Vita Harris on Finding Great Creative Strategy that Changes the Course of Brands and Business

Vita Harris is FCB’s global chief strategy officer, and next week she takes her 35+ years of experience into the jury room as jury president of the Creative Strategy category at Cannes Lions 2024.

Known for developing innovative approaches and transformative strategies for the likes of American Express, AT&T, Kraft and Walmart, she has also advanced DE&I efforts across the industry, serving on the board of the 4A’s and Ad Council’s Campaign Review Committee, as well as mentoring young women and men herself. On top of many other awards throughout her career, she was recognised in 2010 as an ADCOLOR Award Legend.

Previously having judged the category’s inaugural year in 2019, Vita returns to the Festival of Creativity to lead the Creative Strategy jury in celebrating the idea behind the idea - finding and awarding the best examples of strategic planning that ‘help redefine a brand, reinvent its business, and influence consumers or culture’. The category’s criteria also places particular emphasis on ‘exceptional interpretations’ of brand challenges and ‘transformational problem solving’.

LBB’s Ben Conway caught up with Vita to discuss how she and her jury are preparing for Cannes Lions 2024, and how her perspective on culture, diversity and inclusion will influence the experience - and vice versa.

LBB> How are you preparing yourself and your jury for the jury room this year?

Vita> Having the jury interact before we get to Cannes has been a priority, as that makes it much more productive once we’re in the jury room. By the time we get to Cannes, we will have met several times to talk about our expectations and criteria, the work itself, what we’re seeing, and any themes that are starting to emerge. These conversations as well as those that are happening in our group chat via WhatsApp will start to frame how we want to judge submissions, and that to me is critical. We’ve had some interesting conversations around what they think great work is, raising questions like: ‘Could this work have happened without great strategy?’. That’s a tough lens to look through, but an important one nonetheless. 

I’ve also spent time speaking to people in the network who have served both on juries and as jury president, to understand their experiences – what worked and what didn’t. And, of course, thinking back to the great jury presidents I’ve served under, like Rob Reilly and Tracey Follows to remind myself of the camaraderie they were able to foster and how I can replicate that.

Hopefully all of this will help the jury be the best jury they can be, and help me be the best president I can be!

LBB> You’ve judged this category before, in 2019. What do you think will be some of the key differences between the work you saw then, and the work you’ll see this year?

Vita> 2019 was the inaugural year of the category. Five years later as I’m judging, I’m seeing greater creativity in the strategies themselves and a more conscientious effort put into developing cases and videos that are specific to the category, versus ones that could do double-duty for another category and then this one, too. To me, this intentionality shows that the industry realises the importance of great creative strategy and giving this craft the investment, platform, and the recognition it deserves.

LBB> You’ve dedicated a lot of time to DE&I efforts in the industry - how will you bring your perspective on culture, diversity and inclusion into the jury room? And equally, what will you bring from your experience at Cannes back to your mentorship and DE&I work when you return?

Vita> First, it is important to note that it is mandatory for all jurors to complete Cannes Lions’ Mitigating Bias Training before judging starts. 

Secondly, the festival has done a great job of ensuring that the jury is diverse, including culturally diverse, and there’s also an opportunity for entrants to provide cultural context that will help the jury understand any nuances in the submissions. It’s imperative that we as an industry expand our thinking to a culture that’s not our own, and having a diverse jury or explanation of cultural nuances when discussing work is one of the ways we’re able to do that, as it helps us to understand ideas that resonate with local audiences and get to the core of the thinking to truly award the best of the best.

Lastly, there is the option to include any information regarding equity, representation, and accessibility within the work. All of this combined shows how the Festival has taken DE&I seriously and continues to elevate its importance for fair and equitable judging. A big thank you to the organisers for that!  And so, the table has been set to prompt and ensure inclusive conversations happen intentionally and dynamically in the jury room, and I am dedicated to facilitating these discussions. 

Although I have devoted a lot of time to DE&I efforts in the industry, I am continually in learning mode. There are always diversity lessons learned from the cases and through interactions in the jury room – cultural, national and regional to name a few – that I take great care to share back with the agency post-Cannes through our Upstream Inclusion process.

LBB> What is it about the Creative Strategy category that really excites or interests you?

Vita> As a leader in my organisation, a major obligation is to keep the organisation inspired to do great work. So, the opportunity to be reinvigorated and inspired by the cream of the crop in our industry is more than interesting or exciting, it’s a necessary lifeline.

LBB> How do you expect AI to impact your category?

Vita> The impact that AI is having on our industry is impossible to ignore. In fact, the festival requires entrants to disclose the role that AI has played in their work, if any. In creative strategy, it’s not AI that is doing the great strategic thinking for us, rather it is paving the way for new and different strategic ideas because of what it can make possible in the execution of strategy. As we medal, it will be interesting to keep track of how AI was utilised across the winners, so we more fully understand its emerging impact on creative strategy. Otherwise, it’s too early to say – but a good reason to speak again after the discussions have been had and decisions have been made!

LBB> The category is looking for ‘transformational problem solving’ - how do you identify an idea that has successfully gone above and beyond, and redefined a brand and its business?

Vita> One word: ambitious.

The best ideas that go above and beyond demonstrate creatively ambitious thinking in strategy. They show thinking that: breaks with convention versus riding the wave of conformity; reframes clients’ issues to pave the way for new possibilities in service of achieving and exceeding their business goals; and that provokes an ‘aha!’ moment of ‘realisation, inspiration, insight, recognition or comprehension’ that changes things – maybe everything. 

Most of all, the best work builds confidence in the industry to solidify that what we do has value and is worth all that we put into it. While I can’t yet specify what these ideas are at this point in the judging process, we’ll certainly know when we see them.

LBB> Looking at last year's Grand Prix winner (Renault ‘Plug-Inn’) how do you think this year’s entries will build from, and differ, from that? 

Vita> The Renault ‘Plug-Inn’ campaign is wonderful, and it made it to my President’s Playlist. I selected it for the playlist because it solved a formidable business issue that could have taken years of building costly infrastructure to overcome, but the power of creativity in strategy unlocked an unconventional solution that empowered the audience, the brand and an entire category. It’s unusual to see this type of trifecta.

The hope for this year is to award even more work that solves expansive issues for our clients. That’s the power of our industry. We’re not here just to have fun, we’re here to change the course of brands and business, by creating work that is an economic multiplier. And it all starts with great creative strategy.

LBB> Cannes is also a time of celebration. What will you be celebrating this year?

Vita> Not only is it an honour and a privilege to participate in Cannes, but as jurors, we have a huge obligation to the industry to put our competitiveness aside, look beyond our own agencies and work, and suspend our preconceived notions to award excellence in creativity no matter where it comes from. So, that’s what I’ll be celebrating. The very best creative work that has a true economic impact and moves the needle for some of the world’s biggest brands, all while benefiting culture and making life better.