The Society Of The Spectacle

A couple of videos here from the masters of their fields. Essential viewing and just goes to show that success is truly aligned to authenticity.

Dieter Rams.

John Hegarty.

Well, Cannes Lions 2011 has passed. Another chapter in Advertising’s sordid history with booze and awards has been written. This is the first Cannes I’ve followed intensely, helped along my road to jealousy by Instagram especially among other usual suspects. However, the quality of work on show was excellent, and there were some really inspiring pieces that were awarded beyond the obvious ones that we all know and *love* (and therefore don’t have to mention here).

But the real interesting action seemed to be happening in the margins. Both in development of applications surrounding the festival, and also in critiques of the Lions relevancy. Friends, Creative Social put in a good effort with their work of Instacanneslions, as well as the ‘Gutter Barometer’, but also providing one of the most thoughtful posts on the whole Cannes scene and some great behind the scenes thoughts from the judging panels.

There was also a healthy round of talks, symposiums and what-nots to feed the hungry mind, (though not neccesarily the thirsty Rosé palette or fresh seafood deprived tastebuds). With that in mind, @jessedee has compiled the 100 most beautiful slides from Cannes. Not only are some of these well put together (which makes a change), they are also informative, and worth a perusal at your leisure.

Enjoy.

Last Wednesday was bookended by two talks and events from a couple of my favourite creative disciplines; Advertising and Branding. Both face profound challenges in addressing the shifting marketing and business landscape they roam. There are many other places and posts that deal with those challenges in greater detail, so I’ll leave that for other more relevant voices to cover. But the happy coincidence of these two on the same day allowed me personally to assess where each discipline is at. The results where both inspiring and frustrating.

The morning saw Albion’s The Albion Society  run the ‘Hacking Advertising‘ event. One presentation stood out as the most timely and well considered presentations I have seen yet on the state of Advertising. Presented by Gustav Von Sydow, CEO of Burt (and former CPB Europe alum), his presentation, F**k The Future was a hugely compelling argument for Advertising to deal with the ‘now’, to reduce it’s obsession at predicting the future of advertising, but instead, create ‘agile advertising’ that is iterative, and adaptable, focussed on long term business problems, (KPI’s instead of ROI). It was packed full of challenging thinking, that reminded me very much of the things that I have read and seen coming out of Made By Many, and the guys at BDWCU, as well as an article that James Cooper wrote for AdWeek on the need to build, not just talk, and build ideas fast, small and iterative.

While a process of Agile Advertising has it’s problems, (and it still feels like a niche argument). It does illustrate a willingness, indeed, an excitable energy that pervades much of the leading thinkers of the Advertising industry to rethink, remake, and ‘hack’ their industry. Advertising as a discipline, has rethought itself time and again. It might take a while for those evolutions to bear fruit, as Von Sydow pointed out in the Q&A after, but once they do, the work reflects this shift, and becomes better than ever as a result. It strikes me now more than ever that that evolution is not only underway, but we are fast approaching a tipping point where this goal of an evolved Advertising discourse is fully underway, the uncertainty that the last half decade has wrought, is breeding excitement and innovation that makes me excited to work in whatever ‘Advertising is these days.

The provocative, but thoughtful (and exciting) tone of the morning presentation, focussed my thinking on what my other favourite discipline is up to these days. What Brand Consultancies were doing to respond to similar challenges to their industry model. As a veteran of one of a Brand Consultancy with considerable clout and experience, and now working away from one, I was interested to see if the big (and small) agencies were willing to show off new thinking and new approaches on building and ‘designing’ Brands, as well as embracing the possibilities and challenges that a digitally connected populace would demand of their brands and the work they create for clients. That they were ‘kicking the tyres’ (As Moderator Simon Manchipp noted) of the Brand Consultancy model.

Unlike Advertising, the discipline of ‘Branding’ is a relatively recent development. With a history of evolutions, not revolutions. Most of the venerable Brand Consultancies, evolved out of the world of Corporate Identity. Adopting the term ‘Branding’ allowed more diverse projects other than design and implementation to pass through the Consultancies. Strategic thinking, the ‘Big Idea’ distributed through a series of defined implementation channels, became the bread and butter of Consultancies. Branding, was not the most agile of disciplines. A brand could wait 18 months for it’s new brand strategy, and eventually new Identity system, rolled out in a methodical manner, with consistency, order, and discipline shot through it like a rod of iron.

With this discipline in it’s relative infancy, you would expect that the ability and energy to absorb changing models and relish innovation would be abundance. Alas, the Branding 2.0 event illustrated that while Design itself is in rude health, the relationships between what that Identity should do and how much it actually impacts on the Brand day to day was as far away as ever. Indeed, the revolution and impact of the web, on how Consultancies approach projects was reduced to seemingly a passing fad, a website, as opposed to a fundamental communication shift.

The discussion had me questioning what a Brand Consultancy is in 2011. What it’s principal focus should be, and how it delivers it. Identity design and delivery is one facet of what an Consultancy does. If an Identity is considered the natural conclusion of a Brand Consultancies work, then are they just not design agencies that happen to have a strategy department? With over 10,000 Consultancies/Agencies in the UK claiming that they do ‘Brand’ It seems clear that the role of  Branding 2.0 should be about defining and arguing for a wider role for Brand Consultancies, taking in UX, community management to name just two, and using Design thinking and making through every single platform, and touchpoint be they  internal or external tools and platforms.

Fundamentally, I was taught that a great Brand is every single touchpoint of a consumer’s experience, regardless of industry or sector, consumer facing or not. It is not, and never should be just an identity. That Identity should be a symbol of change, not the concluding output of a job. Great Brand Consultancies use Strategy and Design in harmony to solve large scale business issues. In an age where as Marina Willer rightly pointed out; ‘Your Brand Is Only As Good As Google Says It Is’, a Brand Consultancy has to be much more than just an Identity roll out.

If the outputs, or yardsticks we measure Brand Consultancies must change , then another thing that struck me was the of discussion on the models of business that underpin a Consultancy. Why for example, are not more Brand Consultancies investing in the Brands themselves? This has always puzzled me, if you are a Brand Consultancy, charged with creating new ones, or refreshing moribund ones, why would you not build compensation models that tie reward to that Brands’ success? Is that not an ultimate validation of your ability to build them in the first place? Anomaly, an ‘Ad Agency’, has been doing this for years, so where’s the Brand Consultancies innovation here? Marketing chaos is spawning other interesting models like Co:, which from here, looks very much like a model that Brand Consultancies should have embraced some time ago. Or maybe really got their hands dirty with product innovation, pursued by the likes of Red Scout or IDEO.

One of the reasons I have moved away from Branding as a discipline is this lack of innovation (and having mostly it’s digital head in the sand). Brand Consultancies should be at the cutting edge of Brand innovation conversations, and delivering on them. They should be places of experimentation and bravery, not conservatism and timidity.

To be fair, Brand Consultancies may well be doing much of this, and I would love for agencies to show more of this. But, to truly talk about Branding 2.0, then these innovations should be championed, less pushed to the side to repackage old thinking as brave new worlds. The morning’s event showed one creative industries response to change, to innovate and to tear up conventions and practices, to create better work. In contrast, Branding 2.0, looks alot like Branding 1.0, and that just won’t do anymore. I for one am glad that the debate has kicked off. I believe passionately in the work these agencies do. Because in doing so, it revealed far more fundmental issues that just sticking your head in the sand and shaping the conversation around the whether the logo moves or not. Lets hope the next talk is about looking forward, not just shaping the past to look like the future.

Last night, I was one of the lucky people to snag a ticket to the second of D&AD’s ‘El Presidente’s’ Sanky Lecture series. Simply titled Pecha Kucha (Everything Is More Interesting Than Your Desk). I’d never heard of Pecha Kucha (fail I know), but simply put, it’s 20 slides, 20 seconds a slide. This simple construct last night created some really interesting dynamics, both of content and delivery and how natural extroverts excelled in this enviroment. You got nothing to say? And don’t know how to tell it succintly? Then frankly, your fucked.

Luckily, every single one of the presenters last night, while not all natural extroverts, told amazingly inspiring stories. Some were linear, some were abstract, some were absurdist, some were sublime, some very polarising, but they were never boring. It might sound hyperbolic ‘the morning after’ but this was an inspiring experience that will stay with me and I hope a great deal of the other audience members for a long time yet. This was in no small part to how the speakers spanned massively divergent practices but in the end, threaded up a to greater whole.

In the spirit of the event, I’ll surmise my take out from each one succintly and come back to the narrative I took from it later.

It’s Nice That
Having a blog name that does what it says on the tin is crucial, (see sexyexecs.blogspot.com et al). The web throws up bonkers found shit all the time, (passiveagressivenotes.com) And having an ever mindful creative eye on the world around throws up brilliant stuff (Matt Stuart – googles top hit as photographer)

Simon Waterfall
Simon (not literrally) threw his slides in a random order, which created a chaotic and fun journey. Main take outs? Otters (particuarly ceramic ones) are annoying, sci-fi is technology porn, delta airlines are beyond shit (Agree) and Atlanta airport is equally shit (hopefully won’t have to agree) fountain pens are awesome,  and Burning Man is arranged as system that makes it almost impossible to lose people (and easy to meet people).

Bibliotheque
John and the boys managed to slow the pace and provided in classic Bibliotheque style a clear and precise system of inpsirations, that was both personal, and professional in equal measure. The three divided time to 6.3333333333 seconds per image. Strangely hypnotic, personally fascinating.

Kate Moross
Triangles, computer games, chipmunks, found stuff (truthfully every creatives love), Jewish Camp, Rock Band Metallica dreams, insomnia, a massive collection of NOW albums, The Sims and isometric game design make up some rather lovely and highly modern take on the world.

MrBingo
Simply bought the house down. Smiling soldiers at 6, council graffiti cover ups that looks like abstract art. Found objects (again) that look and sound like geezers asking for a light outside the local moody boozer. Reimagining the young persons death photo in the local newspaper from a cheesy graduation photo (subtext – so much to live for etc.) to a smorgasboard of interests surrounding a slightly faded pic culled from facebook it seems (chiefs likes I noticed: Vanilla Ice). You sort of had to be there. Brilliant.

Tomato Design
We started with this logo, we quickly moved onto a brilliantly sideways look at the cultural meanings of this. The first logo? Abstract, funny, but thoughtful.

As we rounded the corner into the final stretch, things took on slighlty more polemical tone, with a few ‘legends’ (and one idiot) joining the fray…

Andy Cameron
Wow. ‘It’s not technology, it’s what you do with it.’ this was a sometimes awesome breakdown of digital from someone who has been there from ‘the start’ we saw videos from Yoko Ono’s Fluxus Group art moment ‘Cut Piece‘ to the the work of Giotto di Bondone in Italy back in the day (the 14th Century to be exact), and also found out that the Bennetton Fabrica centre by Tadao Ando also doubles as a very useful real life Quake game level (who knew?).

SomeOne
Mr Manchipp very eloquently expanded on current branding themes that are true to some hearts (e.g mine) while smashed it out the ball park with others. Highlights included the logo is dead moment that had the butt cheeks of many designers in the audience clenching at the thought. A nice exploration of the concept of Brandworld, using the example of Hermes moving way beyond the logoification of it’s brand to a holistic approach that still derives for value (and desirability) for those who wish to be associated with it. He also had a picture in his deck of what look like a fist up an arse.

Neville Brody
The Design Idiot (his words, changed from legend before the event) provided the first true ‘hush’ moment of the event. The reverence was thick in the air, which Brody proceeded to use to smash a metaphorical steel chair over the attendees heads with our lack of engagement in the social fabric of our day, (“this fucking government with their fucking cuts”) and the co-opting of icons (e.g Che Guevara as a symbol of commodity). It gave the room a heavy comedown from the jovialness of some of the other speakers, but by using examples of Tibor Kalman and and the Situationists and this as examples it became a rallying and thought provoking presentation.

Graham Fink
You know you’re in for something special when the speaker brings a samurai sword onto stage. Fink sythed through his potted history of, citing heroes (Tony Kaye in particular) and brilliantly making sure that all of us in the room, the ideas we have had and will have, all originate from the same place. A microscopic amoeba, (pic here) about as sideways a look as you can get and genius with it.

So what did we ‘learn’ then from this? Well firstly, I hope my surmations have done a small justice to what went on in Logan Hall last night. If it hasn’t well, BUY A TICKET NEXT TIME.

Taking a pen and pencil to this event would have been pointless, because this wasn’t about learnings you could put into you next powerpoint presentation (or indeed in a blogpost as Brody pointed out) this was a celebration of instinct, the creative instinct that we all share, that as Fink pointed out “can’t be fucking planned by a planner” (cue applause). But instinct isn’t enough, to create great work, across any creative sphere, is to be DISRUPTIVE. Game changing fly in the fucking face of convetion balls to wall brilliant stuff comes for this place. To be your own person, not a sheep, tracking trends doing more, but doing different, bold and sometimes bonkers to push society and yourself forward. Not more stuff for stuffs sake, but do awesome shit.

Sanky’s call to arms reflects this. Everything Is More Interesting Than Your Desk

I’m now going out do something amazing.

You should do that to.

@Saneel (of BBH Labs) tweeted this supreme document from the Creative Labs crew at Google. It does a cracking job of rounding up every decent bit of creativity we have seen in the last year or so using technology as a platform to create brilliant and engaging work. It serves as both an inspiring summary doc, and the biggest gauntlet throw down to all of us to strive and create better and more inspiring work. (Well, that’s what it did for me anyway) Check it out here.

I’m sure many (if not all of us) have seen the fantastic ‘Making Future Magic’ video collaboration between Japanese in London Ad Agency Dentsu and BERG London. (Ironically, I saw David Berg present excitedly at PSFK London, talking about the project in hushed tones, now we can see why). I personally love the Dentsu positioning. It’s brilliantly optimistic, and works as a creative rallying cry that both simple and challenging. So, it’s nice to see the first work post ‘Making Future Magic’ is suitably gorgeous and intelligent. Shot for Canon Pixma Colour Printers, Sound Sculptures sees Dentsu return to it’s interesting collaborations with bio-chemist & Photographer Linden Gledhill. The full story is over at Dentsu itself, (and a behind the scenes Flickr set here) but I must say these are very charming and lovingly crafted. Good work, and I’m looking forward to see more from the Making Future Magic stable.

Some friday inspiration for you from the guys at Creative Social. If you don’t know what it is, then the easiest way to explain it is that it’s a bit like the NBA all star game for the interactive advertising community. Looks like I’ll have to get practising to get into the next one… But I digress, what I found really inspring and I must say, quite jealous about this was the quality of speakers they had at the last one in San Francisco (Pixar heavy with Brad Bird and the composer of the ‘Up’ soundtrack Michael Giacchino) as well as the collegiate atmosphere of these gatherings. An acknowledgement that the work we aspire to create should not only do a job for our clients (otherewise we’d all be out of jobs pronto), but as much be aspire to be a part of culture, not a leech, as well that a spirit of entrepeneuralism and vision will go a long way. That spirit of thinking was captured in the most recent Creative Social blogpost, from Saatchi NY Interactive CD James Cooper, (Worth a follow on Twitter @koopstakov) with his concept of Zero Waste Creativity. An embryonic idea that seeks to eliminate waste in the creative process by actually structuring the brief, setting clear goals and effectively putting in real hard work at the front end, to minimise the waste at the back end. Have a read (and the excellent Edward Booches comments over at PSFK), but it stands that Creative Social is a place where these ideas are given center stage, and as such should be treasured even by those outside the small gatherings themselves.