Cogs in Cannes – Day 6

Paul Coghlan, senior creative at Meerkats gives his take on the festival after day six….

Here’s a photo of me having dinner with some of the other West Aussies over here.

As you can see, I’m quite excited about experiencing the local cuisine. Quite excited.

I reckon everything is kind of hitting its stride. There seems to be a calm around the place – a limbo in anticipation for Saturday night. And not even the copious amounts of free drumstick ice creams everyone was eating could break that calm. I think i smashed three all up as i pondered some of the great minds talking through their perspectives on the future of our industry.

From this day forth, whenever I eat a drumstick, i will be reminded of the great ad man Sir (yes, a ‘sir’) John Hegarty. I remember thinking this guy was a God when i read his stuff in uni. And he’s still up there, after today.

His talk was about the fact that growth needs space. He believes our changing world is forcing us to think about difference. And he believes deep down humans have a fear of difference. When he delved into the conventional rigors of our everyday processes, he pulled out this quote, ‘If you ask the same people, the same thing, in the same way, you’ll get the same response’. He reckons in the 80s cars all tried to look the same. He believes advertising is like that these days with the small logo, bottom right mentality. He referred to psychologists talking about dishabituation. I like that word, dishabituation. The Fosbury Flop – dishabituation.

The crux was he believes growth needs space and space needs difference. Awesome talk.

Let me rewind back to the start of the day. I went to the Wieden & Kennedy workshop.

They decided rather than bestow their infinite planning wisdom on us, they’d recruit people outside of advertising to talk about how they ‘plan’ what they do. First up was a woman high up there in Green Peace, Kay Clark (she used to be a planner). Basically she cited a few examples of ‘non-violent intervention’ and touched on how much goes into the planning of these events. The huge Green Peace sign on Mount Rushmore took 18 months to plan. They hired professional rock climbers and seeded them into a local town like James Bond for 2 weeks before the event. Lots of planning. The campaign paid off with loads of coverage.

Her take on an Intervention was interesting. She reckons it’s about creating a space for a different perspective to be heard. Clearly ties into branding. Let’s create space around our brands, then provide a message that’s an interesting or new perspective.

Then India’s greatest wedding planner got up. Her story was fantastic. As India’s greatest wedding planner, she deals with big kahunas – we’re talking a 50,000+ invite list. But she reckons it’s not about being extravagant. It’s about asking her customers what their dreams are about then planning it around what comes from the heart – epic, yet still personal. She found that one of the richest families in India was very down to earth so she explored soft fabrics, soft light and made the entire party feel close to the action.

Again, relating to brands. We work out a brand’s ‘dream’ and then we come from the heart of that dream.

Off to party now!