Creativity matters, and how

The Lions festival is well underway and with every successive year, one is struck with the realisation that this isn’t only a celebration of creativity anymore. It’s more a celebration of the relevance of creativity in today’s complex and evolving media landscape. An annual reaffirmation that ideas matter, that they have the innate power to transform the fortunes of brands and that creativity is unquestionably a business multiplier. That’s a big shift from the days when festivals like these were seen mostly as self-congratulatory industry huddles.

This year, the number of delegates has definitely gone up, if the level-transcending queues outside the Debussy and Lumiere theatres are any indication. What’s more important than the numbers is the fact that it’s truly more representative of the world of creativity – with delegates from more creative, marketing and entertainment disciplines from across the world. All united by the common purpose of immersing themselves and contributing to each other’s understanding of the bigger picture. So, it’s a festival of marketing science, of data, strategy, craft, showbiz and how it all has the potential to come together to make your brand more relevant. Of course, all this, against the backdrop of the French Riviera and copious amounts of Rose’!

What’s heartening to see is India underlining its presence this year. At the Lions Health post-party, it was amply evident that team Medulla had put the country in the health-advertising spotlight. Kudos to them. The second awards night is a couple of hours away, and with an impressive number of shortlists, it’ll be interesting to see how much of a metal-magnet India turns out to be.

Moving on to the most interesting bit of the festival – the talks. As usual, the line-up of speakers is stellar and incredibly diverse. David Copperfield, the renowned illusionist, was on stage on day one speaking about the importance of simple storytelling. How stories are the building blocks of engagement. He drew an analogy between advertising and magic saying both crafts were about touching the lives of viewers/consumers. He also threw in some levitating paper balls and a vanishing goose to drive home his point!

Another brilliant session I attended featured musician Brian Eno, best known for his work in ambient and electronic music. He spoke of how technology can take creativity to a new level – almost intuitive and evolving – with specific reference to his experiments in creating sound. He spoke of his dissatisfaction with the current status-quo in music and how it was important to evolve.

There was also a talk by London-based agency Contagious Communications today on how it used data science to crack the code of creativity. The inferences the agency drew from analysing the most effective and awarded campaigns shows a great path for brands and agencies –why great creativity is not a function of massive budgets and even challenger brands have an equal shot at it, provided clients invest trust, bravery and time with their agencies. Their research proves that 10-year plus client/agency relationships experience two times the average rate of creating winning campaigns. So, a shotgun approach to hiring and firing agencies might turn out to be unproductive in the long run.

The author is chief creative officer, Grey Group India