Spikes Asia blog

By Rob ‘angry’ Campbell.

Today, at the SPIKES, we had the absolute privilege to see the utterly brilliant Sir Ken Robinson speak.

Putting aside that some people might not know who he is [which say's a lot more about them than I could ever achieve], the fact is the turn out for this rare opportunity was a disgrace. It was so poor that even Sir Ken made a joke about it.

Were they all hungover from pretending they were rock stars the night before?

Maybe some … but it seems the majority of the delegates were attending a workshop on how to win a bloody Cannes somethingorother.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

If you want to win a Cannes Lion, all you have to do is something insightful, differentiated, interesting and real. How long does that take to tell? 13 seconds?

For an industry that talks about ideas and media neutrality – it’s telling that the biggest attended seminars were the ones where a lot of ads were shown. And putting a TVC on the web is NOT digital … it’s called putting a TVC on the web.

I’ve been a groupie of Sir Ken’s for many years and I know everyone who saw him left feeling in awe at his intellect, passion, humour and viewpoint on creativity …and quite frankly for me, he was by far the most inspiring speaker of the SPIKES and the fact he has never even worked in adland is very telling about the real state of our industry, a state very few seem to ever want to talk about publically … or should I say, talk about publically with total honesty.

[Before people get their knickers in a twist, there were some very good and interesting speakers - very good and interesting speakers who work in adland - however just like Monica Lewinksky did to El Presidente Clinton, Sir Ken blew them away *]

I’ve made the odd comment about DDB over the years because basically I’m a miserable, pedantic shit, however because they gave me the opportunity to hear the brilliance of Sir Ken first hand, I salute them wholeheartedly and I truly believe that if more people in adland followed his philosophy on creativity rather than just chase award ratings, then I reckon we might be an industry with a strong future rather than just a great past.

* Yes that is the worst analogy of 2009. Sorry.

By Kate Nicholson

The turnout was surprisingly small as world-renowned innovator Sir Ken Robinson took to the stage this morning. Nothing to do with Sir Ken, a lot to do with the half dozen parties going on around town last night.

Sir Ken speaks in a soft voice, as if he were talking to each audience-member personally, over the dinner table. And most importantly, he’s very, very funny.

He spent the first five minutes of the seminar describing a recent trip to Las Vegas, during which he and and his wife visited the ‘Elvis Chapel’ to renew their wedding vows. “For another US$100, we could have had a pink cadillac, but we thought that was a bit tacky.”

But Sir Ken had a serious argument to make too: that most adults believe that they are not creative (while nearly all children believe that they are). That, however, is a glaring misconception, he said. Everyone is creative. It’s just talent is often buried deep; it’s not lying around on the surface.

Sir Ken said Paul McCartney went through the whole of his education and nobody thought he had any musical talent. One of the other people in the same music class was George Harrison and he went through school as well and nobody noticed he had any talent. Sir Ken said that this one teacher in Liverpool in the ’50s had half The Beatles in his class and he missed it.

And so the crowd grew and the hangovers softened at what was one of the more mind-opening seminars at Spikes.

Thankfully, it seems, there’s hope for us yet.

By Rob Gax

It was a packed house. The one seminar that most of the ad boys couldn’t miss. Why? Because every time Neil gets hold of a mic and an audience there’s going to be a laugh or two.

I was ready for some hard-hitting BBC shit. Especially after her introduction and list of famous people she has interviewed. I was a bit nervous for Neil. But no, he held it together with his usual elegance and quick wit. It was his house if you know what I mean. The BBC presenter got OWNED.

She should have prepared a bit more I think. XO beer was hardly a scam. A very odd choice to start a debate on the subject I think. So the scam bit went nowhere. Like the rest of the known world outside of advertising, she had no idea what the heck our scam underworld actually is.

And honestly, maybe that’s a good thing.

I saw Neil later that night at the Ogilvy party. We had a lot of people about. He was clever enough to leave before we ran out of booze and the junior staff starting breaking the glassware. I did enjoy myself at the Ogilvy party. The balcony so lived up to its infamous reputation. People in various states of innibriation peppered the sidewalks of Robinson road in the wee hours following our little affair. A sure sign of a good night.

Next stop for me was the JWT thing. I got there a bit late, but the JWT party was good too. As a rule, I don’t like to drink on any rooftop, but in this case, we got lucky with a cool Singapore night.

SPIKES day two was fun. The night was even better. Today will complete the third act of this little comedy. People were leaking the results all evening. I forgot most of them already so I won’t try and spoil it for anybody with this post.

Headed back to Suntec to see Piyush Pandey and Droga at 3PM. Should be good.

By Chris Kyme

By David Tiltman

Hugely entertaining session from Neil French. The best way I think I can convey it (and the way that means least work for me) is simply by listing my Twitter posts during the speech. Great stuff.

The official write-up is on www.media.asia. And I’ve got to give kudos to the BBC interviewer – she definitely held her own.

So (in reverse order) here we go:
1. That’s it! Neil French controversial as ever. On way out one person described him as a “class act”; another said he was a “prick” #spikes09 23 minutes ago from web

2. “People are Twittering to each other, and that’s far more effective than any ad” #spikes09 26 minutes ago from web

3. “The people who run agencies are panicking” re digital. #spikes09 27 minutes ago from web

4. Best ad he’s seen from Asia this year? He hasn’t seen one, due to the recession. “It’s gone down everywhere, not just here” #spikes09 29 minutes ago from web

5. Onto delegate Qs. Worst ad he’s done? A direct-response ad with no replies. It was voted most tasteless ad of the decade in UK. #spikes09 30 minutes ago from web

6. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a “bollocks”. (In ref to the recent Hitler safe sex ads). He doesn’t like them. #spikes09 33 minutes ago from web

7. “WPP is a holding company. It doesn’t do anything. Other than lose money.” #spikes09 42 minutes ago from web

8. He’s just described a lady at Grey as having “huge tits”. This is gold! #spikes09 43 minutes ago from web

9. “I’m much better than David [Ogilvy]” #spikes09 about 1 hour ago from web

10. “Women will never become great creative directors if they get married and have kids” #spikes09. He’s on form! about 1 hour ago from web

11. “I like Canadians. I think Leonard Cohen is great. I can’t think of any others.” #spikes09 about 1 hour ago from web

12. “I don’t mind kids cheating and lying to get to the top.” #spikes09 about 1 hour ago from web

13. “Do you turn into a pitbull now or later” to the BBC interviewer. Nice. #spikes09 about 1 hour ago from web

14. “You tell me advertising doesn’t work? Of course it bloody works” Neil French is warming up #spikes09 about 1 hour ago from web

15. Neil French’s talk has just begun. He’s only used the word ‘crap’ so far but we’re expecting greater profanities to come #spikes09 about 1 hour ago from web

By Richard Dunmall

The panel I moderated yesterday ended with a very clear, but important, message – all of us are in the business of people. We all work with brands who want to communicate to people – people who want to connect to their experience or offer. But are we really making an effort to understand who these people are, what is important to them and what do they want more of?

At Microsoft we always try to remember that while technology appears to change people’s life, it’s life that really influences and defines technology. In our panel discussion at SPIKES, anthropologist Anna Kirah made it crystal clear that, in order to make meaningful campaigns that create impact for our brands, we need to recognize that we are having everyday conversations with everyday people. In social media, this is called a cocktail party psychology to engagement.

All of us have felt the tightening of the budget belt over the past two years. In conjunction with our clients, we’ve revised revenue, re-evaluated costs and done the best we could to grow share. However, the view of our panel was that the environment we find ourselves in today probably provides our industry’s greatest opportunities. Ashutosh reminded us that the current environment dictates that we pull ourselves out of the status quo – that– we re-evaluate how we are working and using the disruption of the economy to drive us to do things differently.

At SPIKES, most of us are digital immigrants, designing campaigns that are targeted at the digital natives. It is time perhaps for us to reflect more onto what our audiences want and do – more than just a single product but understand their motivations so that we create campaigns that are meaningful and relevant for our customers.

I am going to really focus on this now. What about you?

By Michael O’Neill

No sooner has one party ended – thanks to McCann Worldgroup for putting on a great show at last night’s Hawker Centre Night – than six more are warming up. Tonight, Spikes delegates are invited to the Networking After Dark event, with six agencies hosting events. Competition for the best party is fierce, and agencies have already begun pitching their events. Media will report back Friday morning to say who we thought put on the best show.

The office addresses are below. Note the locations for the JWT and Starcom MediaVest events, which are different from what was originally published.

BBDO – 30 Merchant Road, 03-12, Riverside Point
Euro RSCG – 3 Anson Road, 06-01 Springleaf Tower
JWT – Rooftop, 50 Scotts Road
Ogilvy & Mather – 35 Robinson Road
Starcom MediaVest – Balaclava, Suntec Convention Centre
TBWA – 5 Kadayanallur Street

By David Tiltman

Bit of a fuzzy head this morning after a great night at the Lau Pa Sat food market. You can see some pics of McCann Worldgroup’s Hawker Centre Night on our gallery on the Spikes site. The venue looked fantastic and the food was, of course, brilliant. One of the food sellers told us it was the first time the venue had ever been used this way. See today’s Spikes wrap-up video on the site (to be posted later this morning) for some great footage. 

But the prize for the most effective PR move last night goes to DDB, who cleverly (or completely flukily) decided to have their night out in the bar in the hotel Media’s journos are staying in, making it impossible for us to go to bed without being roped in for a nightcap.

By Chris Kyme

So there I was sarcastically referring to agency account people who justify partying at The Spikes by tactically arranging client meetings to coincide with the event and what did I do on my first day? Spend 3 hours in a client meeting. I don’t even wear a suit, well except to weddings. Anyway. Landed. Turned up. Registered. Got one of those photos on my pass that make you look like you escaped from prison by climbing up a chimney. Immediately bumped into some very fine people. Including Guy Venables (what award show would be complete without him). And buggered off, missing the afternoon’s activities. Grabbed a quick looksie at all the work adorning the walls. Going to get a better look at what’s going on tomorrow. However, that didn’t stop me making my way over to the McCann-hosted opening night hawker centre bash to eat drink and get amongst the crowd. The Planet Japan bunch were there, fronted by the statesman-like Kagami-san (he used to be a rock journalist you know), David Guerrero, Kim Shaw (of course), all the Media crowd, the McCanns lot and a man, well some men actually, selling very fine roti pratas. But the real reason I went, I didn’t tell Vince Viola or Spencer Wong this, was to see and hear the ubiquitous Thierry Halbroth spin his set. And the man didn’t disappoint, although his hair was looking a bit subdued (where’s the funky blond spikiness gone THQ?). After that, it was back for an early-ish first night. Can anyone tell me this – why is it in a modern, vibrant and everything-working city like Singapore, can there be so many taxis roaming the streets empty, with lights on, that are simply not available for hire? Hasn’t anyone told them that those people standing by the roadside with their arms sticking out are possible passengers. It’s bizarre. So I walked back.

By Rob Gax

I like these things. Freshly in from San Francisco I am really looking forward to seeing what Asia’s been up to.

The Spikes are here! And so are a lot of people that I haven’t seen in a very long time. The last Spikes I attended was in Bali a few years ago. Now it’s right down the street. Which for some odd reason, makes it even harder for us to get away from the office. Still I managed to make it.

Had a look at the work on the walls. Saw some usual suspects. Some stuff we saw in Cannes popping about. And I’m sure we’ll see them again later with more or equal weight. I won’t bore you with my picks, but I must say that the Wüsthof knife ad with the peeled fish cracks me up.

Heard some good talks today. Chris Garbutt from Ogilvy & Mather Paris was up there doing his thing. And so was the creative director from Tokyo who did the UNIQLO work. I enjoyed his presentation as well. (It’s always cooler when a presenter has a translater.)

But looking at the empty seats next to me, I only wished I had some clients at my side. I’m serious. Really. I honestly can’t think of any other way to make our work here better than to start showing our clients in Singapore what else is going on out there. I reckon we can both learn a few things.

I’ll spend more time there tomorrow. Neil will be on stage at 2PM with BBC World News so that should be worth a look. Leo + Contagious should be great too. Speaking of  plugs, Ogilvy Singapore is hosting a party tomorrow night with the Spikes. So do pop by if you can., we’d love to see you.

Other than the parties, I wonder if we can ever hold these festivals in the evening instead? It would give us a great reason to get out of the office at 4:30PM don’t you think?