Rose Herceg: SXSW Sydney is The Broadest Definition of Creativity
This week legendary global creativity festival South by Southwest (SXSW) is making its first appearance outside of its fabled home of Austin, Texas, with Sydney chosen to host the inaugural international event.
In a coup for the harbourside city, SXSW has been secured for a minimum five years, hosting over 1100 events, performances and talks across more than 100 locations.
Creative transformation company WPP, was a bold first-mover to harness the power of the event. Securing headline sponsor status and launching the ‘WPP House’, hosting a series of agency panels, featuring high-profile speakers from the worlds of creativity, entertainment, technology and business.
We caught up with WPP president for Australia and New Zealand, Rose Herceg, who is incredibly enthusiastic about the venture.
"We've got the most incredible program, it's amazing,” Rose said. “The first time you do something like this is difficult, so it’s a ballsy move. But I believe in the work we’ve done to get to this stage.”
“Every one of the participants in all of our agencies had to apply to be a part of the house with several different ideas for content,” Rose says.
“We’ve whittled it down to the very best because if you’re going to listen to something for 30 minutes, it had better be good.”
Transplanting SXSW from its iconic Austin setting to Sydney is audacious, but it’s a venture Rose firmly believes in. She sees the event as a catalyst for bringing creative minds together beyond the ordinary humdrum of business.
This initiative is all part of WPP's commitment to redefining the boundaries of creativity.
"This is the broadest definition of creativity," Rose says, "the definition that I like, as opposed to limited or old-fashioned definitions of creativity."
Rose's vision for WPP is simple.
"As long as we continue to make it simple for our clients to do business with us, we'll do okay."
WPP, who are moving to a unified campus at 1 Shelly St Barangaroo next year, are looking to their ways of working and connecting across agencies, making it easier for clients to work across them.”
The gamble on SXSW's Sydney debut reflects WPP's drive to push creative boundaries, but it also indicates WPP’s Australian ‘flavour’.
“We were the first in terms of sponsorship,” Rose says. “When I explained it to the global team, they loved it.”
This year at Cannes, WPP in Australia and New Zealand improved their creative ranking within WPP. Australia & New Zealand ranked 6th, up from 14th, and the company achieved 75 points at Cannes, up from 27 points the year before.
To Rose, it is essential to remember that with the rapid technological evolution and encroach of AI, the primacy of imagination remains undisputed. Until AI can replicate the imaginative faculties of the human mind, human creativity will continue to complement AI's data-driven insights.
Rose's extensive industry knowledge informs her role. Previously WPP’s chief strategy officer, she knows every variable of the festival's success hinges on precisely why she insisted on a long rehearsal run.
‘Ultimately, the success of an event,” Rose says, “will be determined by the level of attention and enthusiasm it attracts. This historical moment is a testament to the vibrant creative culture WPP fosters as it endeavours to redefine creativity in the heart of Sydney.”
SXSW is an opportunity to bathe in creativity in its broadest sense: technology, art, gaming, film, and business. As the ‘creative transformation company’, WPP has positioned itself at the epicentre of community and change.
“I think you’ve just got to create a space where people can talk about things other than exactly what they're focused on,” Rose says.
“I think it will bring creative-minded people together, where they can get out of the business as usual things that they talk about.”
Rose herself will be at the WPP House at 9 a.m. to launch WPP’s Any feature of the Creative Capital Index.
