that a lot, because it’s not some thing you just learn in a few days. So that’s probably the reason why she made us dance through the room, all miming one of the songs we picked. Was that slightly awkward? Sure. Did she make her point? Absolutely.
Advertising is nothing but psychology
“Why most creative are crap.” The first words of Adam Ferrier (Cummins & Partners) when he started his talk were “What is advertising about?” Of course, all of us had some ideas, but no came with a smooth, well-formulated sentence. And that’s the problem, he said. Construct your own theory, you are as right or wrong as all the others. There is no emotional connection between people and brands. It’s about driving action. He showed us the psychological process of how you get people to do something. It was quite easy and a bit shocking even.
After a week
After a week of seriously absorbing information, I’ll probably need another week to process it all. But one thing I know already; I truly recommend the Young Lions Creative Academy if want to meet some people that you will greatly admire and gain a bucket of lessons that will make you a better creative.
P.S: I don’t recommend the Academy if you’re into going to all the festival’s parties – that’s just no option.
Maureen van der Lugt
BRON
“Why most creative are crap.” The first words of Adam Ferrier (Cummins & Partners) when he started his talk were “What is advertising about?” Of course, all of us had some ideas, but no came with a smooth, well-formulated sentence. And that’s the problem, he said. Construct your own theory, you are as right or wrong as all the others. There is no emotional connection between people and brands. It’s about driving action. He showed us the psychological process of how you get people to do something. It was quite easy and a bit shocking even.
After a week
After a week of seriously absorbing information, I’ll probably need another week to process it all. But one thing I know already; I truly recommend the Young Lions Creative Academy if want to meet some people that you will greatly admire and gain a bucket of lessons that will make you a better creative.
P.S: I don’t recommend the Academy if you’re into going to all the festival’s parties – that’s just no option.
Maureen van der Lugt
BRON