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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
DCMers have been immersing themselves in Advertising Week Europe 2016 for the last few days, which is being held at one of our flagship cinemas, Picturehouse Central, making the most of all the panels, sessions and events on offer.
Here they share some of their thoughts and highlight the key messages that they took away from the sessions that they attended.
Browse a snapshot of their experiences below and check out their photo snaps from the week here.
Check back daily for further updates!
Luke Smith, Agency Manager
Monday 18 April, 8am, The Guardian Leadership Breakfast, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
The session covered the value of creativity in a world driven by data. It taught me that creativity is a fluid process that needs more efficient processing from agencies and clients to execute ideas at speed and with faith that they will drive engagement.
It also touched on the threat ad blocking is presenting from advert bombardment. As an industry we need to see this as a challenge to improve quality, effectiveness and targeting. Respect of the consumer is vital!
This got me thinking about whether we’re being brave enough to surprise people and create viral content in the cinema environment. Should we be using a higher percentage of screen time campaigns to focus on innovation to drive relevance, impact and engagement?
Anastasia Takis, Marketing Manager
Monday 18 April, 9am, Wired Women, ITV Stage
This session took a view from the top on the industry's most pressing challenges and areas of opportunity.
A panel of inspiring industry names, including Nadine Young, Global Head of Strategy, Blue 449; Pippa Glucklich, co-CEO, Starcom Mediavest Group UK; Emma Barnett, Women's Editor, The Telegraph and Cilla Snowball, Group Chairman & Group CEO, AMVBBDO set the stage for the Week.
It taught me that if you’re working in the right company, then gender isn’t an issue. However, as a women, it is important to surround yourself with successful women who can help drive your career. Not just friends, but true champions.
Importantly, you need to learn to say what you want and make sure what you do makes you happy.
Natasha Raichman, Content and Distribution Assistant
Monday 18 April, 10am, ‘The Art of Storytelling’ with Abi Morgan & John Krichefski, IPA Stage
At this session, MediaCom’s CEO Josh Krichefski interviewed award-winning screenwriter Abi Morgan about how storytelling wins hearts and builds brands.
They discussed how storytelling can help brands create content that captures and holds their consumers’ attention; how storytelling can make pitches and presentations more powerful; the role of storytelling in creating behaviour change; and the structural secrets that underpin all successful stories.
There are different ways to “sell”, including:
- Logic (but this can be countered with logic)
- Superior power (but this can cause resentment)
- Inspiring storytelling (this makes people listen & puts them on your side)
I found it interesting when Abi spoke about “recalibrating” her pitch or her story depending on who she is selling to or collaborating with. You adapt your ideas to keep them moving. She put it as “parasitically using everyone else to tell your story”. You make decisions about the people you are engaging with based on their ‘look’, their age, their sex, etc. and from the information they share with you, and that affects how you relate to them.
Eray Galip, Innovation Manager
Monday 18 April, 12pm, Facebook presents: creativity in a connected world with Dynamo, ITV Stage
This was a fascinating session whether Nicola Mendelsohn, CBE VP EMEA, Facebook interviewed the magician, Dynamo. It covered Dynamo’s background, what inspired him to get into magic and how he modernised magic, which at the time was seen as a stale form of entertainment.
He also discussed the ways he comes up with new ideas, how he stays fresh, innovative and relevant and how he often sense-checks his ideas with his followers on Facebook! This inspired me as we should do more around getting more feedback from our customers and what they’d like to see more of.
I learnt that you constantly need to innovate and come up with new ideas to stay relevant and in demand.
Luke Smith, Agency Manager
Monday 18 April, 4pm, The Independent: It’s Changing, Are You?, ITV Stage
The Independent is the first UK national newspaper to move to a digital-only offering. Roy Greenslade quizzed members of the senior ESI Media team (commercial and editorial) about the strategy and ambition behind the decision.
They discussed how native content and collaboration between media owners is growing. Cinema is arguably the best medium to utilise the collaboration – we have externally developed content and can focus solely on commercial collaboration without being accused of bias.
This inspired me to think about how to interact with the youth market. We should be utilising data analytics, engaging innovation and not patronising this youth audience – they also crave premium content
Jeremy Kolesar, Head of Innovation
Tuesday 19 April, 12pm, The Marketer’s Toolbox, The Guardian Stage
This was a really brilliant session. A panel debated the evolving mix of advertising options and revenue streams, as well as the opportunities and challenges that come with managing a portfolio of native, personalization and targeting, and programmatic inventory.
They also explored the power of data vs creativity, which I found particularly interesting. They discussed how data is a good marker for creativity. For example, creativity made Netflix great but data is what made it work. Data informs the decisions to make good creative work and reduces the leaps of faith in creativity.
All media agencies and media owners need to collaborate on great ideas for clients without letting personal gains cloud judgement, a pointer that we’ll be taking on at DCM!