Insight into bulletproof ideas
Make your ideas bulletproof. The key to making this happen was a significant insight learnt at this year’s Emergence Festival, along with the notion of immersing ourselves in everything from the ridiculous to the sublime in order to truly understand our world and create ideas that resonate.
With the central theme of “connection through creativity via transmedia storytelling”, there was a slight irony in watching PowerPoint presentations fraught with mishaps.
Yet the series of talks by leading creative directors, producers and marketers presented us with some powerful anecdotal lessons from today’s world of online streaming, integrated advertising campaigns and the idea of signing on YouTube talent to create lucrative content.
Glenn Urquhart, group creative director of Lifestyle Channels at Foxtel, was a standout presenter with an explosive 90 minutes’ worth of hyperactive content presented in a slick and equally engaging half-hour talk. His mantra of building a “reference library” of characters, stories and situations from everyday life encouraged creatives to reach beyond their usual parameters to curate niche content that audiences will engage with.
“Don’t be a purist,” he said. “Be a sponge, spread your wings, put your tits on the line.”
While “transmedia” becomes another feather in the cap of buzzwords and industry catch-cries, Urquhart reminded us that transmedia is theatre that demands we find the emotional uppercut to our story and sucker punch the audience with a bold and committed approach.
Equally as impressive were Cummins&Partners creative directors Jim Ingram and Ben Couzens (the creators of the Schweppervescence water balloon commercial, an all-time favourite) with their five ways to make creative ideas strong and impervious to disappointment and failure.
By being custodians of the brands that require our creative ingenuity, we are expected to know them inside and out, along with the audience they seek to engage; to completely rationalise an idea and then supersize it in order to see it reach its fullest potential.
Their fifth point was about keeping calm and carrying on, which is precisely what we did long after the talks had finished. While drinking some of Margaret River’s finest drops well into the night, ideas raised during the day were passionately debated and we were convinced our viewpoints had been tussled with for the better.
Our ideas were replenished; our creativity challenged. It was soon discovered that this is where some of the real magic of Emergence lies.
