Meeting the Future of Advertising
My Time at Minds Wide Open II
During the week of September 12th, I attended the Minds Wide Open II Creative Bootcamp on the beautiful Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan, on behalf of Fitzco. This bootcamp mirrors the One Show Creative Bootcamp in Asia that has been running successfully for more than 14 years. The bootcamp is run by The One Club board member Ross Chowles and CEO Kevin Swanepoel — the men who pioneered and run the Asia bootcamp.
The bootcamp takes a large group of students, breaks them up into teams, pairs them with mentors, and sets them loose with a simple brief from a very cool client — in this case, Airbnb. At the end of the week, the students present their campaigns to their mentors and a few guest judges, and the winners are announced at a gala later that night. Throughout the week, the mentors give presentations to the university students. It was an amazing experience, and below are a few of my takeaways.
Ad People Are Ad People
Of the 60+ students who flew in for the bootcamp, most were Asian, with a few German students rounding it out. The 15+ judges were British, Spanish, South African, Chinese, German; we worked with a translator in work sessions, workshops and even at the awards ceremony. There is an invisible bond between ad people that I am not sure exists with, say, airport luggage handlers. Even if we don’t speak the same language, we can all still recognize a great idea, accept feedback, know how to work together, and yearn for the recognition that our idea is the best. When the judges got in the jury room, the winner was unanimous, as was second place. This reflects that what we do is truly universal, and that we solve problems the same way.
The Future is Solid
I was BLOWN AWAY — not only by the quality of work produced, but by how the teams worked together to get to a great place. In the breakout workrooms, students were on phones, tablets and laptops, all working on a virtual presentation somewhere in the cloud while being assisted by a translator. They were creating VR experiences, printing 3D objects, writing code, shooting and editing movies, and doing it all at an incredible speed. Then they stood up confidently in front of a lecture room and presented ideas that I’d be proud to present to Airbnb. The presentations weren’t just raw thoughts thrown together; they were slick, polished, fully formed. They actually made me rethink what is possible in regard to how we present and prototype ideas for our clients, allowing them to see our ideas closer to completion.
I was amazed — and assured that the future will be amazing.
Familiar Vibes
During my trip, I wandered around the jaw-dropping Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum designed by Zaha Hadid on the MSU campus. I wondered why it felt so familiar — until our wonderful host, Henry Brimmer, reminded me that it’s featured in the 5-minute scene where Batman meets Superman for the first time.
Friendship Endures
Eighteen years ago I left my friend, mentor and CCO Ross Chowles’ agency, The Jupiter Drawing Room, to start my own agency. Since then, Ross and I haven’t been able to do much more than exchange a “how’s the family?” at Cannes once a year. Ross had just moved with his family from South Africa to East Lansing when he invited me to attend Minds Wide Open II, and I jumped at the opportunity. Besides all the amazing work we did at the bootcamp, we also rekindled our friendship, laughing about old times, new ailments, common friends and all the shenanigans from our early time working together. I even recounted how I met my wonderful wife thanks to an ad I did at Jupiter. We left with a big hug after a ridiculously fun dinner — and it would have been worth going to East Lansing just for that hug.
At Fitzco, we’re all about finding extraordinary talent, no matter where it’s hiding. Besides always reaching out to our friends close to home at The Creative Circus, Portfolio Center, SCAD and UGA, we now have a whole new circle of student friends that spans from Beijing to Frankfurt to East Lansing. Here’s hoping some of them will get to experience our Southern hospitality.
Fitzgerald & CO is a full-service agency located in Atlanta, GA. To see more of the daring work we do for our client partners, please visit www.fitzco.com.
