Melissa Lau, Cannes Lions Media Academy Graduate
Instagram had a fireside chat with the iconic and legendary Instagrammer John Legend on using his platform for well, the greater good. I think everyone’s seen John’s campaign with Pampers. Did you know it was him and his team who approached Pampers with the idea of revolutionising diaper ads by advocating #DaddyDiaperDuties ? We can see the authenticity behind John’s Instagram feed of his love for his family and all things life. It all started with a simple Instagram post of him singing to his daughter which turned into an idea to pitch to Pampers. No one has ever talked about dad’s doing the ‘dirty work’ and this was a conversation he felt needed to be said. Fast forward to today, he’s about to work with Pampers to install 5000 diaper changing rooms in men’s bathrooms across the US. This all started by his belief in having real connections with his fans by showing his vulnerability and authenticity on his platform. Influencers take note!
TradeDesk CEO, Jeff Green who came from a background of working in multiple startups spoke on the importance of emotional leadership for today’s generation. After working for Bill Gates and knowing people who worked for Steve Jobs, he announced that “The era of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is over”. Jeff acknowledged that the generation today are a vocal one, a generation that cares about being heard and about social issues in the world. A generation that will leave your company if they felt dictated. It was a relief to see that there are CEOs out there who have discussed this topic throughout the week, acknowledging that the shift in leadership styles and building company culture is more important than ever.
Say hello to the Young Lions Media Academy Alumni! After graduating from the academy last year, Jenny (second from right) of DAN USA shared all of her ideas with her boss, including a competition for DAN employees to attend the academy. It was inspiring to see who the academy and festival had an impact on and the big changes they’ve made in their careers in just a year. Jenny and some of her peers went back to work and created new departments and initiatives to keep the workforce challenged and inspired to take the next step forward. Perhaps I’ll return to Malaysia with some fresh ideas too?
Fernando Machado and Marcelo Pascoa of Burger King sure know how to make a room roar! They shared their top 5 tips on surviving the ‘adpocalypse’:
- Design you’re way out.
- Doing is better than saying — you may not remember what you saw but you may remember an experience. An experience has the opportunity to turn a customer into a fan.
- New monsters new weapons. Technology is not the enemy. Embrace technology and innovate.
- Love your product — be the change you want to see around you and in your product. Did you know Burger King has an initiative to remove artificial flavours, colours and preservatives to make a clean burger in the States?
- Get out — rechannel your negative energy of complaining about work and being uninspired into coming up with innovative ideas.
Nick Brien, CEO of DAN Americas discussed the change in consumer receptivity towards ads and how we are too focused on interruption. We forget that consumers are people too and as advertisers need to remember that media is about working the magic of creativity together with the math of data to bring innovative experiences to people. There hasn’t been a more crucial time to collaborate and integrate within our agencies like the dentsu One initiative to rebuild brand trust amongst our consumers.
Bessie Lee of Within Link gave insight on loneliness marketing in China for the single child generation and how that’s completely innovated the limited social media industry in China. They have the largest population of people who constantly have the need to feel engaged with an online community and companies like Tencent have leveraged on this by developing apps and using data to serve short form user-generated content that can also be contextually served to the online community. China’s AI technology has a marriage between media and content while keeping human connection alive and relevant.
Melissa Lau is a Media Planner at dentsu X Malaysia.
