David Droga calls on creatives to realise their worth at Cannes Lions
David Droga opened the Cannes advertising festival with a call for creatives to recognise their own value and a reminder to the industry that their integrity matters.
Droga, Australia’s most celebrated advertising export and one of the most awarded admen, presented the opening keynote of the 2018 Cannes Lions about the 12 months since receiving the festival’s Lion of St. Mark for lifetime achievement to the ad industry last year.
“A lot of this business is run by people who are happy that us creatives are content with just winning things and not getting material impact,” Droga said as he recounted his early years in London.
“Too many creatives aren’t well compensated and aren’t being rewarded well enough and getting the fuzzy end of the stick.
“Why can’t creative people get rewarded for what they do at agencies? Because so much of what we do and the work we put out there is the lifeblood of agencies.”
Droga couldn’t help having a swipe at Sir Martin Sorrell’s current position and Publicis’ withdrawal from this year’s awards saying: “A number of things have happened in 2018. The festival is smaller. You could say condensed and concentrated. The industry swirl is arguable bigger. Martin Sorrell is now an underdog. Whoever knew?
“Marcel finally launched, all that AI and why they boycotted the festival but there are more Publicis people here and all their things are entered anyway.
Droga warned authenticity is what works in the ad industry pointing out: “Every time we’ve tried to pretend to be someone who we are not, it never works.”
“Always present what you think is the right solution, not the solution you think is best for you. So much of our industry benefits ourselves more than our clients.”
Droga wound up his keynote with a reminder to the advertising industry of what it can do: “Our job is to move people and do extraordinary things.”
His final words are reasonable objective to strive for.
ReplyYet agencies still continue to hire creatives who are generally clueless blowhards.
And cannes continues to hand out awards for self indulgent executions to irrelevant problems for non existent businesses.
Unless courageous creative folks stop sipping the overpriced koolaid and start demonstrating business results, they’d realise their current value is way overpriced.
I am sure the audience was full of creatives nodding their heads, whereas half of those in attendance are the cause of the problem rather than the solution.
ReplyHonestly, Cannes is trying desperately to keep its head above water. No-one gives a damn about The Lions and all the other crap that goes along with this ‘festival’ apart from ad agencies. The public couldn’t care less about who made the best art direction and what Grand Prix winner used a special VR technique to create a world within a world.
Dear ad agencies, Stop investing your money in a huge yearly piss-up. Invest your money in your people. Reward them financially, spiritually and create amazing work environments. Make them FEEL energized at work. In doing so, you will have a brilliant workforce of motivated people, hell-bent on creating work that clients believe in and that makes the public love the brands they are buying from.
Reply@clive
You would think so wouldn’t you?
Sadly many clients do care and are moved by a shallow piece of metal. It’s what keeps the sad charade going.
But fully agree. For every ECD and MD posting pictures across social of them sitting on a beach with glass in hands, there are teams of people back at the agency who hate these people just a little bit more…
ReplyWell, those social media pics have long been embarrassing because the [Edited under Mumbrella’s community guidelines].
ReplyWho cares about awards anymore? Please get with the times! Metal = for prehistoric old creatives who can’t forget their glory days. Time to move on kiddos. The world is passing you by.
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