DR4WARD

Cannes Lions & Roger Hatchuel Academy After Thoughts

After Thoughts-

Cannes Lions & the Roger Hatchuel Academy were by far one of my greatest education experiences, and my experience there goes beyond just classrooms and lectures.  It was a global social event for creatives; it was a mind blowing broadway show; it was a week long afternoon tea with masterminds of marketing and advertising; a big buffet of opportunity and it was full of fun. 

Roger Hatchuel Academy was the most tiring and exciting week of my life. It was the 6th Roger Hatchuel Academy at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.  RHA was the biggest ever, 35 students from all around the world.  At RHA, Advertising wasn't the only subject we learned, as we have been introduced to industry's masterminds, joined press conferences, discovered top secrets  and were lead by brilliant creatives like Rick Boyko (the new dean) and Clive Challis. Rick is heading the up postgraduate course at VCU Brandcenter, and was in charge of all the creative output from Ogilvy & Mather. Clive is head of the advertising course at Central Saint martins in London.

Every day at Roger Hatchuel Academy was tiring and overloading.  RHA started at 9:30 every morning and we attended non-stop seminars and discussion until 7pm.  I didn't want to miss a thing there, weather it's classes in the morning or fun activities at night.  Yes, I have definitely overloaded with what I have learned, and it lead me to a state of emptiness at the end.  It will take me a while to digest what I have learned there, and it was a good thing for me to take notes for revisiting my memory.

Friendship were so easy to form in RHA in Cannes, it only happens in Cannes and I can hardly see it happening anywhere else.  35 of RHA students instantly became family on the second day.  We used our energy to learn the culture difference and we pretty much grouped together like a multi-nation country. We share thoughts, ideas, or whatever anyone had in mind, and beside the skin color and appearance, we weren't different at all. I feel very much connected to all of the RHA mates, and enjoy the experience of meeting international students.

Roger Hatchuel Academy at Cannes has changed me. Before I came to Cannes, I thought I was good enough for myself, and ready to start up my own business and take over the country.  After seeming so much talent and creative minds from all over the world, I have changed.   I have been crashed and forced to be reborn from a new state of mind.  I realized I wasn't getting ahead of anyone at all, but so much behind.  I still yet have a long journey to go, and so many people to meet, I was glad I made this trip, the trip that refreshes me for even bigger challenges in the future.

Many thanks to friends from Roger Hatchuel, Alfred University, and Dr. William Ward.

-Scott Liao

Looking Back - How Cannes Lions Changed My Life

It's been one day since I left beautiful Cannes and looking back I realized how much I learned. From the seminars about great storytelling to the workshops focusing on a interactive digital experience - Cannes Lions is the place where the creative world comes together to learn from one another. I learned about Ambient advertising, which I never thought of as one of the most effective strategies used by many agencies. Recent strategies like Creative Technology, examples such as Adaptive Media by Real Time Content or the Nike iD campaign by RGA/Nike, are quickly changing how companies create personal relationships with their consumers.

It's amazing to know that as technology evolves, so do the agencies. This whole experience has been incredibly surreal for me. Because of this experience, I am considering applying to VCU Brandcenter for a MBA in Creative Brand Management or Communications Strategy. The advertising world is evolving so rapidly that not taking advantage of the Cannes Lions student package is completely unacceptable. Rick Boyko's Master Class said it best, "The Industry is placing the burden of educating on academia." I strongly feel Universities would be completely disregarding education if they refuse to take part in an amazing experience such as the Cannes Lions. I have learned so much from this experience and I now aspire to become a multidisciplinary. I am now planning on attending the 2009 Cannes Lions because learning plays such an important role in my life. The Cannes Lions has given me a platform to start off on and continue to grow as an aspiring advertiser and marketer.

Until Cannes Lions '09,

It's been a pleasure...Cheers!

Irving Escobar

From flowers to storytelling - Cannes Lions

Friday June 20, 2008 the morning was wonderful. With a short tweet before heading to the festival I was excited to get the day started. I attended a morning workshop- designing from nature_ or something like that. In this workshop I was exposed to a new way of designing by using nature as a source of inspiration and influence. The duel partnership of the presenters complemented their ideals- a female biologist and a designer, these two discussed their design backgrounds and link it to what they are trying to do now. By using nature as our teacher they feel that designers can learn alot about creating that projects their work with the world not against it. They used many examples of how insects pollunating flowers is a very smart and strategic method. As designers in a world that loves to waste I found their solutions to design probelms very functional, effective and helpful to the current waste problem.

After I stepped out to grab a quick bite to eat I attended the Unicef seminar and it was the most inspiring info session I have been too this whole festival.  Joining up with droga 5 the Tap project is one for the books. If you dont know about this project then you need to find out, it is the simpliest way for anyone to make a bigg impact in another persons life. By donating a dollar 40 children in a thrid world country will be able to drink clean water for one more day. One billion people in the world do not have clean drinking water,  1 in 5 children do not have access to drinking water and 80% of children die because of water related dieases. Tap is saving lifes. I want and need to be apart of companies and organizations that believe in projects like this.

Stephanie Hankins

A musical advertising experience! - Cannes Lions

Day 3 of the Cannes Lion Festival and another information overload! I went to a few seminars, workshops and commercial viewings but what stuck out today was a musical theme. I've been kind of all over with my blogs because I've been so excited about everything I've attended, but today I'm going to stick with some of the musical things I saw.

First...Music in Advertising. Personally, I think that adding music to advertising makes the ad. Everything becomes more powerful with music behind it. I'm noticing a growing trend in theatrical like singing in advertisements that comes off very comical. here are some good examples of things I saw today.

After watching these, and other musical advertisements I attended the Tony Bennett lecture. This was a conversation about building the brand of an artist and integrating advertising with music. Music is pretty important to advertising because it cuts across boundaries and unites people.

"If your blessed with a passion to sing and paint, you have the ability to communicate. Music gives you soul, it makes you a human being" -Tony Bennett

Tony and his son, Danny also brought another important point that I have been hearing A LOT through out this week. The consumers make you popular, make you successful, not your record company or advertising agency. You have to do things for you and your consumer. Its about universal themes…everyone wants to think that these songs, these advertisements are for them, make your audience connect.

When the market zigs, you should zag.

Finally, I will finish with a really great logo that I saw. This is a logo for the youth orchestra in Sydney, Australia. I just think that it was executed greatly! It got me really excited to design.

Download 100_0944.JPG">orchestra logo

heres the website that has a sample of the logo as well. sydney youth orchestra

here are my notes from the day...

Download music_in_advertising.doc

--Kayla

ALFRED UNIVERSITY TO LEARN, TWEET, AND BLOG AT CANNES LIONS 2008

Alfred University was the first college to take advantage of the student delegate package launched by the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2007.I will be taking a second group of Alfred University student delegates to Cannes Lions 2008 from June 14 - 21 to learn about the future of 360 Degree Branding,  Integrated Marketing Communications and Social Media from the biggest brands.

To share our wonderful experience the students and I will be posting on Twitter throughout the day during the Festival and we will also be blogging daily at Dr4Ward.com. If you would like to follow us you can receive automatic blog updates by subscribing to receive email updates or RSS Feeds at Dr4Ward.com. You can also follow our Tweets throughout the day after signing up for a free account and joining Twitter. For those of you not familiar with Twitter, according to Wikipedia it is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.   

I will be taking Alfred University students Irving Escobar, Ashley Fantigrossi, Stephanie Hankins, Kayla Peterson and Scott Liao to the Cannes Lions 2008 55th International Advertising Festival as student delegates. The students majors include Art & Design, Marketing and the MBA Program and they receive course credits in their related disciplines for their participation in the International Marketing and Advertising Program that I developed. Scott Liao will be attending the prestigious Roger Hatchuel Lions Academy held during the Festival. Kayla Peterson and Scott Liao will also have their art and design work on display at the Festival in the Young Lions Zone .

I have been very impressed with Cannes Lions and the industry commitment to mentoring and training students and young professionals through the Young Lion Zone for Cannes Lions, Master Classes, Young Lions Competition, and the Roger Hatchuel Lions Academy. Young Lions and Students get a world-class experience during their week at the Festival and the fantastic line-up of speakers, seminars and workshops provide education and training for the global leaders of the future.

The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the largest gathering of worldwide marketing, advertising, media and creative professionals, each year drawing more than 10,000 delegates from 80 plus countries.  Students and professionals attend over 50 comprehensive seminars and 25 interactive hands-on workshops with the best marketing, advertising, and creative professionals from around the world. Daily film screenings, exhibitions, Content Showcases, and galas/award ceremonies, celebrate the best strategic and creative marketing from over 50 countries entered in a variety of competitive media categories. For a flavour of the Festival, view video and images from Cannes Lions 2007.

I look 4Ward to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

TOPLESS MEETINGS / CLASSROOMS ENGAGING CONTROVERSY

As a teacher, researcher and marketing professional I have been watching the coverage of Silicon Valley meetings going 'topless' with great interest. No laptops, cellphones or email/internet hand held devices allowed in company meetings and in classrooms is a growing trend. Here is the link to an ABC News story on Ditching the Devices. (Warning - ABC forces you to watch a brief pre-roll ad before the story).

In my post on Multitasking Addiction A Turnoff I explain how cognitive research supports that the devices are a distraction and multitasking is a myth. Dan Saffer at Adaptive Path coined the topless term (as in laptopless) and even posted the Rules for "Topless Meetings." I can tell you from first hand experience that enforcing topless meetings and classrooms can be a challenging task.

It is very telling that the Social Media and Marketing experts who rely on this technology are recognizing that these devices can also be a distraction. At the same time that corporate America is going topless there is also a competing trend in the classroom that technology is the answer to learning. You can also see the challenges and opportunities in the classroom in the video below, "A Vision of Students Today" and then compare and contrast this with the trend in "Topless Meetings."

I have "Topless Classes" but I also try to address the multitasking addiction and create an interactive learning environment by using eInstruction Interactive Wirless Remote Clickers. The clickers allow students to interact and respond to the PowerPoint slide presentations. No cellphones or laptops are allowed because I find that most students who bring these devices are not working on class stuff. They  are too tempted to feed the multitasking addiction and give only partial attention to the discussion at hand. An article in Wired titled  Classroom clickers make the grade explains why these devices can help to stimulate discussion, participation and learning.

To encourage learning and engagement I also try to use a lot of interactive technology including Audio / Video Podcast downloads of the PowerPoint slides, Internet Activities and online Toolkit Exercises, Digitally Submitted Assignments, Electronic Feedback of all assignments within a few days of submission, and online quizzes and exams.

New technologies can be used to create collaboration and engagement and increase learning opportunities. However, if technology is used without structure, discipline and monitoring the multitasking addiction will continue to creep into the classroom and in meetings. The multitasking addiction will continue to distract us from human interaction and focusing on the task at hand until we learn how to turnoff at the appropriate times.

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

MARKETING SKEPTICS RESISTANT TO BRAND MESSAGES

The degree of marketing skepticism and resistance to brand messages was highlighted this week when a student asked me in class if the brand examples used in the text book and discussed in class were paid product placements. I think this student has a future in marketing because the thought never occurred to me to sell my lectures in class to a captive student audience. Instead, the brand examples and case studies that I use are to demonstrate a concept or make a point about a company that does a particularly good or bad job at marketing. Where does this level of skepticism and resistance to brand messages come from?

Millennials is the label given to those born between 1982 and 2000.  They have grown up with instant and continuous multi-media communications, entertainment and social networks and are more dependent on technology, their peers and parents than previous generations. Millennials are continuously plugged into their iPods, mobile phones, video games, PC's, televisions, and social networks and multitasking. They consume so much media and entertainment through so many different channels that they receive over 3,000 distinct advertising messages daily.  This bombardment of sales messages and fragmentation of media use make Millennials difficult to reach and highly skeptical of marketers messages.
Image from www.matrixbusinesscoaching.com

This level of skepticism about information and communication is not unique to Millennials as consumers in general have become more suspicious and resistant to marketers messages.  This is a challenge and opportunity to marketers as the traditional brand marketing approach is no longer working.  Instead marketers are turning to new interactive models that give the control to consumers to create and share the marketing message with their peers through word-of-mouth. Brands are using consumer-created content and social networks to create and transmit something that is entertaining or helps to facilitate communication with others and make their lives better or easier. The best marketers understand that consumers do not need brands interrupting their lives and instead must be invited in.  Do you have examples of brands that you have invited in to your lives and shared with others?

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

MARKETERS REACH EXCEEDING SCIENCE FICTION

As I was reading the April issue of WIRED I was reminded again that marketers reach is exceeding science fiction and that marketing ethics will become even more important in the future.  In the Steven Speilberg sci-fi film Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, criminals in 2054 are caught before the crimes they commit courtesy of some future viewing technology.  The question the film asks is : can someone be arrested for a crime they have not yet committed?  In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four the threat in the future is that you are being watched and listened to at all times thus controlling your thoughts and actions through fear.  In sci-fi the escape from marketing and the government is impossible as video cameras, brain scans and eye-scanning technology allow an individual's every move to be tracked. 

Clive Thompson's article in Wired titled "It's All in Your Head - Why the next civil rights battle will be over the mind" discusses a new advertising medium called hypersonic sound.  This technology allows a focused beam of audio sound to be projected so that only a person standing directly in it's path hears the message, giving the effect of a speaker coming from inside your head. A&E has a creepy billboard for their new show "Paranormal State" that uses this "audio spotlight" technology to get inside the heads of people that pass by the ad with a message promoting the show.  What other ways are marketers getting inside our heads?

NIKE PLUS DIGITAL SUCCESS CHANGES RUNNING FOREVER

I often point out marketers who do not get it.  However, I have to admit that I would much rather point out innovators and brands that I admire and think we can all learn from. Nike is one of them and it starts with their mission statement. The Nike mission statement is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete (anyone who has a body) and help improve their lives and reach their potential.  Nike has created innovations with their physical products since the beginning but  now they are creating digital success through the Nike Plus Apple iPod and Nike iD.  The merging of the digital and physical world for Nike and the 360 Degree Brand Marketing focus on improving the lives of the consumer has changed running forever.
 

A sensor in your Nike shoe wirelessly talks to your iPod as you run and you can hear your pace, time, distance and calories burned while you run through your headphones.  You can download your runs on NikePlus.com, set your goals, check progress, challenge friends and interact with runners from all over the world.  You can even share your music and running routes.  The physical world of running and Nike products is now enhanced with the digital social network experience.  In 2007 I attended the Cannes Lions Interational Advertising Festival where Nike was awarded a Gold Cyber Lions and a Titanium Lions recognizing Nike Plus as one of the world's top interactive marketing and integrated advertising campaigns.

Nike iD also improves the physical experience with the digital ability to custom design your shoes, clothing, and equipment by selecting the materials, colors, and features.  You can visit the NikeTown store or go online to customize through Nike iD and have your order shipped directly to your home.  The success of Nike digital and innovation points the way towards success for other companies.  Do you have examples of other companies that have supported their mission and enhanced the physical experience through digital?  Are  there  digital ideas that you would like to see enhance the physical experience of your favorite brands?

I look 4WARD to your feedback.

Keep Digging For Worms!

ALCOHOL MARKETING SAILS BLISSFULLY INTO PERFECT STORM

Alcohol Industry marketing is sailing blissfully into a perfect storm.  Before we look at the signs let's quickly review:  unlike the highly regulated Tobacco and Pharmaceutical Industries, the Alcohol Industry basically self-regulates to avoid marketing's reach and appeal to children and underage consumers. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does have limited jurisdiction over alcohol marketing but mainly promotes industry self-regulation to balance concerns related to children and the interests of adults.  You can read the complete FTC Guidance Documents here. You can also read the 1999 FTC Report about the benefits of self-regulation in the Alcohol Industry and the Alcohol Industry Advertising Codes regarding advertising placement, advertising content, product placement, online advertising, and college marketing.   

First Amendment issues are given regarding FTC lack of Government restriction on marketing but one only needs to look at the Tobacco and Pharmaceutical industries to see where alcohol marketing regulation is heading if the industry does not change course.  The Alcohol Industry stated goal to minimize the extent to which underage consumers are exposed to and attracted by alcohol advertising is impossible in practice. The "drink responsibly" messages and concern for children are lost in the rough seas of competitive marketplace pressures.  These pressures compel the alcohol industry to attract new consumers and grow consumption with current users.  Let's look at Alcohol Industry initiatives in the past year and the collision with the self-regulated industry code to see the Perfect Storm...