At last week’s Future Flash, an annual retreat in Ontario’s Muskoka region organized by the Institute of Communication Agencies, a dozen speakers addressed an enthusiastic group of agency leaders with the intent of providing insight on how to navigate an industry whose boundaries and rules are changing by the minute. Addressing the question “What keeps you up at night?” the speakers each brought with them unique insights from varying yet interconnected viewpoints, conveyed in compelling and information-rich presentations.
And soundbites. Lots of soundbites.
With the quippy-ness of a tweet but with the luxury of a few more characters, here are 11 of the best quotations from Future Flash that provide a moment of clarity for those looking to succeed in pushing creative boundaries.
Winston Binch
• “You have to accept pain; it’s not for the faint of heart. Things break and they break hard but you need to push through it, accept it and build into the process. It’s the nature of software and the nature of invention.” – Winston Binch, chief digital officer, Deutsch LA on bringing product invention into the agency practice (@winstonbinch)
• “We’re inevitably now in a world of fast information. So many people feel overwhelmed by the amount they need to take in and they’re consuming faster. What’s great about data and interactive journalism is that you can simplify it and get the story across faster. People can cut through to the areas they want.” – Rebecca Turner, international group head, commercial, Guardian News & Media, on how marrying technology with journalism results in a product people respond to (@MissM0neypenny)
• “Kids don’t want brands sitting next to them when they’re using software – and social media is essentially software. The reason brands aren’t welcome in feeds is that ads are seen as a tax on the user flow. If you’re navigating through your social feeds and there’s something there that’s not invited, then you’re being subject to a tax. And that’s annoying.” – Jeff Pressman, president and COO theAudience on what brands need to know about injecting themselves into social (@jeffpress)
• “I’m oversimplifying things here, but basically digital people are not funny and ad people don’t know utility. When you find the exception, hire them!” – Winston Binch, chief digital officer, Deutsch LA on finding the right kind of people for non-traditional agency work (@winstonbinch)
Related
• Contagious’ Cannes contenders on display at Future Flash
• How Mondelez fosters innovation in tough times
• Tom Morton’s 5 myths and secret laws of marketing
• “The question is more around the audience’s willingness to read. The beauty of digital is that we can produce an infinite amount of materials. But if there’s not an audience there to read it, should we be putting our efforts there? Those have been the most interesting questions for us. You can base all of your decisions on metrics but that’s not a very good way to do it. We have to do all things that the data suggests people want well as things for the public good. Those are the choices: deciding on the journalism we should be doing and not just making click based decisions.” – Cory Haik, executive producer, digital news, The Washington Post on how access to data affects the journalistic decision-making process (@coryhaik)
Lourenço Bustani
• “Purpose-driven companies are 16 times more profitable than their competitors” – Lourenço Bustani, co-founder, Mandalah, Brazil on how innovation with purpose is more than just a feel-good endeavor (@lbustani)
• “49% of U.S. consumer packaged goods sales come from the bottom 80% of buyers. In other words; semi-detached buyers are vital to brands.” – Tom Morton, head of strategy and associate partner, Goodby Silverstein & Partners on the importance of broadening your strategy beyond core customers (@tommorton)
• “We should be moving away from customer satisfaction as a way that we measure our success to customer effort. We should be thinking about how we are we reducing customer efforts and making it really easy for people to engage with us, because the bar for the simple experience is rising all the time. If you’re a marketer or content creator or media company, you’re competing with the last good experience that your customer had that day. You’re not just competing with the other companies in your sector.” – Jess Greenwood, creative partnerships, Google NY on how embracing the principles of experience designers can lead to a better creative product (@JessGreenwood)
• “When you want to experiment, I would encourage you to bring numbers to the table so you can calm nervousness of those most driven by numbers.” – Eliza Esquivel, VP global brand strategy, Mondelez International on getting internal support for brand innovation and experimentation (@elizaesqui)
• “30% of ROI is driven by creative excellence.” – Eliza Esquivel, VP global brand strategy, Mondelez International (@elizaesqui)
• “Staying awake at night is worrying about failure and that’s real… we shouldn’t be ashamed of that. We have to be careful about being seduced about this idea of embracing failure. It’s the discourse of the successful.” – Andrew Keen, internet entrepreneur, writer, broadcaster and speaker, on the language surrounding innovation (@ajkeen)
