Unleashing Your Inner Child: Lessons in Creativity from HARIBO and Quiet Storm

Today at Cannes Lions, HARIBO and Quiet Storm gave an expert guide to tapping into your childlike creativity and revealed what happens when you ditch the script and hand over creative control to kids.

Trevor Robinson OBE, founder and ECD of Quiet Storm, and Herwig Vennekens, global managing director of HARIBO, revealed the creative magic behind the Haribo ads, which are created from hours of audio recordings of the spontaneous conversations between real kids about Haribo.

In their session on the main stage at Palais on Thursday, entitled 'How To Unleash Your Inner Child,' they told the audience how the commercials, created by Quiet Storm, have given HARIBO an authentic brand voice. “It works because the children are having real, authentic conversations about the product,” said Trevor.

In the session, Trevor and Herwig gave Cannes delegates lessons on on how to boost your creativity by unleashing your inner child. These included:

Question everything: “Children tend to question everything. Businesses tend not to question things as they can sometimes stick with what they know,” said Trevor.

Use your senses: “Try to tap into how things used to taste and smell as a child and use this to steer your mindset,” he added.

Get out of the office: “Buy comics, go to galleries - you could even spend time reading cards in card shops,” advised Trevor.

Herwig explained how HARIBO has become a globally known brand under the leadership of two brothers, Paul and Hans Riegel. Hans, better known as Dr. Riegel, was responsible for marketing and sales and took every chance to learn about what kids liked – watching children’s TV programmes and reading comics. He also developed a promotion encouraging children to collect chestnuts to feed deer in winter. Children and their parents would come to the HARIBO factory gate and receive HARIBO in return for chestnuts which would be used to feed the deer. “This gave HARIBO the opportunity to hear what its consumers young and old loved best about the brand and its product,” he said.

Find some releases in your day: “Laughing and moments of release throughout the day have been proven to be good for your health, including mental wellbeing and stress levels,” said Trevor.

Be around children/have children of your own: “It gives an excuse to indulge in kids’ activities again,” Trevor advised. Herwig revealed how a letter from a child to Dr. Riegel asking for a sweet shaped like a straw led to the relaunch of the Rainbow Twist which went on to become the number 1 count line item in the UK.

Embrace your fear: “When you’re coming up with ideas it’s the same thing - like any performer, you’re exposing yourself to ridicule. But it’s important to push through that. Practice makes bravery,” said Trevor.

Be flexible and resilient: “You need this resilience in order to access the modern world - people need to navigate volatile and turbulent times,” he added.