It was October 6. More than 20 degrees in Portoroz, Slovenia, less than 10 in Bucharest, Romania. Not only the weather was the criteria to focus more on Portoroz, but the beginning of the 17th edition of the Golden Drum advertising festival, taking place right there, in Portoroz, at Hotel Bernardin.
The festival started with the live presentation of media and advertising campaigns’ finalists in front of the audience and the jury, while on the other hall there was a presentation of ADFEST 2010 winners in the CUP selection.
The guests continued on listening Michael Conrad (from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership) on his speech about Quality, Strategy and Leadership, then Michael Bull (Global Executive Creative Director of Lowe Worldwide) and even more importantly, they waited patiently and curiously for Sir John Hegarty with his “10 reasons why this is the best time to be in advertising” presentation. He talked about what agencies can do in this troubled period of advertising such as: Agencies create media opportunities and programming, agencies creativity can be the media, Agencies can persuade clients to be brave, Agencies can tackle growing social issues, Agencies can expand their influence with clients by enhancing the importance of integration and so on. But one of the best things he highlighted in this presentation was the fact that agencies can themsevels invent products and start marketing them. It is something call Brandlag, that is creating a new product in order to fill the lag. It is also something that inspiring agencies who want to make clients life easier, should think and do.
Things get more serious, more creative, more emotional
Then it was October 7.
It started with moments dedicated to Dragan Sakan, big creative of the East European advertising community, founder and creative director of New Moment – New Ideas Company, who had been passed away 2 days before.
Then John Dooner (Chairman McCann Worldwide group) talked about “How the world has changed, but our job not”, with a focus on creative ideas that need to touch minds and hearts in order to sell hard.
Mark Tutssel (Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide) was the following spokesperson and began his speech on Human Kind. He spoke about 4 things we need to consider in order to succeed in this People’s Era, how he called it: Acts, Purpose, Participation, Populism. First of all, advertising is more important when we create human acts - engaging, relevant, useful human acts. Then, these acts need to have, of course, a human purpose in mind. Otherwise a brand is not understood and/or embraced. On the third place, spontaneity and participation should play an important role, as the age of advertising is more spontaneous than ever. And last, but not least, channels in advertising must work together in order to have innovation and constant surprise.
And above all, he renewed the statement that creativity has the power to transform human behaviors, an important achievement that ad people should all take advantage of and make it all worth it.
A few examples stood up for his arguments:
Nike Harajuku flagship store in Tokyo, which simply captured people’s imagination.
http://nike.jp/nikeharajuku/#/home
EOS Photochains, a campaign all about inspiration
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/canon_eos_photochains
James Ready Beer – The beer of the people and its billboard campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDOt8MMk1Gw
Words feel empty without people
Mark Tutssel made a little expriment also. Based on the idea that „Words feel empty without people”, before the seminar, he handed people simple black t-shirts with a word written on the front and another one on the back. The t-shirts were to be put on after the seminar and the idea was to see what happens when people become the message and get all together. This photo is a proof. Phrases are formed in a unique way and their significance can be individually interpreted.
Discovery Species
Another highlight of the day was the Discovery lecture, by Chiristian Kurz, called „Species – A user’s guide to young men”. The lecture was based on the study that Discovery made on 21 countries about young men between 25 and 39 years old. The study had 18 significant issues such as Fatherhood, Work, Man in the Mirror, Everyone’s an expert, Younger for Longer and so on.
The study determined 4 types of men accross Europe today: Modern and in control, Pressured provider, All about me and the Non-commital. The majority belongs to the Modern and in control, with 42%.
And the general conclusion pointed put that young men’s life has become as complex as women’s. More details on the study and more specific country conclusions, see here: http://www.discoveryspecies.com/
Hall of Fame
Something new this year Golden Drum’s edition had to offer was the Hall of Fame. On the marble wall of Bernardin’s Congress Hall there are names of extraordinary personalities with an outstanding personal contribution to the creative advertising in the New Europe people such as: Adrian Botan, Ivan Cimburov, Michael Conrad, Jiri Mikes, Milka Pogliani, Daniel Ruzicka, Dragan Sakan, Juraj Vaculik, Vital Verlic, Darek Zatorski, Jarek Ziebinski. As the president of the festival, Jure Apih puts it: “History, like memories, is an unfair judge. Many important facts, figures and names are disappearing in a giant black hole. (…) The industry we have been celebrating at the Golden Drum for seventeen years hasn't been progressing on its own. Without its fighters and dreamers, without its friends and believers, without its heroes, our drums wouldn’t have turned to gold.”
While Hotel Bernardin hosted these vibrating lectures, the Tartini Square was hosting its own creative works: the entries in press and outdoor categories, the 26 finalist works in the Piran Portoroz Competition and the Act Resposible social advertising exhibition, developed each year by Ad Forum.
There’s a time to think and there’s a time to drink
The theoretical side of the festival was compensated, by its practical and fun part: the lunches between 1 and 2 pm, at the Sunset Restaurant, within the Culinary Idea of the Day and the parties from the first 2 days: the welcome party at the Meduza beach (hosted by Faculty of Tourism Studies Portoroz - Turistica) on the first day and on the 7th, the Open Awards Ceremony in Kodak Hall at Hotel Bernardin and the national parties afterwards: Hungarian party in Café Theater, Austrian stand and Macedonian party in Confini Bar.
The Open Awards Ceremony was dedicated to Interactive, Media, Advertising Campaigns, Design & Art Direction, PR and the Piran Portoroz Poster competition. The poster competition awarded the series of posters "Drum", "Seagull", "Violin" with the 1st prize, the “Port of spirits” with the 2nd one (by X3 Studios from Timisoara, Romania) and “Our Genius Loci” idea with the 3rd prize.
There were 2 days of excitement, of getting accustomed for some people, getting reacquainted for others and pure joy for the most of them.
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