By: Jelena Fiškuš, Creative Director, Studio Sonda
We’re ignorant, and not ashamed to admit it. Just two years ago, HURA called us and asked if we have anything to report to Effies and we asked what exactly that is. We recently recorded our first TVC and the client talked about the importance of PPM, and we acted as if we understood what that meant and nodded our heads, only to google it afterwards.
For this reason, we use every opportunity to learn something. This year we attended three great festivals in just three months, in three different parts of the world. We couldn’t be more delighted. Yesterday I wrote about the Iceland Design March, in the article titled: Iceland has an incredible sense of design, but no designer of the world will ever outdo the design of nature on this island
We have never believed in the notion that “grass is always greener on the other side”, or, in this case, that the lichen is yellower, so the next chapter of this story we will dedicate with equal joy to the national Croatian festival, Days of Communication. It’s not only that we have nothing to be ashamed of, but on the contrary, this festival can serve as a benchmark for many others. We can say this with full confidence, because we have been sitting in all the lectures there for years now, like top-notch nerds. Some lectures are more interesting, and some less, but generally speaking, all of them are quite educational. It’s not a small thing to be able to go to Rovinj (practically at home) and listen to Alex Brown last year about how he lost the elections, and this yea to listen Brad Parscale about how he won the elections in the time when only creators of The Simpsons’ thought it was possible that Trump could win. Brad – who was sitting with Trump just yesterday, and today he’s there with us – in a moment of leniency even makes you start understanding the U.S. President, and you start asking yourself was he really a victim of the media … but then again, on the other hand, he introduces you into the process of fine targeting and manipulating users in real time, and things become clearer.
There were some wonderful lectures, such as that of the global creative director of the FCB Global network, Susan Credle, about what climbing in the advertising industry is like in general, and what it’s like when you’re a woman. Then there was the endlessly charming lecture by Mr. Bingo (@mr_bingstagram), who built a career insulting people. It’s a rare talent that cannot be learned. You are either born with it or not. I used to think it’s quite bizarre for people to pay a trainer to come and make them do squats and pushups, but Mr. Bingo has taken the thing to a whole new level: people literally pay him to make foul curses at them and tell them that they have a small penis. Brilliant!
And for all those creatives and agencies who are having completely opposite experiences to those of Mr. Bingo, Days of Communication provided a workshop on agency fees …
Perhaps, as explained by Graham Fink, a multimedia artist and one of the most rewarded creators of the modern world, the whole issue about agency fees will become irrelevant, because we will soon be replaced by robots. At the most interesting lecture of this year’s festival, among other things, he showcased the campaign by McCann Japan, which consisted of competition between two spots for Clorets Mint. One was done by the flesh-and-blood creative director Mitsuru Kuramoto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=wMQ1AHB2XhQ
and the other was done by Mr. Creative Director Robot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=8cWHxd3k4gs
The public vote still sided with the human being, but with a very narrow margin. An opposite result to that achieved in the USA two years ago.
The biggest problem for the organizers of the Days of Communication are they themselves, because each year they set the bar so high, that is becoming harder to reach and surpass it with each year. How hard? Ask any creative who has been doing successful campaigns for the same client for years in a row. Also, there’s the too small hall that can’t receive all who are interested in the festival. On the other hand, both Rovinj and Lone are already an indivisible part of the festival’s identity, and it would be difficult to imagine it somewhere else, where it could retain the same charm.
