Marcus Tesoriero: Creative trends from the tropics

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Marcus Tesoriero is creative director at tech-driven CX, creative and media agency Affinity, Sydney and was deputy jury president for Interactive and Mobile at AdFest in Pattaya, Thailand. He writes exclusively for Campaign Brief.

Creative Intelligence was the reinvigorated theme for AdFest 2016 – and it produced a host of thought-provoking talks, discussions and workshops delivered by some of the best minds in our industry. I wish I could have seen everything, but fortunately, as it turns out, my selections were some of the highlights for the week. Yes, I missed other great speakers, too – some of whom I know personally – so apologies if I don’t drop you a mention, guys. Below are three of my standouts.

2. AdFest-Paul & quote.jpgFirst up, a message that really struck a chord for me, courtesy of Paul Kemp-Robertson, founder and editorial director of Contagious London. His talk on The Dangers of Anti-Creativity, analysed the psychology behind clients picking safe ideas. “Yes”, I hear you say, “this isn’t entirely new news”. Battling the mediocrity of creative sold to clients is a fight I take on personally every day, too. But the strength of Paul’s talk actually comes from his scientific evidence that humans inherently have a bias towards safe ideas – hence it becomes much more than an opinion. I applaud Paul’s presentation to get the message out; not only to creative minded people, but also to clients and agency folk who have a responsibility to sell ground-breaking work to them. Who knows, if everyone becomes aware of this scientific trait, we might just give truly innovative work that extra 10% push it needs to get across the line?

Eric Cruz, Executive Creative Director of AKQA Shanghai delivered an engaging talk around the world’s ever-accelerating technological evolution and our new ventures into artificial intelligence, or AI as it’s better known today. What does it all mean for us? The fear is that robots and AI could someday become so useful that humans will become useless. Will we all be jobless? Not according to Eric. He believes that because of AI’s inability to become creative, strong human minds will remain the only body parts worth employing. Those only with strong biceps, however, may not be so lucky. Creative intelligence is the thing that will separate us from the pack. Eric also talked about some of his multifaceted creative team and the projects they’ve built in recent times. And you can’t argue a point with the mind behind such work as The House of Mamba for Nike – a world-first reactive basketball court that tracks the data of players for real-time training management. Genius.

4 AdFest-Richard ¶ quotest.jpgAnother talk that got my attention on the data front was Fuelling Intelligent Creative by Proximity’s Richard Frazer. The subtext of his speech combated the data-haters out there who believe that data-driven creativity is an oxymoron. Now, this is something close to my heart as data-driven creativity represents our exact positioning at Affinity, too. For anyone I gave my agency’s two-minute elevator pitch to over the AdFest week, Richard’s presentation was the forty-five-minute version. My interpretation is that data isn’t a dirty word. It isn’t numbers, it’s information – information to fuel more insightful creative executions that produce results. And that’s the difference. Creative executions still need to be just as innovative as they’ve always been; only now we can use data to make them more meaningful and targeted within people’s lives.

5. AdFest-Marcus on stage.jpgData, in fact, was a key factor in both AdFest Grande Lotus awards we selected in the interactive and mobile categories. The interactive Grande Lotus went to The Emotional Trailer for its standout innovation in a low-budget category. Utilizing multiple technologies and an imaginative use of data, The Melbourne International Film Festival turned the real emotions of critic reviews into captivating executions of advertising across multiple digital and traditional channels. In turn, the work produced incredible results for a target audience who are notoriously fickle to entice.

We awarded the mobile Grande Lotus to the Pedigree Found App within the geolocation category. Unlike other locator styled apps that require other users to download an app on the other end to communicate, the Found App utilises the Google Ad network to spread messages of a lost dog within localised Pedigree banner ads – all targeted at other dog-lovers. A brilliant piece of work integrating mobile behaviour to solve a real everyday problem for Pedigree’s target audience ¬- which, in turn, brought them priceless amounts of brand loyalty.  

6. AdFest-group shot.jpgSigning off now from a fantastically-organised event, we say goodbye to creative connections met and new friends made. Here’s a few photos to keep the memories alive.

7.jpg 9 AdFest-Walking Street.jpg10 AdFest-bugs.jpg12871444_10204001419834226_2584778933645810956_n-thumb-400x416-213553.jpg11 AdFest-Laptop pool (1).jpg 12.jpg14 (1).jpg15 (1).jpg16 (1).jpg

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