Latvia, with a population of just below 2 million won the first Grand Prix in Cannes. The Grand Prix for Good in Cannes was awarded to ‘#StillSpeakingUp DeepTruth’, Propuesta Cívica + Reporters Sans Frontieres, Publicis Mexico / Publicis Latvia, Riga; a first Grand Prix for Latvia.
According to the research done by Adlatina (part of Ad Age), Latvia was the most effective country in the Cannes Lions competition (effectiveness is counted by dividing the awards won by the number of submissions).
How is that possible?
Balticbest jury member Andrey Tyukavkin, the ECD of Publicis Latvia, knows the secret recipe. “If you are small, team up with the big ones,” advises Mr. Tyukavkin. “I am a member of Publicis Global Product Committee and we meet and discuss clients and ideas. I met Diego, the Creative Director of Publicis Mexico there and we started brainstorming on this Mexican Reporters Sans Frontieres idea. I am an expert in deep fake technology and Mexican agency needed my skillset. No client in Latvia would have had a budget like that. Plus Publicis Mexico also paid for the Cannes Lions henry fees”, explains Tykavkin.
How to generate breakthrough ideas?
“The only way to have good ideas is to have many ideas,” thinks Mr. Tyukavkin. “At one point, the quantity transforms to quality. I post all ideas I have in mind to Trello and then once a week, on Saturdays, I sort them and think to whom to sell. So I send out the ideas to potential clients. Most of the time, they do not respond. But every now and then, you get a reply. I got the reply from the CMO of Burger King in the USA and I was able to sell him my idea,” is Tykavkin proud.
Agencies often do not have the luxury to offer ideas to potential clients for free. “Agencies need to think like entrepreneurs and not limit ourselves. We are in the ideas business and compete with influencers, YouTubers, bloggers. We need to find the market for our ideas and sell them globally,” concludes Tyukavkin.
According to Tykuavkin, the measure of quality is ambition – whether it is or not. “Talent is good, skills and creativity can be learned and developed, but ambition is not. Competitions and competitions are a good point of reference for ambition. ”
