Q&A: MEDIA CREATIVITY ON A GLOBAL STAGE

Competing and bringing your best ideas in the creative communications industry to a global stage - with only 24 hours to do it - is no small feat. But going beyond campaign norms and unleashing new ideas from Canada's next generation media professionals is what the Globe and Mail's Canada's Young Lions competition is all about.

In 2020, teams were challenged to create a big idea in a strategic brief for Gender Creative Kids Canada, focusing on raising awareness of discriminatory behaviour and advocating for change.

We caught up with Dustin Wilson and Naveed Ahmed (representing OMD Canada at the time), winners of the Media category with their innovative project 'Building a Genderless World', who shared their views on what makes a strong creative campaign and where they continue to pull inspiration from in these changing times.

Q: As a Young Lion and winner last year - what do you feel makes or breaks a creative idea?

Dustin: For both this competition and our everyday work, simplicity is key for nailing a creative idea. When you only have your audience for 5 minutes, you need to tell your story well enough that your audience can visualize a concept that they are hearing about for the very first time. Then, you need to back it up with strong rationale as to why your idea will work. A great creative idea is hard to sell without rationale.

Naveed: Absolutely agree with Dustin here, creative ideas that make or break really come down to the communication of the idea (simplicity in the narrative) in tandem with not constraining yourself with the limits set forth. This liberation from constraints (that we often tend to impose on ourselves in our daily work) - really helped us look beyond the traditional realm of “what’s possible”. Once we had our draft, we then worked on our rationale behind it to really seal the deal.

Q: What's your favourite Cannes Lion winning campaign over the years and what makes it stand out?

Dustin: I’ve always been fascinated by traditional media innovation, so the campaign that stands out to me is the ‘Aldi’s Fresh Print Campaign’ from 2018. The notion that you can innovate the newspaper by creating a way to be ‘real-time’ and then connect that back to the freshness of the company’s produce is really unique. It wasn’t complex, but the best ideas don’t need to be complex. I’ve spoken to people in the industry who have argued that innovation is useless unless consumers recognize the innovation. While that might be true from the consumer experience perspective, I would challenge our industry to have fun while we’re working and remember that sometimes we should roll with fun ideas to continue bringing excitement to our work. And hey, they’ve won awards for this campaign, so it must have been worth it.

Naveed: In a world of extreme polarization, most brands would do whatever it takes to be politically correct and ensure the safety of their brand, but not Nike. Cannes 2019 grand prix “Dream Crazy” starring Colin Kaepernick really stood out to me for this specific reason. Nike won the award for outdoor media that year and I found that particularly interesting because it’s the first time that I had witnessed a brand take their “controversial” online campaign to the real world (outdoor) instead of being brand safe and shutting it down.

Q: In your view, what drives real or impactful creativity and innovation?

Dustin: The realist in me used to believe that creativity mixed with hard work and perseverance to bring something to life is what lets you hit the jackpot of innovation. What I’ve learned in the last year since COVID hit, is that you need to evoke a variety of emotions from your audience and that you never know what emotion to evoke unless you put yourself in their shoes. When you find the right message to evoke the right emotion at the right time, that’s where you spark a genuine and memorable connection with consumers.

Naveed: I firmly believe impactful creativity and innovation requires providing solutions to current issues or addressing an impending need. Traditional approaches to innovation have been to disrupt an incumbent industry. But sometimes creativity can come as easily as updating the Apple Face ID to work with our masks on, as a creative hack during the pandemic.

Q: How do you keep yourself creative and inspired in the current climate?

Dustin: As an extrovert, I thrive with face-to-face interactions, conversations, and discussions, so having to work from home has definitely been a challenge for me when I’ve always thought about my team as my second family. With that said, the most impactful thing keeping me inspired is having a mental separation between work and home, since we can’t have a physical separation. I try to get out on daily walks or runs, get some cycling in on the weekends, and most importantly I’m keeping myself busy with personal things to ensure I have a break from work and feel refreshed when I return. The other small thing that makes a huge difference is seeing my teammates on camera – I know a lot of people are experiencing video call fatigue, but nothing is better than seeing someone laugh and smile.

Naveed: I’ve been introspecting and trying to think of creative ways to make my day-to-day routine more enjoyable. I have tried varying my work hours, trying to make new dishes, catching up with old friends, reading a variety of new books. This really allows me to achieve a good balance between work and the rest of my life. It is when I am at my best and aware of my own mental health that I can be inspired and inspire others to be creative and optimistic – even during tough times like this.