Creativity Unwrapped Podcast – Episode 4: Creativity and Going All In

“Good work is about being brave enough to understand that an idea could be risky, but what if it's not? What if we capture the minds and hearts of people? Just take Adidas Liquid billboard campaign, for example, showing off women’s bodies in the UAE – what a brave and bold move, but one that paid off,” says Emily Van Lierop, global and digital operations lead for Sanofi at PHD.

In this 30-minute episode, PHD CMO Chris Stephenson hears from industry leaders as they explore the role of creativity in marketing through an analysis of the Cannes Lions 2022 Grand Prix winners.    

Guests include Paul Kemp-Robertson, co-founder of Contagious; Emily van Lierop, global and digital operations lead for Sanofi at PHD; Kimberlee Wells, CEO of TBWA Melbourne, and TBWA Adelaide; and Sandro Heierli, creative director art at DDB Berlin.

Together, the panel discuss the important role of bravery in creativity, and the inherent risk involved in pushing boundaries and going all in with ideas and innovation.

Key campaign examples include:  

“One House to Save Many” – Suncorp Group

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Australian homes are destroyed or damaged by extreme weather. To help solve this problem, Suncorp partnered with the CSIRO, James Cook University and Room 11 Architects to create ‘One House to Save Many’. It is the world’s first home designed, scientifically tested, and built to withstand cyclones, floods and bushfires.

One House was launched with a fully integrated campaign, a prime-time documentary, and an online hub. It not only received significant news coverage on all major networks, but is now impacting the future of Australia’s building codes.

Kimberlee Wells, CEO of TBWA Melbourne, and TBWA Adelaide comments: “What this project demonstrates brilliantly is the need for collaboration, but also the role that creativity plays within bringing that collaboration together. It's a creative solution, irrespective of whether you're looking at it from an engineering perspective, an advertising perspective, an insurance perspective, or a product perspective – it’s solving multiple aspects and for me, it’s a clear winner.”

Stephenson noted: “Grand Prix winning work doesn’t hover around the starting blocks, it pushes and pushes, to ever further iterations and execution. This campaign could have so easily been conceptual, but by going all in and building an actual disaster-proof house, the collaborators didn’t just push the boundaries of what was possible but created a sense of action and purpose that may otherwise have been absent.”

“Google Real Tone” – Google

Historically, camera technology has been calibrated for lighter skin tones, without consideration for the wide spectrum of human complexion. People with darker skin tones often feel excluded by camera technology, and inaccurately pictured in memorable moments. Google’s Pixel 6 was the first smartphone on the market designed specifically to be inclusive. The Pixel 6 features Real Tone technology, including camera optimisations to highlight the nuances of diverse skin tones more accurately.

“Collaboration has always been part of our industry, it's just that it's becoming more sophisticated because the ideas are increasingly complicated, and that’s because the problems that we're solving are so layered. We operate in an attention deficit world, so we must find ways of bringing more utility back to the consumer,” says Kimberlee Wells, CEO of TBWA Melbourne, and TBWA Adelaide.

Stephenson concludes the final episode: “Going all in demands bravery, courage of conviction, and an appetite for risk, which are essential to push creative ideas beyond the realm of the conventional and into the untested, unproven space of what can be imagined. Going all in is underpinned by collaboration and it’s a healthy sign for our industry that the lists of our collaborators are becoming ever broader and more diverse. With marketing increasingly reflecting the attitudes and action-oriented mindset of the culture around us; the need to embrace new partners, skillsets, and perspectives, to go where no one has yet gone, is essential.”

Speakers in this episode:  

- Chris Stephenson, CMO, PHD Worldwide (host) 

- Alex Jenkins – Managing Partner for Editorial at Contagious 

- Emily van Lierop – Global and Digital Operations Lead for Sanofi at PHD 

- Kimberlee Wells – the CEO of TBWA Melbourne and TBWA Adelaide 

- Sandro Heierli – Creative Director Art at DDB Berlin  

- Paul Kemp-Robertson, Co-Founder, Contagious

- Susie Walker – VP for Awards & Insight at Cannes Lions 

- Dora Pruzincova, Chief Creative Officer at DDB, Prague

- Tiina Salzberg, CSO, 180 Amsterdam and founder of 180 Thinking

- Kate Osborne Global Business Lead at Omnicom Media Group

Campaigns referenced:  

“Liquid Billboard”, Adidas   

“Google Real Tone”, Google

“Hope Reef”, Sheba

“Eat a Swede”, The Swedish food Federation

Learn about all these campaigns and more in ‘Creativity and Going All In,’ the final episode of Creativity Unwrapped.  

Click below to learn more, or follow the whole Creativity Unwrapped series on  Spotify, Apple, or Amazon.