Creativity was the hot topic and Cannes was the inspiration behind a new industry event in Toronto last night.
Dubbed the “Summer of Creativity,” it was a seminar/party mashup that started with two thought provoking discussions featuring some of the city’s most creative thinkers, followed by a late-into-the-night celebration of creativity DJ’d by Walshy Fire of the famous dance music group Major Lazer.
The event, which took place on the eastern edge of Toronto’s waterfront with the city’s skyline as a backdrop, was produced by the content and production company S8 and motivated by its recent trip to Cannes for the International Festival of Creativity. For the second year in row, S8 produced the opening and closing galas of the festival.
The goal of Summer of Creativity was to bring some of that creative inspiration and celebration that infuses Cannes and transplant it in Toronto for one night, said S8 CEO Rodney Davis.
The evening began with a panel discussion led by Marketing’s editor-in-chief Shane Schick and included Taxi’s Jordan Doucette, Sid Lee’s Dustin Rideout, Stefan Woronko of Smith (part of S8) and director Tim Hamilton.
The conversation covered a range of topics and some of the most important variables that can either constrain or inspire creative thinking today—from budgets and the importance of data and disruptive technologies, to the fear of change and, well, fear itself.
“Fear is the death of creativity,” was the succinct summation from Hamilton. “It is so embedded in corporate structures when times are difficult.”
“We are really fearful in Canada overall,” said Rideout. “That is why there are so many market research firms in the country.”
Taxi’s Doucette agreed: “We used to use research to help and inform and guide, now we just use it to decide.”
The problem with an overreliance on research is it leads to basic ideas that are easily relatable to the broadest audience, but otherwise underwhelming. “Sometimes, people don’t need to get an idea immediately,” said Rideout. “Sometimes the most powerful ideas need some time to sink in.”
Creative agencies have to do a better job of giving their clients the confidence to run with those ideas rather than what can be extracted from market research, he said.
One of the other key messages from the panel was the importance for brands to be brave enough to have a point of view and not worry about offending everyone.
Rideout sometimes tells clients that rather than focus on the audience they care about, think about the audience they don’t care about. “It helps change the conversation a little bit so they can have a point of view,” he said.
With a great idea and a strong point of view, brands can do great things with small budgets, said Doucette.
“It is when you lose the idea and you lose the point of view, and you are just making things to make things, then the money starts to matter because that is the thing that kind of makes it OK.”
The panel was followed by a discussion between Vice Canada’s head of content Patrick McGuire and Toronto’s influential and award-winning director Director X, who explained how he finds creativity on his projects and manages the creative minds he works with.
The key to finding the original ideas that make a successful project is starting with a “pure canvas” and no forced ideas about creating magic or replicating other successes, he said, though he also admitted to being superstitious about the process. “I feel like if someone walks into a meeting and says, this is going to be a super-viral hit that everyone is going to love than I think it is not going to be a super-viral hit that everyone is going to love.”
Director X, whose recent work includes Rihanna and Drake’s “Work” video as well as Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video, also explained how he trusts the instincts of his team but doesn’t want them questioning his instincts or those of other people on the job.
“If you are the director and you are sitting in the director’s chair, you are now linked to an instinct about your job,” he said. It’s the same for the art director, or director of photography or anyone else on the team—he trusts their instincts for their job, but doesn’t want them questioning his instincts as director.
“You think you are changing my mind, you are wrong. Do not discuss, do not even debate it. Don’t try unless you are really trying not to work with me any more,” he said.
“You get 100% of your job, all of it. So long as you don’t try to make me change my mind, you get everything. The trade off is you get none of anybody else’s job.”
A portion of proceeds from the event were donated to POV Third Street, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping at-risk youth build careers in the film media industry.
Marketing will be building on the themes from Summer of Creativity at its forthcoming fall conference Marketing Live: The Story Begins, which will be held at the Sony Centre in Toronto on Oct. 20.
