Ed Gunn’s LIA Creative LIAisons Las Vegas Diary: “One of the highest-octane weeks I’ve had”

Ed Gunn (right), a planner from Colenso BBDO represented New Zealand at the 4th annual Creative LIAisons at LIA in Las Vegas. Gunn was the lucky recipient of one of the 6 free trips that Campaign Brief awarded to talented juniors in the Asia Pacific region. Here’s his report on the inspirational 4 day program.

“A little bit of this town goes a long way” wrote Hunter S. Thompson when referring to Las Vegas.

I’m here for five days.

Give me strength.

Everyone that I’d spoken to on my previous travels had said that I’ll be lucky to survive three days here, and the minute you get off the gangway, it’s easy to see why. Fit inducing lights of slot machines, the sounds of coins being won and money going in (not in equal parts), people peddling fedoras and narcotics before you even leave the terminal  – it’s the global centre of consumerism, so where better to learn from the greatest minds in advertising about how to improve our creative and make this industry even better.

Being one of only two planners out of over 100 exceptionally talented creatives from around the world, I swiftly put on a clean black t-shirt, tight jeans and Nike sneakers, in order to not arouse any suspicion.

But you learn very quickly that, although it is intended for creatives, anyone that is passionate about good ideas and how to make them effective is going to get a lot out of this. And I think coming from planning brought a different perspective to discussions on the topic.

Our first day was 8 hours of seminars from some of advertising’s heavyweights. The overarching theme was the state of advertising today – what we’re doing well, what we’re doing not so well and what we (as the next generation) should do to ensure that we keep advertising relevant and a strong force for change.

Ralph Van Dijk’s passion for the often forgotten world of radio was infectious. He reminded people that no matter what medium you use, it needs to be both relevant and clever. Because, nobody outside of our industry cares about ads. He urged us to strip briefs down to the one take home message we’re trying to get across to the world, and find a way to make it resonate and ultimately effect behavioural change.

When Amir Kassaei (left) came on, I’d be lying if I said a few of the other delegates hadn’t warned me about the CCO of DDB worldwide. He’s certainly passionate and a little hot headed, but he’s also brilliant at what he does. Hearing, from the source, about the current Volkswagen scandal from somebody so passionate about the brand was equal parts heart breaking and inspiring. A brand that he’s so passionate about, going through something as destructive as it has, and then seeing his unwavering desire to fix it showed what advertising should be all about. He also challenged us to always ask what the point is behind what we’re doing. Are we actually making people want products more, or are we merely producing work to raise our profile.

Ted Royer’s talk on empathy particularly hit home for me. He spoke about every person in advertising needs to have empathy. Empathy not only for our colleagues, but our clients and the people we are trying to influence. That’s the key to good work according to Royer. The reason this was so pertinent was because the day before, on a whim, I’d decided to go to a Scientology centre for a ‘personality and IQ test’. It turns out that I have an IQ of 180 in ‘work and activities’ but when it comes to empathy, I’ve an IQ of 25. I’m incapable of feeling it (which can only be rectified if I sign up to the church and set up an automatic debit). Suffice it to say, I called my bank manager the minute Royer had finished.  

That night we had a meet and greet dinner with all the jury and LIA organisers. The stereotype that those in high-ranking positions are arrogant, ivory tower dwellers, couldn’t be further from the truth. Discussing work we’re proud of, how planners can do more to support creative and vice versa, and how to win awards, and the value of awards for a brand. One American speaker even performed a haka for my viewing pleasure. It was a taste of home, being delivered by an American, on a rooftop pool in Vegas.  

Day 2 was slightly hazier. I’m not sure whether it was the huge amount of information absorbed on day one, or Vegas starting to take its toll. The day’s highlight was John from Google talking about collaboration. He brought up Pedigree Found, work that we at Colenso are very proud of and so was he. It lead to a bit of back and forth between he and I on the way that Colenso and Google had worked together to, in his words, make 1+1=3. He said that we need to throw out our old selves, never get set in your ways and always make a big impact.

Matt Eastwood talked about staying curious. Never be afraid to be dumb or ask stupid questions, because ignorance is the biggest crutch that anyone can have. Be open to what you don’t know and always be comfortable with being wrong. People don’t want to be around people that think that they know everything, they want people that are courageous enough to understand that they don’t know it all.  

My main take-home from the first two days was that there is no rulebook on what a good ad is or how to make one. Hearing 10 speakers, all juggernauts, talk about the same broad topics, but each having differing approaches and opinions showed that (to an extent) everyone needs to take their own path. There is no blueprint, no formula. Basically, it’s up to us how we approach it, just ensure that you’re passionate about what you do, make people take notice, achieve your goals and never be an asshole. People don’t like them, and they always (eventually) get chewed and thrown out of the industry.

It’s a top opportunity to stop, take stock and question how we are approaching our day-to-day jobs; as art directors, copywriters and planners, as well as discussing how others work at other agencies. True collaboration from agencies around the world that rarely tend to intermingle.

Now, I just need to win a bit more money, send it to the Scientologists, and I may be able to earn enough empathy to start making a difference after all that I’ve heard over the first two days.

By day 3, it would be fair to say that we were all getting into the swing of maximising our Vegas experience. Minimising time wasted doing pointless activities such as eating and sleeping, in favour of learning about creativity, jury deliberations and Vegas.

The third day was the day where we got to sit in on a jury deliberation. It was the day most of us had been anticipating since day one. On entering the room I was a little taken aback; I’d seen jury deliberations on Judge Judy quite a few times, so was shocked to see no bailiff, plaintiff nor a defendant. Instead it was a room with a big screen playing case studies, surrounded by comfy couches with seven advertising legends sat on them (including Feris Yakob, whose book Paid Attention I had coincidentally been reading on the flight over).

As someone who has written award entries and is constantly irked that I have yet to write one that’s added to Colenso’s grand prix haul, it was a priceless insight into what makes good work, and how to sell that to judges. Seeing how the judges make their decisions from a list of 300 entries, how important a good case study video is, and seeing how important category selection is when entering, was a real eye opener. Seeing these men and women unstitch a piece of work to its smallest parts, to try and identify anything that may be a bit scammy or may have a nugget of pure genius, was an experience that will stay with me. It’s what we’re all striving for – the ability to be able to quickly identify whether something’s a good idea or not by questioning e
verything that we see or hear. 

The final day was another interesting one filled of seminars. My highlight was Emad Tahtouh – a great speaker, straight shooter and director of applied technology at Finch. An ex-professional poker player, he showed that tech shouldn’t be gimmicky; it has the ability to tell a truly emotive story when used correctly.

Then, it was time for the keynote speaker. Daymond John, founder of FUBU and self-confessed ‘shark’ on the US TV show, Shark Tank. He talked about his life for the most part; the rise of FUBU, hijacking advertising with LL Cool J, that FUBU was originally going to be called BUFU (until he realised the connotations within the LGBTQ community) and his more recent celebrity endeavours. It was a great lesson in empire building and what ambition, drive and determination can result in. He challenged us to find two to five words that would describe us, as you need to be able to sell yourself before you can sell anything else.

Then, a big group of us made our way to Old Vegas for some end of trip shenanigans. I won’t go into specifics but if I had to use Daymond John’s system, the five words would be “cages, dinosaur, hostage, boxer, Mormon”.

It was one of the highest-octane weeks I’ve had. I got to meet and share drinks with some of the most inspirational people in the industry, get a feel for where this industry is going, how to make work as effective as possible, hang out with some of the best up-and-coming advertising talent on the planet and have a fistful of stories that will last a lifetime. Time to fly back, recoup some sleep and hit the ground running with a mind full of tips and inspiration to make my work, and those around me, even better.

A big thanks to LIA for organising this, Campaign Brief for sending me, and Colenso BBDO for choosing me to go.